Leaves crunched underfoot as Geordie Elkins and Jesse Hubbard strode through an oak-hickory-maple forest in Redding, Connecticut, less than two hours from the bustle of New York City. It was a warm, picture-perfect day in early October. Elkins, director of operations at Highstead, a land conservation organization and arboretum, looked down at the GPS readings on his smartphone, searching for the locations of the black cohosh (Actea racemosa) plants that he had discovered in July when their spikes of white flowers waved in the breeze. The phone led the men to 15 plants. They carefully clipped off rattle-like tips of dry fruit capsules and placed them in envelopes, taking care not to remove more than 20 percent of the seeds from any plant…

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