Cornell Student Identifies New York's First New Plant Species in 10 Years

1 articles · Updated · The Ithaca Voice · May 13

Genetic analysis confirmed Justin Scholten's unusual pink baneberry was a new species, Actaea rhodostigma, not the hybrid he first suspected after finding it in Summerhill State Forest in 2023.
A red stigma unlike related baneberries and pollination by green non-biting midges helped overturn the hybrid theory, pointing instead to reproductive isolation from white and red baneberry.
The toxic species is now known from forests near Ithaca, with the largest New York population in Bear Swamp State Forest, and community scientists have already logged nearly 36 iNaturalist records.
Finds stretching from Tennessee to Ontario suggest the plant was overlooked rather than newly arrived, even as Scholten warned climate-driven shifts in spring timing could disrupt flowering and pollination.

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