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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 41 / Thursday, March 4, 2021 / Proposed Rules
warranted petition finding for the Arizona eryngo.
Supporting Documents A species status assessment SSA
team prepared an SSA report for the Arizona eryngo. The SSA team was composed of Service biologists, in consultation with other species experts.
The SSA report represents a compilation of the best scientific and commercial data available concerning the status of the species, including the impacts of past, present, and future factors both negative and beneficial affecting the species. The Service sent the SSA report to eight independent peer reviewers and received four responses. The Service also sent the SSA report to 16 partners, including scientists with expertise in wetland management and conservation and plant ecology, for review. We received review from eight partners Federal, State, and County governments, and universities.
I. Proposed Listing Determination
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Background A thorough review of the taxonomy, life history, and ecology of the Arizona eryngo Eryngium sparganophyllum is presented in the SSA report Service 2020. The Arizona eryngo is an herbaceous perennial flowering plant in the Apiaceae carrot family that is native to Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and to Sonora and Chihuahua in Mexico. The species requires moist, organic alkali soils found in spring-fed cienegas aridland wetlands supported by adequate groundwater.
Arizona eryngo grows to a height of about 1.5 meters m 5 feet ft with long, linear, parallel-veined leaves that emerge from a basal rosette. The plant is conspicuous when flowering in June through September Stromberg et al.
2019, p. 8; New Mexico Rare Plants 2013, p. 1. The flowers are creamcolored and clustered in dense heads.
Dry fruits ripen in September and October. The species is believed to live well over 10 years, and many pollinators have been documented interacting with the species. Arizona eryngo reproduces through pollination, creating genetically unique individuals, as well as vegetatively via rhizomes underground stems producing clones, which are genetically identical Stromberg et al. 2019, p. 8.
The Arizona eryngo only occurs in spring-fed cienega wetlands and grows best in full sun in areas with few nonnative plant species, limited woody vegetation, or other vegetation that may shade or otherwise outcompete them.

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The species has been found in conditions from standing water up to 2
centimeters cm 0.8 inches in deep to soil that is dry at the surface but is moist to saturated several cm into the soil Stromberg et al. 2019, pp. 6, 8. It is hypothesized that flowering is determined, in part, by soil moisture availability i.e., plants do not flower in drier conditions when the plants are more stressed and that ramets clones are produced during drier periods Li 2019, p. 8; Stromberg et al. 2019, p. 8.
Spatial distribution of Arizona eryngo within cienegas appears to be associated with water availability; drier conditions favor the growth of trees that outcompete the species, and very wet conditions i.e., perennially standing water favor the growth of bulrush Schoenoplectus americanus that similarly outcompetes Arizona eryngo Li 2019, p. 4. Soils inhabited by Arizona eryngo are high in organic matter, saline, alkaline, and have salts on soil surfaces in the seasonally dry periphery Stromberg et al. 2019, pp. 6, 14.
The Arizona eryngo is known historically from six sites: Three sites in Arizona and one in New Mexico in the United States, and one site in Sonora and one site in Chihuahua in Mexico Sanchez Escalante et al. 2019, pp. 16
17; Stromberg et al. 2019, pp. 38.
Given the historical distribution of functional aridland cienegas greater than 95 percent of the historical area of cienegas is now dry Cole and Cole 2015, p. 36, it is likely that Arizona eryngo populations were historically more abundant, occurred closer to one another, and were more connected through pollination than they are currently. The species has been extirpated from one site in Arizona and one site in New Mexico but remains extant at the other four sites two in Arizona; one in Sonora, Mexico; and one in Chihuahua, Mexico.
Additionally, efforts are underway to reintroduce the species to the historical site in Arizona from which it was extirpated Agua Caliente and to introduce the species to a new site Historic Canoa Ranch in Pima County, Arizona within its general historical range. A handful of plants now exist at these reintroduction sites, but these efforts have not yet been successful at establishing viable populations. With the exception of the reintroduced plants at Agua Caliente, which is about 6
kilometers km 3.7 miles mi from the La Cebadilla population, other populations are about 90 to 335 km 56
to 208 mi apart from one another.
Reports of the species farther south in the Mexican states of Durango, Jalisco,
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Nayarit, Zacatecas, Michoacan, and Guerrero are likely not valid because the herbarium specimen from Durango, Mexico, is morphologically different from northern specimens Stomberg et al. 2019, p. 7. Additionally, a report of the species occurring in Zacatecas, Nayarit, and Jalisco lacks supporting herbaria records Stromberg et al. 2019, p. 7, and specimens collected from Michoacan and Guerrero appear to be a distinct taxon due to differences in flower color, habitat, elevation, and flowering time Stromberg et al. 2019, p.
8. Because the species is obvious tall with conspicuous flowers and locally abundant and most cienegas, particularly ones still extant in Arizona and New Mexico, have been surveyed AGFD 2019, p. 7, it is unlikely that new populations will be found. The six historical and current populations are discussed in greater detail below:
Las Playas, New Mexico, United States ExtirpatedThe species historically occurred at Playas or Las Playas Springs in the Playas Basin, east of the Animas Mountains in Hidalgo County, but it has not been found since 1851 and is believed to be extirpated Sivinski 2018, p. 21; Stromberg et al.
2019, p. 4. The springs were diminished and Las Playas was found primarily dry by the mid to late 1950s Sivinski 2018, p. 27; Stromberg et al.
2019, p. 5. The cienega at Las Playas is now considered dead Sivinski 2018, p.
8 due to agricultural and industrial i.e., copper mining dewatering Stromberg et al. 2019, p. 5. Dead cienegas are historical cienegas that no longer have groundwater at or near the ground surface and likely have water tables so severely depleted that restoration, given todays techniques and economics, is not feasible Sivinksi 2019, p. 14.
Agua Caliente, Arizona, United States ExtirpatedArizona eryngo historically occurred at the Agua Caliente Ranch east of Tucson in Pima County, Arizona, within the Santa Cruz River Basin Stromberg et al. 2019, p. 5.
This population was extirpated likely due to multiple manipulations of the site, including spring modification Stromberg et al., p. 5; SWCA 2002, pp.
12 and pond impoundment. Two springs a hot spring and a cold spring were blasted with explosives in the 1930s, and again in the 1960s, to increase water flow for resort development. Instead, the blasting significantly reduced water flow Friends of Agua Caliente 2020, entire.
The flow rate from the springs has varied from as high as 500 gallons per minute historically, to an immeasurable seep in recent years Pima County 2020, entire.

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