ANNAPOLIS — The Maryland Department of Natural Resources released its updated 2026 Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plants of Maryland list, reflecting hundreds of edits and new findings by the Wildlife and Heritage Service’s Natural Heritage Program.
The document, available in a concise list-only version and a detailed expanded edition, catalogs 740 native Maryland plants considered among the least understood, rarest or most in need of conservation. It includes global and state conservation rankings, historical records, natural histories and local knowledge for botanists, researchers and naturalists.
“The level of detail in this update is testament to our ongoing commitment to preserving Maryland’s natural heritage,” said Christopher Frye, state botanist for the Wildlife and Heritage Service and staff lead on the project.
Key changes in the 2026 revision include 28 taxonomic updates and 44 revisions to species conservation rank or legal status. DNR botanists made 89 amendments to county or physiographic province distributions and added 12 updated flowering or fruiting dates. Fifteen new references were incorporated from vetted historical collections and documents.
Eight new species were added to the list. Among the most notable are two globally critically imperiled (G1) plants recently described through scientific research: Atlantic ladies tresses (Spiranthes bightensis) and Mid-Atlantic beaksedge (Rhynchospora mesoatlantica).
The Mid-Atlantic beaksedge discovery spans decades. In the mid-1980s, botanists William McAvoy and Frank Hirst found an unfamiliar sedge in Eastern Shore wetlands and initially identified it as Harper’s beaksedge (Rhynchospora harperi). Advances in genetics led Amanda Eberly, a NatureServe botanist and New York Botanical Garden graduate student, and Robert Naczi to describe the new species in a 2023 paper. The Maryland plants were reclassified as Rhynchospora mesoatlantica, now known from only three locations worldwide — New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
The list also documents the rediscovery of wood lily (Lilium philadelphicum) in Allegany County, a species not seen in Maryland for 118 years.
Native plants support Maryland ecosystems by producing oxygen, providing host plants for pollinators and contributing to biodiversity that underpins food crops and potential biomedical discoveries. Their loss could eliminate cultural and historical ties as well as future scientific opportunities.
The list-only version is posted at https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/Maryland-NHP-RTE-Plant-List.pdf. The expanded version, with full natural-history details, is at https://dnr.maryland.gov/wildlife/Documents/rte_Plant_List_expanded.pdf. Both are available on the DNR Wildlife and Heritage Service page.
The 2026 update continues periodic revisions that began with the list’s first publication in 1984. The Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act and related regulations guide Maryland’s protection efforts. The Wildlife and Heritage Service maintains a database aligned with the international NatureServe network.
No changes to state or federal legal protections for specific species were detailed beyond the conservation-rank updates. The list does not include regulated threatened or endangered species under COMAR 08.03.08 but serves as the primary reference for conservation planning.
