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Floristic Analysis of the Southwestern United States

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Floristic Analysis of the Southwestern United States Great Basin Naturalist Volume 46 Number 1 Article 5 1-31-1986 Floristic analysis of the southwestern United States Steven P. McLaughlin University of Arizona, Tucson Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn Recommended Citation McLaughlin, Steven P. (1986) "Floristic analysis of the southwestern United States," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 46 : No. 1 , Article 5. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol46/iss1/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Basin Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. FLORISTIC ANALYSIS OF THE SOUTHWESTERN UNITED STATES Steven P. McLaughlin' Abstract. —A study was made of the distributions of native, terrestrial, \aseular plants occurring in 50 local floras from throughout the Basin and Range and Colorado Plateau physiographic provinces of the southwestern United States. The objectives of the study were to objectively define and describe the floristic elements —assemblages of species with roughly coincident geographic distribution —occurring in the southwestern United States and to deter- mine what such assemblages reveal about the floristic history of the region. The total flora (native, terrestrial species only) of the Southwest is estimated at 5,458 species, 77% of which were recorded in 1 or more of the local floras. Nearly 22% of these species are endemic to the study region. A majority of the species were found to be relatively rare. The average range of a species included only 4 floras, and 90% of the species were recorded from 11 or fewer floras; only 81 species (1.5%) were recorded from 50% or more of the floras. Trees constitute 2% of the regional flora and have the widest average distribution; perennial herbs constitute 59% of the flora and have the most restricted distributions. Factor analysis was used to identify seven floristic elements for the region; a Great Basin element, a Mojavean element, a Colorado Plateau element, a Chihuahuan element, an Apachian element, and a Mogollon element. This factor analysis solution was shown to satisfy criteria of interprctabilit\ and consistency. The Mojavean, Colorado Plateau, and Apachian elements are believed to be autochthonous. The otlier four elements show high overlap in species composition with one or more adjacent regions. Each floristic element is mapped to show its geographic form and distribution. Analysis of these maps shows how the existence of objectively defined floristic elements is not contradictory to either the individualistic view of the distribution of a species or local continuity of vegetation and flora. The rarity of the majority of species and the clear association of floristic elements with rather narrowly circumscribed Holocene environments suggests that many Southwestern species have migrated little and are of rather recent, probably postglacial origin. Geographic "principles " derived from the distribution patterns of relativeh few, wide- spread, dominant, usually woody species may not be applicable to entire, regional floras. Plant geographers have long recognized dence between floristic groups and floristic that plant species can be grouped on the basis provinces (e.g. , Gleason and Cronquist 1964), of similarities among their geographic distri- in which case the floristic group is the charac- butions. Such floristic groups have generally teristic flora of the floristic province. More been termed "geographical elements ' by Eu- often floristic groups are conceived as assem- ropean phytogeographers (Stott 1981, Cain blages of variable and often overlapping areal 1947). The same concept is embodied in such extent, including a few wide-ranging types terms as "natural floristic areas" (Raup 1947), and many more narrowly defined types. A "floristic assemblage" (Cain 1944), "floristic good example is the set of "areal types" used group" (Gleason and Croquist 1964), "areal by Whittaker and Niering (1964) in their anal- types" (Whittaker and Niering 1964), "cate- ysis of the flora of the Santa Catalina Moun- gories of geographic origin" (Stebbins 1982), tains of southern Arizona. Included are wide- or "directional classes" (Meyer 1978) of Amer- spread and overlapping "temperate," "wes- ican authors. The term element is used uncrit- tern, "northern," and "southwestern" types ically in the American literatine as a synonym along with more restricted and largely dis- for taxon or taxa. crete "Sonoran," "Rocky Mountain," "Plains," A concept related to that of floristic assem- "Madrean, " and "Chihuahuan" types. blages is that of floristic or biotic provinces. This chaos in terminology regarding floris- Provinces in the sense of Dice (1943) are rea- tic assemblages is a consecjuence of the inade- sonably discrete areas with characteristic quate empirical and theoretical basis for such i:)hysi()graphy, climate, vegetation, flora, and concepts in the American tradition. Gleason fauna. There may be a one to one correspon- (1926) challenged the validity of the organis- 'Officc of .