Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Zion National Park
Fertig W and Alexander J. 2009. Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Zion National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/157. National Park Service
In 2005–2006, the National Park Service’s Northern Colorado Plateau Network received funding to develop a revised checklist of the vascular plant flora of Zion National Park. This entailed a thorough review of existing literature, re-examination of specimens from the Zion National Park herbarium and other state and national museum collections, and additional field work to corroborate unverified species reports or locate new species. Based on this study, 991 vascular plant taxa have been confirmed or reliably reported as occurring in the park (943 are known from validated herbarium specimens and 48 from unvouchered literature reports). Another 112 species formerly considered part of the park flora have now been shown to be falsely reported. The current flora of Zion National Park represents 27.6% of the known flora of Utah, and 58.5% of the flora of the Colorado Plateau ecoregion within Utah. At least 9 of these species are federally listed as threatened, endangered, or sensitive, and 184 are considered species of concern by the state’s natural heritage program. Introduced plants make up 14.1% of the park flora (140 species), of which 10 species are considered noxious weeds by the State of Utah. Further surveys in Zion National Park are likely to find additional new species (203 are known from similar habitats outside the park boundary), especially among late-season flowering, weedy, or wetland taxa. (From Report Abstract)
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Fertig, Walter; Alexander, Jason
- Date of Issue
- 2009-01
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- NCPN , NRSS , ZION
- Keywords
- NCPN Vascular Plant Inventory, Plant Studies, Vascular Plants, Vegetation