On the Flora of the Cascade Mountains
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THE WASMANN JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY VOL. 20, No. 1 SPRING, 1962 On the Flora of the Cascade Mountains WM. BRIDGE COOKE, Robe1·t A. Taft Sanita1·y En gineel·ing Center, Bureau of State Se1·vices, Public H ealth Service, U. S. D epa1·trnent of H ealth, Educa tion, and W eZfm·e Cincinnati 26, Ohio. The appearance in the summer of 1961 of A Flom of Lassen V olccmic N cttional Park (Gillett, Howell, and Leschke, 1961) brought to a climax the study of the veooetation of the Southern Cascade and, together with the FloweTing Plants and F eTns of Mount Rainier (Jones, 1938), Plants of Crate1· Lake National Park (Appl gate, 1939 ) , and Flom of Mount Shasta (Cooke, 1940 ) and it upplements (1941, 1949, 1962), made possible the preparation of a pr·eliminary composite list of the flora of the Cascade Iountains and a preliminary analy. i of the geoooraphic distribution of the plants of that mountain ran"'e. Phy iographically, the Cascade Range is divided into three sec tions: The Northern Cascades, which reach from the Fra er River to the Colmnbia River and includes Mounts Shuksan, Baker, Glacier Peak, Rainier, Adams, and St. Helens; the Middle Cas cades, which stretch south from the Columbia River to the Klam ath River and include Motmts Hood, ,Jefferson, Three Sister , and Mazama; and the Southern Cascade , which include those peak· in California, Mounts Shasta, and I.~assen, and the area between the Klamath River and Lake Almanor, an artificial lake that sepa rates the Cascade Range from the Sierra Nevada. A Flom of Lassen Volcanic National Park gives an account of the plants of the southernmost of the peaks in this system as well as of it urrounding terrain from about 5 00 feet to the summit of La. en Peak, 10,453 feet above sea level. The Flom of Mount Shasta and it upplements deseribe the flora of the econd moun tain in the outbern Cascades from an artificial ba eat 4,000 feet to the ·nmmit at 14,161 feet. In the Plants of Cnde1· Lake Na- [ 1] 2 THE WASMAN JO RNAL OF BIOLOGY, VoL 20, 1962 tiona[ Pct1·k Applegate Ji. t the flora of ::\[onnt l\Iazama , in which rater Lake is located, from elevations within the pal'l< honn lar·ies of 3 600 feet to about 9 000 fe t abov ea level. ron of the peak I tween l\Iount Mazam a and Mount Hainier have b en ·tuclied floristically, or at I ast have not been reported on . 'fount Rainier has been :urve~ r ed botanically by ·everal bot ani t who c report. culrrilnated in .Jon e. 193 publication. This report over the flor·a of the mountains and ·urroundin()' terrain above 2,000 feet within the boundarie of the ational Park. nlike the three southern peaks, the flora of Mount Rainier i developed on granite, the volcanic part of the area lying mo ·tly at hi her elevation . In l 941, Muen cher publi hed his Flora of Whatcom County, Wa hington. in e thi Whatcom ounty flora over area from sea level at PuO'et ound to the mountainous area in east r·n \Vhatcom ounty, and in Jude 'founts Baker and huk an, it doe not O'ive a definitive flora of either of these two peak . In 1929 t . .John and IIardin published a Flora of Jilt. Baker which gives a definitive area for Mount Baker and Mount Shuksan. On this ba is a li t of plants for the 400-. quare-mile area in Mount Baker National For t west of the North Ca cade Prirrlltive Area and outh of the Nook ack River in luling Mount Baker and iount huksan, has been picked out of the two floras. The five mountain areas for which plant. have been li ted are O'iven in table l, with the areas covered, the altitudinal limits of each area, the nun1ber of pecies o~ vascular plants record d for each, and the per ent.age of the totalli t of ascade plants repre sented in each area. The area covered in each treatment forms a relatively compact unit. Each area i geographically i ·olated fr·om the others, althou 17h the A.ori tic i olation i: much I · pronounced except at hi"'her elevation . In general, as one proceeds northward alon"' the axis of either major mountain range in the western part of orth America, the timberline i found at decrea in()'ly lower elevations and plant association with elevation · lower than tim berline oc ur at corre pondingly lower elevations noithward. While a mixed ierr·an conifer forest occur on the lower lope of Mount La en and Mount hasta, the lowe t lope of ha ta are covered with even more xeric as ociation (Cooke, 1955 ), and outlier of the mixed ~ieiTan conifer type are found only in the dryer outhern and lower parts of rater Lake ational Parle The lower lcvation of ::\iount Rainier and Mount Baker are FLORA 01<' THE CASCADE MOU TAI S-COOKE 3 clothed in an extensive 'l'huja-'l'suga forest interrupted occasion ally by extensive fore t dominated by P eudotsttgct. B cau ·e of certain climatic and edaphic factor·s one may onsider thi · fore t to haYe replaced the dryer fore t. of the more southern mountains, since Pseudotsuga i ·a member of the . ien·a n mi_xed conifer a o ciation. The Dou"'la. fir of the more souther·n forests probably repre ent · the ecotype of more xer·ic hahitats, variety glauca, rather than the ecotype of the more me i coastal forest . \Vhile Pinu altentwta, Abie concolor, and Pinus contorta var. ntu1' t·ayana each form relatively pure stand in certain area · of the lower slope· of Mount ha ta, comparable association are not found on Mount La en, an<'l only the latter ·pecies form rela tively pure .tand on Mount Mazama. On more outherly moun tain Abie magnifica or its variety shastensis and T uga merten siann form a more or less continuous b lt around each mountain below timberline. ome specie from as ociations below and above this belt may penetrate the for ·t a:sociation. dominated by the e two ·pecie. orthward, Abie lasiocarpa may penetrate thi asso ciation or even replace the A. magnifica in it. Likewise hamae cypaTis nootkat nsis ma~r become an important member of the association, a: in the ca:e of the moi ter w tern ·ide of Motmt Rainier. The dominant member of the timberline a ociation throu..,.hout the ran..,. is Pinus albicaulis with which Tsuga merten siana ma:· al o occur. In the :ynth tic li t, -!25 genera, 1515. peci , and 1659 nam ed entitie repre: entin..,. 7 familie . are given. On the basis of the total for each mountain (table 1), it i SU"'gested that the dif ferences between total number of pecie: reported for each area are there ·ult of difference. in habitat, age of the area in relation to a,·ailability for co lonization, and edaphic and climati factor . As areas become available for olonization by adventives, they are olonized as rapidly a dis eminules reach the habitat. Thus where road · and ervice facilitie have been in existence for a period of time a larger nmnber of weed occur . The li ts for Motmt Rainier and Mount Las en include a number of such plants; whereas tho e for rater Lake and fount hasta ontain fewer. Two rea ·on for re. tricting the area covered in the Flom of Mount hasta were the larger number of adventive. b low 4000 f et, and the over lapping with the Klamath flora in rawberry Valley. In thecae of Mount Baker· the higher slope have been less subject to in- ... TABLE 1 A 1·eas, elevations. and plants ot five Cascade mountains. Area covered Elevation range Tota l Plants P ercentage .., Mountain Area (in Sq. Mi.) nn, -- fppt)____ , T.;__ .._ ted_ of Total ::X: (Approx.) t;l Mount Baker Area.................................. ... 400 231- 10,750 564 33.99 :!1 729 43.94 Mount Rainier National Park............... 378 2,000-14,408 UJ> Crater Lake National Park..................... 250 3,600- 9,000 ( ca) 545 32.85 rs: Mount Shasta Ar ea................................... 150 4,000-14,1 61 518 31.22 ~ Lassen Volcanic National Park.......... ... 200 5,800- 10,453 722 43.52 z '-< c0 !l:l TABLE z 2 > t"' Biolog·ical sp ec tntm of the Cascade jlo1·a. 0 '>:j Mount Rainie•· Cascade Flora td Per Cent Per Cent ..... 0 Life Form of Species of Species t"' Phanerophytes (PH)- Buds aerial, at least 25 em. above the ground ................ 12 7.15 0 0 Chamaephytes (CH)- Buds above the surface, protected by snow or Jitter ........ 8 4.91 ~ H emicryptophytes (H) - Buds at soil leveL.. ..................... .......................................... 51 58.73 <0 Cryptophytes (CR)- Buds buried in soil, or under wa ter 18 15.98 r' (Hemicryptophytes and Cryptophytes) (69) (73.81) 9"' Therophytes (TH )- Buds protected in a seed coat (Annuals and Biennials) .. 9 13.21 .... CD "'.., FLORA OF THE CASCADE MO 5 va ion by adventives, but in the western parts of the area a num ber of plants have been introduced in settlement , with intensive Joaging operation , and dam con truction. There are several wa ys to compare the different flora brouo-ht tog ther here. One is a imple numerical anal) i in whi h tho. e famiJie , genera, and species found only on each mountai11 are ·eparated, then tho e found only on any two of the mountains, any three, any four, and finall y tho.