PORTLAND, Ore.— The Center for Biological Diversity petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today to protect the thin-leaved peavine under the Endangered Species Act. These rare plants are found only in Oregon’s Willamette Valley and at one isolated site in Washington.

“It’s past time for the federal government to recognize that these delicate flowers need strong Endangered Species Act protections for their dwindling populations,” said Gwendolyn McManus, a scientist at the Center. “The government has known for more than a decade that thin-leaved peavine numbers are declining. We can’t allow these stunning plants to be wiped out from all of their original habitat.”

Thin-leaved peavine plants rely on forest edge habitats with dappled sunlight, where they climb native shrubs and put out bell-shaped clusters of white flowers that turn orange with age. Unfortunately, nearly all of their native prairie and oak savanna habitat has been lost to agricultural expansion and urban sprawl.

The federal Bureau of Land Management and others have been trying to grow seedling peavine plants in captivity and create new populations, but nearly all of those new populations have failed.

Many remaining thin-leaved peavine populations grow along unprotected roadsides and fencerows. These narrow strips of vegetation are often subjected to mowing, herbicide spraying, road maintenance projects and damage from passing cars. They can also become overgrown with invasive grasses and Himalayan blackberry brambles, both of which crowd out native plants. Other threats to this species include small population sizes — often fewer than 10 plants at a site — and declining pollinator populations in the West. Thin-leaved peavine is on the precipice of extinction in Washington.

“These plants are ambassadors of some of the rarest ecosystems in the Pacific Northwest and thrive in harmony with other native species,” said McManus. “Protecting them will help us ensure we’re conserving the endemic plants, native pollinators and wild spaces of the Willamette Valley.”