Agrimonia gryposepala

Agrimonia parviflora var. macrocarpa Focke:
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Agrimonia gryposepala Wallr.:
Canada (North America)
United States (North America)
Mexico (Mesoamerica)
Guatemala (Mesoamerica)

Note: This information is based on publications available through Tropicos and may not represent the entire distribution. Tropicos does not categorize distributions as native or non-native.

Canada

Origin: Unknown/Undetermined

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Unknown/Undetermined

Confidence: Confident

United States

Origin: Native

Regularity: Regularly occurring

Currently: Present

Confidence: Confident

Type of Residency: Year-round

Global Range: Southern British Columbia to California, Arizona, and New Mexico; North Dakota to Nova Scotia, south to Georgia and Louisiana (Kartesz 1999). Species has been reported from the following provinces and states: British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Alabama, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming (Scoggan 1978, USDA-NRCS 1999, Kartesz 1999). Kartesz (1999) considers reports from Montana, Utah, Colorado, and Arkansas to be false, does not recognize the species to be extant in Manitoba, but recognizes it in Mississippi.

More detailed range information was available for the following provinces and states.

British Columbia: occurs in southern portion of B.C. (G. Douglas pers. comm.).

Manitoba: occurs in southern 1/8 of Manitoba (12% of area of Manitoba) (E. Punter pers. comm.).

Scoggan (1957, 1978) and Kartesz (1999) do not recognize the occurrence of Agrimonia gryposepala in Manitoba, however, the identity of specimens of A. gryposepala collected in Manitoba housed in the herbarium at the University of Manitoba (WIN) were recently confirmed by E. Punter, Special Projects Botanist with the Manitoba Conservation Data Centre (E. Punter pers. comm.).

Ontario: common and widespread throughout southern and central Ontario (north to Manitoulin Island and Algonquin Park); not sure of northern limits (M. Oldham pers. comm.).

Quebec: occurs in southern portion of Quebec including Lower Laurentides, Region of Montreal, Eastern Townships, up to the Quebec City area (Rousseau 1974). The species is absent from the Gasp? Peninsula and the Saguenay-Lake St. John area. However, Agrimonia striata, which is frequently misidentified as A. gryposepala, is present in these two regions (J. Labrecque pers. comm.).

Arizona: Mogollon Rim from Flagstaff area east to Whiteriver on the Fort Apache Reservation south to Sierra Ancha Mountains; Coconino, Gila, and Navajo Counties (Arizona Heritage Data Management System).

California: 150-1700 m in northwestern California, the high Cascade ranges, the northern high elevation Sierra Nevada, the San Bernardinos, and the Peninsular Ranges (California Natural Diversity Database).

Delaware: piedmont and Newcastle county, infrequently occurs on the coastal plain (Delaware Natural Heritage Program).

Florida: occurs throughout the state (Wunderlin et al. 1995).

Georgia: recorded in one county in far north of state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

Illinois: occurs statewide (W. McClain pers. comm.).

Indiana: occurs in northern half of state (Indiana Natural Heritage Data Center).

Iowa: infrequent in south half of state, frequent to common elsewhere (Iowa Department of Natural Resources).

Kansas: known from a single historical collection from Marshall County (C. Freeman pers. comm.).

Kentucky: found in 4 counties in the central and eastern portions of the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

Louisiana: one known population in Caddo Parish (Louisiana Natural Heritage Program).

Massachusetts: occurs throughout the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

Maine: occurs in every county in the state (Haines and Vining 1998, Maine Natural Areas Program).

Michigan: occurs throughout the state (Michigan Natural Features Inventory).

Missouri: scattered locations, mostly in northern Missouri (T. Smith pers. comm.).

Montana: not previously known to occur here, specimens have been sent for identification verification (Montana Natural Heritage Program).

North Dakota: recorded in 2 counties in the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

New Mexico: occurs in San Miguel county (New Mexico Natural Heritage Program, Martin and Hutchins 1980-81).

New York: found throughout the state (S. Young pers. comm.).

North Carolina: known to occur in 10 of 13 mountain counties (J. Amoroso pers. comm.).

Ohio: throughout the state, but particularly frequent on the Appalachian Plateau (A. Cusick pers. comm.).

