Plants of concern in American Samoa
Whistler AW. 2003. Plants of concern in American Samoa. US Fish and Wildlife Service. Honolulu, Hawaii
The purpose of this study was to determine which plant species may in the future need some kind of protection in the territory. It is intended to be a follow-up to the 1998 studies taken in the territory including to studies in the National Park of American Samoa. The report contains information on the changes of status of the species (e.g., new rare species being found, other species determined not to be as rare as previously thought). Contains plant species list recommended as threatened or endangered in American Samoa... PURPOSE OF THE PRESENT STUDY There are currently no federally listed “threatened or endangered” plant species in American Samoa. This does not mean no plants are threatened or endangered in the Territory, it simply means that none have been put through the laborious listing process. Indeed, there are a number of plant species among the approximately 343 native plant species recorded in the Territory so far whose existence there, or even in the world as a whole, is precarious. A previous study of the plants rare in American Samoa was prepared several years ago (Whistler 1998), but since that time virtually no work has been done on these species or on the preparation of any listing of threatened or endangered plant species for the Territory. The purpose of the following study, entitled “Plants of Concern in American Samoa,” is to determine which plant species may in the future need some kind of protection in the Territory. It is intended to be a follow-up to the 1998 work, primarily to enter the records (i.e., collection data) of the plants considered to be “of concern” in the Territory of American Samoa into a GIS data base, and map these collection records. Because of field work done in the last five years (only a small portion of which was done for this survey), the list of “Plants of Concern,” as they are referred to here, has been updated to reflect changes of status of the species (e.g., new rare species being found, other species determined not to be as rare as previously thought). From the 109 Plants of Concern included on this list (Appendix A), 21 (Table 4) have been recommended for the next step, the listing process to determine if these plants meet criteria that would allow them to become federally listed threatened or endangered plant species.