Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Hogan T, Lederer N, Clark D, Fertig W. 2009. Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/227. Natural Resource Program Center. Fort Collins, Colorado
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 Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This entailed a thorough review of existing literature, re-examination of specimens from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park herbarium and other state and national museum collections, and additional field work to corroborate unverified species reports and locate new species. Based on this study, 532 vascular plant taxa have been confirmed or reliably reported as occurring in the park (470 are known from validated herbarium specimens and 62 from unvouchered literature reports). Another 20 species formerly considered part of the park flora have now been shown to be falsely reported. The current flora of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park represents about 17% of theknown flora of Colorado, and 28% of the flora of the Colorado Plateau ecoregion within Colorado. Although no plant taxa are listed as threatened or endangered, at least 18 are considered species of concern by the state natural heritage program. Introduced plants make up 13.7% of the park flora (73 species), of which 19 species are considered noxious weeds by the State of Colorado. Further surveys in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park are likely to find additional new species (at least 290 taxa are known from similar habitats outside the park boundary), especially among late-flowering, weedy, or wetland taxa.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Hogan, Tim; Lederer, Nan; Clark, Dina; Fertig, Walter
- Date of Issue
- 2009-07
- Publisher
- Natural Resource Program Center
- Units
- BLCA , NCPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- NCPN Vascular Plant Inventory, Plant Studies, Vascular Plants, Vegetation