In 1998 this plant was designated as an endangered species by the United States government, the major threat to its survival being continuing land development from an expanding human population and associated habitat loss.

[2] One of the habitats of Yadon's piperia, the Del Monte Forest near Monterey, California, is the subject of a federal lawsuit, based upon endangerment of this organism along with several other endangered species.

Along with most other orchids P. yadonii: (a) is a bisexual perennial green plant that grows from buried tubers; manifests a fruit capsule bearing numerous minute seeds; (b) exhibits pollen that is sticky, and which is removed as sessile anther sacs; and (c) has a stigma fused with its style into a column.

Yadon's piperia is generally restricted to three habitats: (a) Monterey pine (Pinus radiata) forest, sometimes with Gowen's cypress (Cupressus goveniana ssp.

goveniana) which includes more than 80 percent of the known populations; (b) California Northern coastal scrub, with dwarfed Hooker's manzanita (Arctostaphylos hookeri ssp.

Rainfall is 40 to 50 centimeters per year, but summer fog drip is a primary source of moisture for Yadon's Piperia and other plants that would otherwise not be able to persist with such low precipitation.

On the Monterey Peninsula some taxa comprising habitat for P. yadonii, such as the coastal closed-cone pines and cypresses are relict stands, e.g. species that once extended more widely in the mesic climate of the late Pleistocene period, but then retreated to small pockets of cooler and wetter conditions along the coast ranges during the hotter, drier early Holocene period between 6000 and 2000 BC.

These designations have led to blueprints for protection of Yadon's piperia in the form of official endangerment classifications and a species Recovery Plan,[7] the latter promulgated by the U.S.

The listing as a federally endangered species occurred in 1998, prompted[8] by a study conducted by Earth Metrics for the city of Monterey, which found the colony in the Del Monte forest to be threatened by proposed land development.

Fish and Wildlife Service acted on this new information regarding Yadon's piperia, and promulgated a notice of intent to classify the species as endangered.