Advocacy group wants endangered species listing for plant named after New Mexico botanist

An environmental advocacy group is petitioning for federal protections of a rare New Mexico flower that grows in an oil-rich region.

The nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list Allred’s flax under the Endangered Species Act in December. The orange-flowered perennial lives in gypsum soil and was discovered by botanists with the Bureau of Land Management and the New Mexico State Forestry Division in 2011. It was named after retired New Mexico State University botanist Kelly Allred, according to reporting by The Associated Press.

“It's a surprisingly beautiful little flower in an area that I think a lot of other people think of as barren,” said Brian Nowicki, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Southwest Program deputy director. “And it's one of those things that causes you to stop and pay closer attention to the small scale that life is happening sometimes on those really big landscapes that we have in New Mexico.”

Allred’s flax has chubby, waxy leaves that are able to keep in moisture and a branching, woody base.

The plant lives in the Yeso Hills of Eddy County. Herbicides have impacted part of the Yeso Hills and could become a threat to the species, according to the New Mexico Rare Plants website, which is maintained by the New Mexico Natural Heritage Program, the University of New Mexico Library and the state’s Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department-Forestry Division's Endangered Plant Program. Road and pipeline projects have also impacted the plant in a few locations and could continue to affect it as oil and gas development in the area expands, the rare plants guide says.

The Center for Biological Diversity identifies oil and gas development as a threat to the plant’s habitat.

“The very places where a lot of the oil wells are currently exploding in number, right on top of that is where these plants have the soil that they are able to live in,” Nowicki said.

New Mexico Oil and Gas Association President Missi Currier said in a statement that association members protect native species like Allred’s flax and are “committed to science-based solutions and collaborative approaches that balance conservation with the energy needs that power our nation and beyond.”

The state of New Mexico listed Allred’s flax as an endangered species in 2020, which protects it from being collected, removed, transported, exported or sold without a valid permit for specific scientific purposes. It’s unclear if or when the federal government could grant protections.

“Usually, it's going to be months before they have a chance to process (the petition) and give a response,” Nowicki said.

For Nowicki, Allred’s flax isn’t the only species of concern in New Mexico’s oil-rich southeastern region. The Center for Biological Diversity has also pushed for protections of the dunes sagebrush lizard, a small, light-brown lizard that was listed as endangered in 2024 and lives in eastern New Mexico and west Texas.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued over the lizard’s listing. The lawsuit called the rule protecting the lizard improperly vague “due to its failure to provide the public with adequate guidance regarding activities that can and cannot occur within the dunes sagebrush lizard’s large geographic range, which overlaps with the Permian Basin — an economically vital area for the state of Texas.”

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a request to intervene in the lawsuit to defend the lizard’s listing. That request was denied, a decision the center is appealing.

Nowicki has visited New Mexico’s Permian Basin region looking for the dunes sagebrush lizard.

“It was striking how diverse and fragile the ecosystems are down in what I think a lot of folks think of as a pretty beat up landscape,” he said.

Cathy Cook covers the federal government for the Albuquerque Journal. Reach her via email at ccook@abqjournal.com