Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Hovenweep National Monument

Fertig, Walter

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 Hovenweep National Monument. This entailed a thorough review of existing literature, re-examination of specimens from the Hovenweep National Monument 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, 340 vascular plant taxa have been confirmed or reliably reported as occuring in the monument (273 are known from validated herbarium specimens and 67 from unvouchered literature reports). Another 123 species formerly considered part of the monument flora have now been shown to be falsely reported. The Utah portion of Hovenweep National Monument contains 218 species (6% of the state flora) and the Colorado segments contain 268 species (8.5% of the entire Colorado flora). At least 16 of these species are tracked as species of concern by state natural heritage programs, but none are federally listed as threatened, endangered, or sensitive. Introduced plants make up 16.7% of the monument flora (57 species), of which 12 species are considered noxious weeds by the states of Utah and Colorado. Further surveys in Hovenweep National Monument are likely to find additional new species (about 270 are known from similar habitats outside the monument boundary), especially among late-flowering, weedy, or wetland taxa. (from Report Abstract)

Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Hovenweep National Monument

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