Rhode Island: recorded in at least 2 counties in the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

South Dakota: found in the northern Black Hills, and in south-central South Dakota; Lawrence, Pennington, Meade, and Todd counties (D. Ode pers. comm.).

South Carolina: occurs in 6 counties in the northern and eastern parts of the state (Boyle et al.).

Tennessee: occurs in 2 counties in the northeast portion of the state and 1 in the southeast (APSU Center for Field Biology and University of Tennessee Herbarium 1999).

Virginia: occurs in at least 43 counties throughout the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

Vermont: occurs throughout the state (R. Popp pers. comm.).

Wisconsin: found throughout the state (Mason and Iltis 1958, K. Westad pers. comm.).

West Virginia: occurs in 18 counties in the state (USDA-NRCS 1999).

Wyoming: known to occur in Bear Lodge Mountains (Black Hills) of Crook County. One historical record from "Wind River" (Wind River Range or more likely Wind River Valley) in Fremont County (W. Fertig pers. comm.).

Confirmation was received that this species does not occur in Alberta (Alberta Natural Heritage Information Centre), Saskatchewan (Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre), Alaska (Alaska Natural Heritage Program), Arkansas (Smith 1988; Arkansas Natural Heritage Program), Nevada (Nevada Natural Heritage Program), and Utah (Welsh et al. 1993; Utah Natural Heritage Program).

Species is difficult to identify in vegetative state. Agrimonia rostellata Wallr. in vegetative form looks similar and occurs in similar habitats (M. McHale, pers. comm.).

Comments: Agrimonia gryposepala occurs in a wide variety of habitats across its range in North America. These include: mesic to moist edges of forests and woods; woodlands (California Natural Diversity Database); deciduous or mixed forests, and thickets in lowland to montane zones (Maine Natural Areas Program, G. Douglas pers. comm., E. Punter pers. comm., S. Young pers. comm.); clearings, openings in deciduous forest, and 2nd growth woods (J. Labrecque pers. comm., M. McHale pers. comm.); moist soil along streams in canyons or ravines and in the understory of ponderosa pine woodlands at 4100 to 8000 ft (D. Ode pers. comm., Arizona Heritage Data Management System); river floodplains, alluvial, and gallery forest (Minnesota Natural Heritage); savannas and upland prairies (T. Smith pers. comm.); marshes, bogs, low meadows, and pastures (J. Amoroso pers. comm.); pastured woods, on wooded bluffs, roadsides, and pastures (Mason and Iltis 1958, Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory, K. Westad pers. comm.); moist drainage bottoms and draws in bur oak, paper birch, or ponderosa pine thickets (W. Fertig pers. comm.).

Note: For many non-migratory species, occurrences are roughly equivalent to populations.

Estimated Number of Occurrences: 81 to >300

Comments: 1000's of populations exist rangewide. British Columbia: 21-100 (G. Douglas pers. comm.); Manitoba: 5? (E. Punter pers. comm.); Ontario: 1000's (M. Oldham pers. comm.); Quebec: >30 (J. Labrecque pers. comm.); Delaware: 4 (Delaware Natural Heritage Program); Georgia: at least 1*; Kansas 0 (C. Freeman pers. comm.); Kentucky: at least 4*; Louisiana: 1 known (Louisiana Natural Heritage Program); North Dakota: at least 2*; Massachusetts: at least 13*; Missouri: 6 (T. Smith pers. comm.); Ohio: perhaps 1000's? (A. Cusick pers. comm.); Rhode Island: at least 2*; South Carolina: at least 6*; Tennessee: at least 3*; Virginia: at least 43*; Wisconsin: 100's or 1000's (K. Westad pers. comm.); West Virginia: at least 18*; Wyoming: 4 (W. Fertig pers. comm.). A * indicates a minimum number of populations based on the number of counties for which the species is recorded according to state distribution maps.

A very common woodland, scrubland, and old field plant in southern Ontario (M. Oldham pers. comm.).

There were about 90 specimens of A. gryposepala in the Wisconsin state herbarium in 1958 (Mason and Iltis 1958) but this species is likely under-collected (K. Westad pers. comm.).

