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Mass Audubon speaks for the trees.
To: Bluedot Living
From: Mass Audubon
Subject: Bicknell’s Hawthorn — A Nantucket Homebody
The Rarest of the Rare
Bicknell’s Hawthorn is a plant deeply rooted on the island.
It is an endemic plant, a local in the truest sense of the word, so much so that it doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world. Let that sink in: This species is known only on Nantucket. Bicknell’s Hawthorn cannot be found growing wild anywhere else on the planet.
Crataegus bicknellii, its scientific name, honors American botanist Eugene Pintard Bicknell, who himself had a Nantucket connection. Though he grew up and worked in New York, you could say that he wrote the book on this island’s plants. His tomes included multiple editions of The Ferns and Flowering Plants of Nantucket, which listed species, location, and leaf out and flowering dates of local plants. Interestingly, he didn’t find and record this Hawthorn, which was observed much later by another botanist who bestowed the honorific.
Protecting and Nurturing Its Survival
With fewer than 100 trees surviving on the planet, each and every one is vitally important and extremely vulnerable. Though these plants have very large thorns as adults, smaller specimens are browsed by deer and can also be overcome by invasive species, including honeysuckle and other aggressors.
The largest population of Bicknell’s Hawthorn resides on Mass Audubon’s lands, and staff are prioritizing their protection. By identifying, tagging, monitoring, and fencing each tree, our team will protect small and large specimens and nurture them against all floral and faunal foes. As part of Nantucket’s Youth Environmental Steward Program (see story on page 56), which engages high school and college-aged students for paid summer work experiences, young Nantucketers take part in these efforts.
Fighting for a Future
We can’t do it alone; saving a species takes a village. In 2023, botanists and students from The Botanical Garden of Smith College came to Nantucket to collect seeds, study soils, and learn more about this rare plant, and create an ex-situ population of Bicknell’s Hawthorn on campus to secure its continued existence.
Though we may not be the Lorax, we will always speak for the trees and work for their protection.
