New Jersey Pine Plains Corema conradii by uli lorimer

This panorama represents one of the largest known populations of Conrad's Crowberry (Corema conradii) in New Jersey. Named after its discoverer, S. White Conrad (1779-1831), Corema conradii is one of the rarest plants in the coastal plain habitat. It currently exists in several disjunct populations, occuriing as far south as this population in the pine barrens of New Jersey. It also occurs in the Shawanagunk Mountains of New York, a somewhat inland mountain chain. Also in the Cape Cod region of Massachusetts, with its largest populations to be found in coastal Maine and further north into Nova Scotia. Corema is a plant of coastal plains. It grows on sandy soil, open sand, or siliceous rocky plateaus, ledges, and summits. On open hilltops, it is found in pitch pine (Pinus rigida) stands, forming a springy carpet in pine barrens as seen in this photo. It grows here with Bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) and Sweet fern (Comptonia peregrina). The ground is heavily colonized with lichens and various fungi including earthstars(Gasteromycetes). All of these habitats have relatively open light conditions, a requirement for the plant. This may be due to disturbance, often in the form of infrequent fire. Fire directly kills adult plants but results in an abundant establishment of seedlings. Corema is one of the earliest plants to bloom although this year, we were just a few weeks to early to witness the flowers. This plant is threatened in a number of ways including the infrequency of fire events, resulting in the plant being shaded out by larger vegetation. Herbivory by deer represents the next biggest threat followed by shore and cliff erosion, human trampling, and habitat loss due to development, quarrying and sand mining.