Man's effort preserves rare flower

DURHAM -- Having spent the past few years burning brush, clearing trees and hacking through overgrown weeds in northern Durham, Rob Evans is declaring victory in his battle to preserve a rare, goofy-looking flower.

Evans is a plant ecologist with the state's Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. For years, he has been a lone figure on the side of Durham's roadways, clearing away obstructions so that sunlight could reach the smooth coneflower, a gangly purple flower with long, narrow, droopy petals.

The coneflower is listed as an endangered species by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Its numbers plummeted in recent years in Durham County, one of just three or four North Carolina counties where it can be found.

But Evans' efforts, coupled with the state's willingness to buy up land for its preservation efforts, are now bringing results.

The best example is at Penny's Bend, a nature preserve near Old Oxford Highway, where four years ago there were so few coneflowers that Evans counted them all. There were 30.

Now there are more than 1,100.

Nearby on Hebron Road, about 120 coneflower plants now grow in an area where, two years ago, you couldn't find more than a handful.

"That's by far the greatest number we've had recorded at that site," Evans said recently. "We're hoping and feeling that our activities have been successful."

In the past several years, Evans has scrambled to protect the coneflower in the face of rampant North Durham development. He had victories and defeats in this effort -- successfully persuading state officials to spend more than $1.3 million to preserve 114 acres off Infinity Road was a win, for example. But that is countered by a Hebron Road subdivision, Swann's Mill, built on land where coneflowers once grew. Evans wasn't able to engineer the purchase of that property.

The coneflower thrives in northeastern Durham because of a rock found there. It is called diabase, and the soil derived from it is low in acidity and heavy in minerals, providing a fertile breeding ground for certain rare plants. The smooth coneflower is one, and the wild blue indigo and the glade wild quiinine are others.

Its rarity and long history in this small part of Durham makes it worth the effort, Evans said.

"It's part of the state's natural heritage," he said. "These plants have always been around, and we were about to lose them. We're bringing them back from the brink of extinction."