What is the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doing?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is changing the classification of the Missouri bladderpod (Lesquerella filiformis) from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (Act). 2) What is the Missouri bladderpod? The Missouri bladderpod is a small annual plant, about 4 to 8 inches tall, with many slender stems that grow from a cluster of leaves at the base of the plant. The stems and leaves of the bladderpod are covered with small hairs that give the plant a silvery look. Distinctive canary yellow flowers cluster at the top of the stems and bloom from April to May. The flowers have four yellow petals and produce round green seedpods (1/8 inch in diameter) that turn brown as they dry. After flowering and seeding the plant dies. Seeds germinate in fall and survive the winter as button-sized rosettes, which look like clusters of leaves on the ground. 3) Where does the Missouri bladderpod live? The Missouri bladderpod grows only in southwest Missouri and northern Arkansas. Natur
