New vascular plant species discoveries in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network: 2008 update

Fertig, Walter; Topp, Sarah; Moran, Mary; Weissinger, Rebecca

From 2004-2007, the National Park Service’s Inventory and Monitoring Program funded a series of research projects to update vascular plant species checklists for each of the 16 national park units in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN). These projects entailed a thorough reexamination of all herbarium specimens in the museum archives of each park, as well as a review of specimens in other state and regional herbaria and pertinent published and unpublished literature. Information was compiled on all plant species confirmed as present in a park (with a corroborated voucher specimen) or reported in the literature (without a specimen), as well as species that might potentially occur or which had been shown to be falsely reported. The resulting data were compiled in the Park Service’s NPSpecies database and in a series of technical reports. The task of writing a species checklist is never final, however, as new species are continually uncovered through additional field work. Such is the case with many of the park units in the NCPN. In just a year since the NPSpecies and annotated checklist projects were completed, over 50 new plant species have been documented during rare plant surveys, weed inventories, and routine monitoring. This report is a summary of new species discoveries, changes in status, and revisions in nomenclature, that have occurred in the floras of 13 park units in the NCPN since spring 2008 (revisions for Pipe Spring National Monument have been addressed in a separate document). The report is intended as an addendum to the annotated checklists prepared in 2007-2008 and published by the National Park Service as part of its technical report series.

New vascular plant species discoveries in the Northern Colorado Plateau Network: 2008 update

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