Dudley Bluffs Bladderpod
This small yellow flower is a cushion plant.
About This Species
The Dudley Bluffs bladderpod is one of 18 bladderpod species considered rare in Colorado. Like all bladderpods, the Dudley Bluffs bladderpod produces seed pods that appear swollen or inflated. This particular species is extremely small; the entire plant is sometimes smaller than a quarter.
More Information:
Physical Characteristics
This tiny cushion plant (a low-growing, mat-forming plant adapted to alpine environments) forms a small circular clump of only 0.4 to 1.5 inches in diameter. Small, silvery-green, spatula-shaped leaves are topped with a mass of small, yellow, four-petaled flowers in April and May. During early summer, air-filled seed pods can be found below the leaves.
Range
Dudley Bluffs bladderpods grow only in the Piceance Basin in Rio Blanco County. We know of only eight locations where this plant grows within an area of only 33 square miles near the town of Meeker. This species grows in habitats between 6,121 and 6,556 feet in elevation.
Habitat
These tiny bladderpods can only grow in barren white shale outcrops of the Green River and Uintah formations, where few other plants can survive.
Several other rare plants call the shale outcrops of the Piceance Basin home, including the larger relative Dudley Bluffs twinpod (Physaria obcordata), though this species can tolerate steeper slopes than the Dudley Bluffs bladderpod. Many of the other co-occurring species are also regionally endemic to the shale slopes (found there and nowhere else on Earth), including dragon milkvetch (Astragalus lutosus) and Barneby's thistle (Cirsium barnebyi). More common associates include Indian ricegrass (Eriocoma hymenoides) and spearleaf buckwheat (Eriogonum lonchophyllum).
Threats to Species
Mining and oil and gas development are considered the main threats to this species, who are found only on oil-shale outcrops. In 2000, a nahcolite (a mineral used in soaps, detergents and glassmaking) plant was built within this species' small range. Other threats include livestock grazing, trampling by wild horses and possibly impact from off-highway vehicles.