Three of the four presumed extant sites in Wyoming were discovered during a general floristic survey in 1983-84 (W. Fertig pers. comm.).

There are only six herbarium specimens of this species that were collected in Manitoba up to the late 1970's. Some of these populations may now be extirpated (E. Punter pers. comm.).

This species is likely under-collected in Quebec (J. Labrecque pers. comm.).

Only one historical record of this species in Kansas exists. Unsubstantiated occurrences also appear in the literature but efforts to locate populations have been unsuccessful (C. Freeman pers. comm.).

Species is largely untracked, and too common and widespread to be able to choose an "exemplary" population (A. Cusick pers. comm., M. Oldham pers. comm., S. Young pers. comm.).

Barcode of Life Data Systems (BOLDS) Stats
Public Records: 2
Specimens with Barcodes: 5
Species With Barcodes: 1

Canada

Rounded National Status Rank: NNR - Unranked

United States

Rounded National Status Rank: N5 - Secure

Rounded Global Status Rank: G5 - Secure

Reasons: Species is common and widespread in many parts of its range. While the number of populations is largely unknown, there are at least a number of thousands of populations rangewide. While it is vulnerable to certain threats, collection pressure is not heavy, and it is known to occur in disturbed areas of secondary habitat and is therefore not likely to be eradicated. Its population is relatively stable across a broad portion of its range, and there are numerous protected populations.

Global Short Term Trend: Relatively stable (=10% change)

Comments: Agrimonia gryposepala is, in general, a common and widespread species across its range, and therefore is not tracked by any of the Natural Heritage Programs (U.S.A.) or Conservation Data Centres (Canada) that responded to this survey. Because it is not tracked, trends at the state and local level are largely unknown. Since the species is widespread and common in many areas of it's range, is known to occur in second growth habitat, and is not threatened by collecting or any other major threat, it is assumed in general to be in a stable state at this time.

This species is reported to be stable in Illinois (B. McClain pers. comm.), Maine (Maine Natural Areas Program), New Jersey (New Jersey Natural Heritage Program), New York (S. Young pers. comm.), Ohio (A. Cusick pers. comm.), Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory), and Vermont (R. Popp pers. comm.).

Comments: There is evidence of collecting Agrimonia gryposepala from the wild in Illinois (W. McClain pers. comm.) and New Mexico. McClain stated that the evidence is indirect, but obtained from a reliable source. A website for a company selling herbal products apparently largely obtained through wildcrafting listed Agrimonia gryposepala for sale in single extract form. The company may now be out of business as there is no telephone number listed under the company name in the current telephone directory. Agrimonia gryposepala has been seen in nurseries but extent of cultivation, and whether this might involve wild-collection, is unknown (S. Young pers. comm.).

While this species has historically been used for medicinal purposes, it is unlikely to become a popular herb and therefore come under collection pressure unless future research uncovers previously unknown medicinal properties that are therapeutically more specific or can provide stronger evidence of its value. A person highly knowledgable with the herbal medicinal industry says that he has never seen this plant in a product (M. McGuffin pers. comm.).

Threats to this species and/or its habitats include clearing of woodlots and forests (W. McClain pers. comm., J. Amoroso pers. comm.), grazing in wood lots, riverbank clearing, fragmentation of habitat (E. Punter pers. comm.), increasing deer population, competition by invasives (Connecticut Natural Diversity Database), conversion of bogs to wet meadows (J. Amoroso pers. comm.), and general development and habitat destruction (W. Fertig pers. comm., K. Westad pers. comm.). The main threats in Wyoming result from habitat loss and degradation associated with gold mining, logging, grazing, recreation, and home construction (W. Fertig pers. comm.).

A. gryposepala is considered a threatened species in North Dakota, as it occurs in woodlands and riparian areas which now cover less than one percent of the state (Bry).

Biological Research Needs: Manitoba: need to determine range in province and factors threatening its occurrence (E. Punter pers. comm.).

Comments: The plant is purportedly useful for its therapeutic properties; it "builds up blood", "cools the liver", and acts as an antidiarrheal, gastro-intestinal aid, and as a mild astringent to mucous membranes (Moerman, Medicinas del Bosque).