National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior Natural Resource Program Center Annotated Checklist of Vascular Flora Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/227 ON THE COVER Fendler’s mountain lilac (Ceanothus fendleri). Photograph by Walter Fertig. Annotated Checklist of Vascular Flora Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCPN/NRTR—2009/227 Authors Tim Hogan Nan Lederer Dina Clark University of Colorado Museum Herbarium 218 UCB Boulder, CO 80309 Walter Fertig Moenave Botanical Consulting 1117 W. Grand Canyon Dr. Kanab, UT 84741 Editing and Design Alice Wondrak Biel Northern Colorado Plateau Network National Park Service P.O. Box 848 Moab, UT 84532 July 2009 U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Natural Resource Program Center Fort Collins, Colorado The National Park Service, Natural Resource Program Center publishes a range of reports that ad- dress natural resource topics of interest and applicability to a broad audience in the National Park Ser- vice and others in natural resource management, including scientists, conservation and environmental constituencies, and the public. The Natural Resource Technical Report Series is used to disseminate results of scientifi c studies in the physical, biological, and social sciences for both the advancement of science and the achievement of the National Park Service mission. The series provides contributors with a forum for displaying com- prehensive data that are often deleted from journals because of page limitations. All manuscripts in the series receive the appropriate level of peer review to ensure that the information is scientifi cally credible, technically accurate, appropriately written for the intended audience, and de- signed and published in a professional manner. This report received informal peer review by subject- matter experts who were not directly involved in the collection, analysis, or reporting of the data. Views, statements, fi ndings, conclusions, recommendations, and data in this report are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily refl ect views and policies of the National Park Service, U.S. Depart- ment of the Interior. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute endorse- ment or recommendation for use by the National Park Service. This report is available from the Northern Colorado Plateau Network website, http://www.nature.nps.gov/im/units/NCPN, as well as at the Natural Resource Publications Manage- ment web site, http://www.nature.nps.gov/publications/NRPM. Please cite this publication as: Hogan, T., N. Lederer, D. Clark, and W. Fertig. 2009. Annotated checklist of vascular fl ora: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. Natural Resource Technical Report NPS/NCPN/NRTR— 2009/227. National Park Service, Fort Collins, Colorado. NPS 144/100146, July 2009 ii Annotated Checklist of Vascular Flora: Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park Contents Figures ...........................................................................................................................................v Tables .............................................................................................................................................v Abstract .......................................................................................................................................vii Acknowledgements .....................................................................................................................ix 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................1 1.1 Background and justifi cation .......................................................................................................1 1.2 Objectives ......................................................................................................................................1 1.3 Study area .....................................................................................................................................1 1.3.1 History and setting ........................................................................................................................ 1 1.3.2 Geology ......................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3.3 Vegetation ..................................................................................................................................... 2 1.3.4 Previous botanical studies ............................................................................................................ 4 2 Methods .....................................................................................................................................7 3 Results ........................................................................................................................................9 3.1 Summary of the fl ora of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park ...................................9 3.2 Life form and biogeographic diversity ......................................................................................10 3.3 Plants of special concern ............................................................................................................10 3.4 Non-native species and noxious weeds .....................................................................................10 4 Discussion ................................................................................................................................13 5 Literature Cited .......................................................................................................................15 Appendices ..................................................................................................................................17 Appendix A. Confi rmed, historical, and reported vascular plant taxa of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, organized by family and scientifi c name with taxonomic and biogeographic notes. ........................................................................................................................19 Appendix B. Potential (unconfi rmed) vascular plant taxa of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ....................................................................................................................................71 Appendix C. Rejected (falsely reported or questionable) vascular plant taxa of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ........................................................................................................89 Appendix D. Confi rmed, historical, and reported vascular plant taxa of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, organized by life form with ecological notes. .......................................91 Contents iii Figures Figure 1.3.1. Location of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Montrose County, Colorado. ..........3 Figure 1.3.4. Increase in the number of plant taxa confi rmed as present in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park by decade, 1950–2007. .................................................................................................. 6 Tables Table 1.3.4. Chronology of plant-collecting efforts in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ........... 5 Table 3.1. Statistical summary of the fl ora of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ......................... 9 Table 3.3. Plant species of conservation concern from Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ........ 11 Table 3.4. Noxious weed species of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. ....................................... 12 Contents v Abstract In 2005–2006, the National Park Service’s Northern Colorado Plateau Network received funding to develop a revised checklist of the vascular plant fl ora of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This entailed a thorough review of existing literature, re-examination of specimens from the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park herbarium and other state and national museum collections, and additional fi eld work to corroborate unverifi ed species reports and locate new species. Based on this study, 532 vascular plant taxa have been confi rmed or reliably reported as occurring in the park (470 are known from validated herbarium specimens and 62 from unvouchered literature reports). Another 20 species formerly considered part of the park fl ora have now been shown to be falsely re- ported. The current fl ora of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park represents about 17% of the known fl ora of Colorado, and 28% of the fl ora of the Colorado Plateau ecoregion within Colorado. Although no plant taxa are listed as threatened or endangered, at least 18 are considered species of concern by the state natural heritage program. Introduced plants make up 13.7% of the park fl ora (73 species), of which 19 species are considered noxious weeds by the State of Colorado. Further surveys in Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park are likely to fi nd additional new species (at least 290 taxa are known from similar habitats outside the park boundary), especially among late-fl owering, weedy, or wetland taxa. Contents vii Acknowledgements We would like to thank the following individuals for their assistance with this project: Dr. Angela Evenden, botanist and former leader of the Northern Colorado Plateau Network (NCPN) program in