Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plant Flora of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument Phase II Report
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Annotated Checklist of the Vascular Plant Flora of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument Phase II Report By Dr. Terri Hildebrand Southern Utah University, Cedar City, UT and Dr. Walter Fertig Moenave Botanical Consulting, Kanab, UT Colorado Plateau Cooperative Ecosystems Studies Unit Agreement # H1200-09-0005 1 May 2012 Prepared for Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument Southern Utah University National Park Service Mojave Network TABLE OF CONTENTS Page # Introduction . 4 Study Area . 6 History and Setting . 6 Geology and Associated Ecoregions . 6 Soils and Climate . 7 Vegetation . 10 Previous Botanical Studies . 11 Methods . 17 Results . 21 Discussion . 28 Conclusions . 32 Acknowledgments . 33 Literature Cited . 34 Figures Figure 1. Location of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona . 5 Figure 2. Ecoregions and 2010-2011 collection sites in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona . 8 Figure 3. Soil types and 2010-2011 collection sites in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona . 9 Figure 4. Increase in the number of plant taxa confirmed as present in Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument by decade, 1900-2011 . 13 Figure 5. Southern Utah University students enrolled in the 2010 Plant Anatomy and Diversity course that collected during the 30 August 2010 experiential learning event . 18 Figure 6. 2010-2011 collection sites and transportation routes in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona . 22 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page # Tables Table 1. Chronology of plant-collecting efforts at Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 14 Table 2. Data fields in the annotated checklist of the flora of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (Appendices A, B, C, and D) . 19 Table 3. New vascular plant species discovered in Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in 2011 . 23 Table 4. Statistical summary of the flora of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 24 Table 5. Soil types on Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument on which specimens were collected and vouchered . 25 Table 6. Noxious Weed Species of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 29 Table 7. Rare and Salvage Restricted Plant Species of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 30 Appendices Appendix A. Confirmed, historical, and reported vascular plant taxa of Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument . 40 Appendix B. Potential (unconfirmed) vascular plant taxa of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 116 Appendix C. Rejected (falsely reported or questionable) vascular plant taxa of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument . 130 Appendix D. Habitat and flowering data for confirmed and reported vascular plant taxa of Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument . 138 Appendix E. Specimens vouchered from the 2010 and 2011 inventories of Grand Canyon- Parashant National Monument . 205 Cover: Chilopsis linearis (Desert willow) from Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument. Photo by Terri Hildebrand. 3 INTRODUCTION One of the primary missions of the National Park Service (NPS) is “to conserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources and values of the national park system for the enjoyment of this and future generations” (NPS 2000). Because of their high degree of protection and location across a wide spectrum of geologic and vegetation types, national park units play a significant role in the conservation of native biological diversity (Noss and Cooperrider 1994). Unfortunately, many parks have traditionally lacked comprehensive biological inventory programs, making their full contribution to biodiversity conservation unknown. Fully documenting the distribution and abundance of native and introduced species is vital for the effective management and interpreta- tion of the natural values that NPS is charged with conserving. In 1998, the US Congress passed the National Parks Omnibus Management Act to provide guid- ance and funding for baseline inventory and monitoring work in all National Park Service units. In the past decade, NPS has developed an inventory and monitoring program to systematically gather and organize information on the animal and plant species known or suspected to occur in each park. The vascular plant inventory phase of the program has focused on compiling and veri- fying species checklists based on review of herbarium collections, published and unpublished lit- erature, and targeted field surveys. These data have been compiled into a standardized database (NPSpecies) used by NPS units across the country. Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument (PARA) in northern Arizona was established in January 2000 (Figure 1) to be managed jointly by NPS and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). Prior to its creation, monument lands were divided between Lake Mead National Recrea- tion Area and the BLM Arizona Strip Field Office. Although botanists have been exploring the re- gion for more than a century (Cronquist et al. 1972), data on the flora of the new monument was widely scattered among different state and regional herbaria and published and unpublished lit- erature. In 2009, PARA entered into a cooperative agreement with Southern Utah University (SUU) to develop a vascular plant checklist and database for the monument’s flora. Phase I of this project focused on confirming identifications and standardizing nomenclature for vascular plant specimens housed in the PARA herbarium in St. George, Utah, as well as relevant collections from the BLM Arizona Strip Field Office (ASD*), Northern Arizona University (ASC), and Brigham Young University (BRY). This resulted in a preliminary checklist of the PARA flora that was an- notated to include information on synonymy, abundance, growth form, and geographic distribu- tion (Fertig 2010a). Phase II of the project began in 2010 with five objectives: 1. Inventory regions of PARA identified by monument staff as likely to yield new species for the flora; 2. Collect voucher specimens and relevant location, habitat, and ecological data for species encountered in PARA; 3. Contribute species vouchers to the PARA and SUU herbaria; *Herbarium acronyms are based on the New York Botanical Garden’s Index Herbariorum website (sciweb.nybg.org/science2/ IndexHerbariorum.asp). ASC stands for Arizona State College, the original name of Northern Arizona University. 4 Figure 1. Location of Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument in northern Arizona. 5 4. Provide learning opportunities in plant identification, field methods, specimen prepara- tion, and data entry for students from SUU; 5. Generate a NPS Technical Series publication summarizing the flora of PARA that in- cludes an updated annotated checklist and supplemental data on vegetation, rare plants, noxious weeds, and collection history of the monument. Preliminary results of Phase II were summarized by Hildebrand (2010). Final results of the 2010- 2011 inventory are described in the following report. STUDY AREA HISTORY AND SETTING PARA is located in the “Arizona Strip” of northwestern Arizona between the north rim of the Grand Canyon and the Utah and Nevada borders. The monument’s boundary extends from Black Rock Mountain south to Lake Mead and the north border of Grand Canyon National Park and from the Arizona/Nevada state line to Poverty Mountain, Mount Trumbull, and Tuweep Valley. Other prominent geographic features within the monument include the Shivwits Plateau, Grand Wash Cliffs, Mount Logan and Mount Dellenbaugh, and several prominent canyons draining the Colorado River (Grand Wash, Andrus, Parashant, and Whitmore canyons). Included within the monument’s boundaries are all or part of four designated wilderness areas: Grand Wash Cliffs, Mount Logan, Mount Trumbull, and Paiute. Overall, PARA covers 1.05 million acres and ranges in elevation from 375-2447 meters (1230-8029 feet). President Clinton established PARA in January 2000 under the Antiquities Act, which gives the president authority to designate national monuments for areas of “historic and scientific interest”. The official proclamation creating the monument cites the significant geological, paleontological, and cultural artifacts of the area, as well as its outstanding biological resources (Clinton 2000). PARA contains abundant evidence of early human habitation, ranging from pit houses, rock shel- ters, pictograph panels, and chipping areas of the Archaic, Basketmaker II, Pueblo III, and Paiute eras, to 19th Century historic sawmills, mine sites, and homesteads. Fossils of ancient marine or- ganisms and prehistoric packrat middens on PARA have contributed to scientific interpretations of Earth’s geologic history and the significant vegetative changes that have followed the Pleisto- cene. This information may also be useful in current studies on the potential implications of mod- ern climate change. Long-term ecological studies on the Ponderosa pine forests of Mount Trum- bull and Mount Logan continue to help generations of researchers from Northern Arizona Univer- sity develop restoration techniques and improve forestry methods (Grand Canyon Wildlands Council 2000). GEOLOGY AND ASSOCIATED ECOREGIONS PARA is located at the boundary of the Colorado Plateau and Basin and Range geologic provinces. The eastern two-thirds of the monument is occupied by the Shivwits Plateau and topped by Qua- ternary basalt flow mountains (Mount Logan, Mount Trumbull, Poverty Mountain, and Mount Dellenbaugh). Most of the Shivwits Plateau is a rolling tableland of lower Triassic Moenkopi sandstone/shale (usually restricted to the flanks