Plant Nominated as Endangered Species

A plant presumed extinct a few years ago, before it was rediscovered on a contaminated site in Oxnard, has been nominated to join the endangered species list, federal authorities announced Tuesday.

The Ventura marsh milk-vetch, which once occupied coastal sand dunes from San Clemente to Santa Barbara, was thought to have perished when a single wild plant was plucked from Oxnard in 1967.

Two years ago, a biologist for the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service discovered that about 374 plants remained on a 1-acre parcel targeted for a cleanup of waste oil.

State and federal officials are collecting seeds from the plants with hopes they can be used to recolonize native habitat.

In the meantime, they have begun work to give the vetch, a perennial member of the pea family, protection under the federal Endangered Species Act, which can take up to a year to complete.