Maryland-a small state-is home to a disproportionately large number of different native plant species and ecological communities. The current character of Maryland’s natural environment is not only a tale of habitat loss through direct conversion, fragmentation and unwitting destruction by development and altered landscapes in modernity but also a tale of Maryland’s historical landscape and the ebb and flow of climatic shifts in geological time.

• Why are there so many rare plants in Maryland?
  
• Sources of complexity in Maryland flora
  
• • Disjunct plant species
    
  • Peripheral plant species
    
  • Singular plant communities
    
  • Regionally endemic plant communities
    
  • Continuing discovery
    
• Conservation of Maryland’s Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plants
  
• • Regulatory authority, responsibility and resources for native plant conservation in
    Maryland
    
  • What it means for a plant species to be classified rare, threatened or endangered
    
  • What can be learned from lists of rare, threatened and endangered plants
    
  • Conclusions concerning ongoing conservation of Maryland’s rare, threatened and endangered plants