\ricl Lands Studies. Ui 46 January 1986 McLaughlin: Floristic Anai 47 mic concept of associations as applied to vege- sis of vascular plant distributions recorded in tation by F. E. Clements and argued further local floras from the southwestern United that each species has its own individualistic States. environmental requirements and migrational history. It should follow, therefore, that each community of species is unique and any at- Methods tempt to identify repeatable associations must be highly subjective. The "individualistic con- Study Region cept" and the related "continuum concept" have been accepted by most American plant The study region includes the Colorado ecologists (Mcintosh 1967). Plateau Physiographic Province and the Basin The ideas of Gleason were very broadly and Range Physiographic Province north of applied to plant geography by Mason (1947) the U.S. -Mexico International Boundary, and Cain (1944, 1947). Mason (1947) invoked both as mapped by Hunt (1967) (Fig. 1). This the individualistic nature of the species and region is bounded by the Sierra Nevada and the principles of past migrations of species (as southern California transverse ranges on the revealed in the fossil record) to argue against west; by the Columbia Plateau on the north; the existence of persistent and recognizable and by the Rocky Mountains and southern floras. Cain (1947) believed that floristic ele- Great Plains on the east. Only the southern ments could be recognized only relative to the boundary is artificial. This region will be re- particular area under investigation and not as ferred to simply as the Southwest. a universal system of floristic regions. He The majority of the region lies between the hnked the ideas of floristic groups and plant two great Western mountain systems — Sierra association types, and went on to argue Nevada on the west and Rocky Mountains to against the objective recognition of associa- the east. The entire region is arid to semiarid. tion types, implicitly casting doubt on the The Great Basin section of the Basin and objective recognition of floristic assemblages Range Province experiences hot summers, of any form. cold winters, and mostly winter precipitation. The current attitude toward floristic assem- The southeastern portion of the Basin and blages is well illustrated in a statement by Range Province is at the opposite end of the Johnston (1977:356): climatic spectrum for the region, with hot summers, mild winters, and mostly summer "Recurrent distribution patterns" may simply be the precipitation. The most arid portion of the result of intuitive (but in this case unfortunate?) ten- dencies to lump and generalize, in the way the eye region centers around the lower Colorado tends to connect totally unrelated star-clusters into River Valley. meaningless but "recognizable" patterns in the night The study region has generally been recog- sky. nized as a natural one by biogeographers. One A recent text on biogeography (Brown and of the earliest formal treatments is that of Dice Gibson 1983) discusses the association/contin- (1943) and a recent one is that of Cronquist uum conflict but makes no reference to the (1982). Both recognize a semiarid natural re- problem of floristic elements. gion lying between the Sierra Nevada and the If each plant species is uniquely and inde- Rocky Mountains that extends into northern pendently distributed, and therefore recogni- Mexico. Cronquist's Great Basin Province es- tion of floristic assemblages must be inher- sentially includes Dice's Artemisian and ently arbitrary and subjective, why have so Navahonian provinces; Cronquist's Sonoran many phytogeographers nevertheless recog- Subprovince is composed of Dice's Mohavean nized such groups? Can phytogeographical el- and Sonoran provinces; and their Chihuahuan ements be described more objectively and, if regions are similar. The principal difference is so, how can they be reconciled with individu- that there is nothing in Cronquist's treatment alistic concepts and what do they mean in that corresponds closely to Dice's Apachian terms of the evolutionary histories of their Province of the uplands of southeastern Ari- species? The objective of this paper is to an- zona, southwestern New Mexico, and north- swer these questions through a floristic analy- western
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