Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Curecanti National Recreation Area
Hogan T, Lederer N, Clark D, Fertig W. 2009. Annotated checklist of vascular flora, Curecanti National Recreation Area. Natural Resource Technical Report. NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/232. 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 Curecanti National Recreation Area (NRA). This entailed a thorough review of existing literature, re-examination of specimens from the Curecanti NRA 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, 679 vascular plant taxa have been confirmed or reliably reported as occuring in the unit (527 are known from validated herbarium specimens and 152 from literature reports). Another 85 species formerly considered part of the Curecanti NRA flora have now been shown to be falsely reported. The current flora of Curecanti NRA represents 21.6% of the known flora of Colorado and 35.8% of the flora of the Colorado Plateauecoregion within Colorado. Although no plant taxa are listed as threatened or endangered, at least 15 were formerly candidates for federal listing or are currently considered species of concern by the state natural heritage program. Introduced plants make up 13.1% of the recreation area flora (89 species), of which 23 species are considered noxious weeds by the State of Colorado. Further surveys in Curecanti NRA are likely to find additional new species (at least 159 taxa are known from similar habitats outside the recreation area 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
- CURE , NCPN , NRSS
- Keywords
- NCPN Vascular Plant Inventory, Plant Studies, Vascular Plants, Vegetation