Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region
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Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region (VERSION 3) NEIL SNOW Herbarium Pacificum Bernice P. Bishop Museum 1525 Bernice Street Honolulu, HI 96817 [email protected] Suggested citation: Snow, N. 2009. Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region (Version 3). 316 pp. Retrievable from the Colorado Native Plant Society (http://www.conps.org/plant_lists.html). The author retains the rights irrespective of its electronic posting. Please circulate freely. 1 Snow, N. January 2009. Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region. (Version 3). Dedication To all who work on behalf of the conservation of species and ecosystems. Abbreviated Table of Contents Fern Allies and Ferns.........................................................................................................12 Gymnopserms ....................................................................................................................19 Angiosperms ......................................................................................................................21 Amaranthaceae ............................................................................................................23 Apiaceae ......................................................................................................................31 Asteraceae....................................................................................................................38 Boraginaceae ...............................................................................................................98 Brassicaceae...............................................................................................................106 Cactaceae ...................................................................................................................122 Caryophyllaceae ........................................................................................................129 Cyperaceae.................................................................................................................142 Ericaceae....................................................................................................................152 Euphorbiaceae ...........................................................................................................154 Fabaceae ....................................................................................................................157 Gentianaceae..............................................................................................................176 Juncaceae ...................................................................................................................183 Lamiaceae..................................................................................................................185 Loasaceae...................................................................................................................190 Malvaceae..................................................................................................................193 Onagraceae ................................................................................................................199 Orchidaceae ...............................................................................................................205 Orobanchaceae...........................................................................................................210 Plantaginaceae ...........................................................................................................215 Poaceae ......................................................................................................................222 Polemoniaceae ...........................................................................................................253 Polygonaceae .............................................................................................................260 Ranunculaceae ...........................................................................................................273 Rosaceae ....................................................................................................................280 Salicaceae ..................................................................................................................291 Saxifragaceae.............................................................................................................296 Solanaceae .................................................................................................................300 Violaceae ...................................................................................................................305 Literature Cited................................................................................................................310 2 Snow, N. January 2009. Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region. (Version 3). Introduction This Checklist provides a summary of vascular plant taxa from the Southern Rocky Mountain Region (SRMR) with selected synonymy. The selected nomenclature is intended to reflect phylogenetic (evolutionary) relationships as they are currently understood, given that such relationships are the basis for biological classifications. It is understood that nomenclatural changes are not always warmly embraced. Some changes were premature (including in previous versions of the Checklist), and there will be more changes. However, a relative slowdown of changes at the familial and generic levels is likely given the flurry of molecular studies over the past 25 years. As defined here, the SRMR includes nine counties in southern and eastern Wyoming (Albany, Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, Niobrara, Natrona, Platte, Sweetwater), all of Colorado, and ten counties from northcentral and northeastern New Mexico (Colfax, Harding, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe, Taos, Union). It also includes the northern half of Quay County (north of Interstate 40), New Mexico. The inclusion of three additional New Mexico counties (Harding, Union, part of Quay) compared to the first iteration of the Checklist (Snow04) reflects their high degree of floristic similarity with adjacent high plains counties to the north in Colorado (Schiebout08) and relative lack of taxa more typical of the Chihuahuan Desert flora, which becomes increasingly prominent south of Interstate 40. The 9,600+ specimens collected for a recent thesis (Schiebout08) in northeast NM and the ongoing work of Hazlett et al. (in prep.) on the Kiowa National Grassland (specimens mostly at GREE) provided adequate material to incorporate these counties into a slightly expanded concept of the SRMR. The Checklist relied heavily (see Acknowledgments) on input from numerous specialists and recent publications such as Flora of North America, Intermountain Flora, Vascular Plants of Wyoming (Dorn01), and A Utah Flora (Welsh03). Nomenclature for ferns, fern allies, and gymnosperms generally follows Flora of North America Vol. 2, although more recent classifications exist for ferns (e.g., Goffinet04). Familial treatments for angiosperms mostly mirror the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (APG II) classification. The adoption of APG II by five plant systematics textbooks or something similar (Zomlefer94; Judd07; Sprichiger04; Simpson06; Heywood07) reflects the degree to which APG II has been accepted by professional taxonomists. The retention of clearly outdated familial (e.g., Caprifoliaceae, Chenopodiaceae, Scrophulariaceae, Liliaceae s.l.) or generic concepts (e.g., Aster, Senecio, Stipa) is indefensible. Where data are equivocal or unconvincing regarding the monophyly of certain genera I have taken the broader generic concept (e.g., Elymus). In situations where Bremer, bootstrap or posterior probability support indices of clades are high there has been no hesitation in reducing some genera to synonymy (e.g., Buchlöe into Bouteloua). Widespread adoption of the nomenclature proposed here for the SMRM would align us with other regions and put us ahead of others. None of our larger institutions in the SMRM, towards which people look for scientific leadership, have updated their familial arrangements significantly since the publication of APG II. Further delays in updating familial organization in major herbaria should not be put off indefinitely. Although new or different names may be 3 Snow, N. January 2009. Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region. (Version 3). uncomfortable (and remember, taxonomists deal with name changes more than anyone), students pick up new names easily, and it is our obligation to teach what we perceive to represent the best and most recent science and reflect that in our herbaria. At the specific and infraspecific levels taxonomic opinion often differs between workers assessing variation globally and those having extensive but mostly localized field experience. As one who monographed a medium-sized genus of grasses that occurs on five continents and has hundreds of synonyms I understand keenly some of the underlying reasons for differing taxonomic views. Those with extensive but mostly provincial experience often can recognize ecotypes and populations with some degree of evident difference that may have been ignored or overlooked taxonomically by monographers or those writing broad treatments (e.g. Flora of North America). However, if localized variation is not