Branched phacelia (Phacelia ramosissima) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 10
Existing Protection or other Status Designations
Phacelia ramosissima is not covered under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Endangered Species Act (USA) or the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Data Book. Globally, P. ramosissima var. ramosissima has a rank of G4T?, indicating this variety has yet to be ranked (NatureServe 2003). It is quite likely that this taxon, since it is not tracked by any of the four U.S. States (California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington) in which it occurs, should have a T rank of at least T4.
This species is not tracked as a rare species outside of British Columbia and is ranked SR in California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington by NatureServe (2003). The SR rank is in error since that rank indicates that a species is “reported for the state, but without persuasive evidence for either accepting or rejecting the report”. In fact, numerous floras treat the species, including Hitchcock et al. (1959) for Washington, Peck (1961) for Oregon, Kartesz (1988) for Nevada and Wilkens et al. (1993) for California. In California, this variety is listed as occurring in nine different geographic subdivisions indicating that it is likely at least frequent in that state (Wilkens et al. 1993). The correct rank for now should be S?, indicating that it has “yet to be ranked” (NatureServe 2003). When these states have all their species ranked, P. ramosissima var. ramosissima will probably be ranked either S4 or S5.
National and provincial status
Since the species is restricted to British Columbia in Canada, it has a national rank of N2. Provincially, Phacelia ramossisima is ranked by the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre as S2 and appears on the British Columbia Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management red list (Douglas et al. 2002). The S2 rank indicates that the species is "imperiled because of rarity (typically six to 20 extant occurrences or very few remaining individuals) or because of some factor(s) making it very susceptible to extirpation or extinction".
There is currently no specific endangered species legislation in place for the protection of vascular plants in British Columbia that have been placed on the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management red list. One population (west slope of Mount Kruger) and one subpopulation (on the east slope) are in the South Okanagan Grasslands Protected Area, thus they are protected by the Provincial Park Act. In addition, a Wildlife Habitat Area is currently under consideration for part of the east slope of Mount Kruger (J. Hobbs, pers. comm., 2004). This would provide protection for an additional four subpopulations on that side of the mountain.