VASCULAR PLANT INVENTORY of DEER CREEK CENTER PROPERTY in SELMA, OREGON by KEIR A. MORSE a Thesis Submitted to the Department Of
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VASCULAR PLANT INVENTORY OF DEER CREEK CENTER PROPERTY IN SELMA, OREGON by KEIR A. MORSE A thesis submitted to the Department of Biology and the Graduate School of Southern Oregon University in the partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in SCIENCE Ashland, Oregon 2008 THESIS APPROVAL PAGE Approved: ____________________ ____________________________________________ Date Steven Jessup, Thesis Committee Chair ____________________ ____________________________________________ Date Karen Stone, Committee Member ____________________ ____________________________________________ Date Charles Welden, Committee Member ____________________ ____________________________________________ Date Josie Wilson, Acting Dean College of Arts & Sciences ii ABSTRACT OF THESIS VASCULAR PLANT INVENTORY OF DEER CREEK CENTER PROPERTY IN SELMA, OREGON by Keir A. Morse The Deer Creek Center is an approximately 332 hectare educational and research property located in the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion near the Josephine County town of Selma in southwestern Oregon. A vascular plant inventory was conducted on about 260 hectares of this property from late March to mid September 2007. This study documents 596 vascular plant taxa in 86 families and 354 genera using both photography and voucher specimens. 18 of these taxa appear to be new records for Josephine County; 31 are endemic to southwestern Oregon and northern California; 25 are listed as rare, threatened, or endangered; and 15 are listed as noxious weeds. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. INTRODUCTION........................................................................................... 1 Purpose............................................................................................... 1 Physical Location............................................................................... 1 Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion............................................................. 3 Climate............................................................................................... 5 Geology.............................................................................................. 5 Soils.................................................................................................... 7 Topography........................................................................................ 7 Hydrology........................................................................................... 9 Site History / Disturbances............................................................... 12 II. METHODS.................................................................................................... 15 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................... 18 Endemic Plants................................................................................. 20 Rare, Threatened and Endangered Plants......................................... 21 Introduced Plants.............................................................................. 22 Horticultural Plants.......................................................................... 23 Unidentified Plant............................................................................ 25 Morphological Variation and Hybridization.................................... 26 Vegetative Communities.................................................................. 28 Phenology......................................................................................... 33 Summary of Recommendation......................................................... 34 LITERATURE CITED ................................................................................. 36 APPENDICES............................................................................................... 39 Appendix A: Annotated vascular plant list..................................... 40 Appendix B: Synonymy between the Oregon Plant Atlas , The Jepson Manual , and Kozloff’s flora .......................... 79 iv TABLE OF CONTENTS (Continued) PAGE Appendix C: Blooming order of flowering plants on the DCC property in 2007............................................. 106 Appendix D: Additional vascular plant resources for the DCC area................................................................. 123 Appendix E: Contents of attached DVD....................................... 124 v LIST OF TABLES PAGE Table 1. Floristic synopsis of Deer Creek Center ......................................................... 18 Table 2. Possible new records of vascular plant taxa in Josephine County, Oregon .... 19 Table 3. Vascular plant taxa endemic to southwestern Oregon and northwestern California occurring on Deer Creek Center property ................................. 20 Table 4. Rare, threatened, and endangered vascular plants occurring on Deer Creek Center property................................................................................. 21 Table 5. Introduced vascular plant taxa classified as noxious weeds ........................... 22 vi LIST OF FIGURES PAGE Figure 1. Deer Creek Center location and boundaries .................................................... 2 Figure 2. Geology of Deer Creek Center ........................................................................ 6 Figure 3. Soils of Deer Creek Center.............................................................................. 8 Figure 4. Slopes on Deer Creek Center......................................................................... 10 Figure 5. Hydrology of Deer Creek Center................................................................... 11 Figure 6. Before and after aerial photos of logging on the northeastern corner of the northern parcel of the Deer Creek Center property......................... 13 Figure 7. Plant collection sites on Deer Creek Center property.................................... 17 Figure 8. Distribution of noxious weeds and rare, threatened, and endangered taxa among plant collection sites on Deer Creek Center property............ 24 Figure 9. Leaves of Balsamorhiza sericea (A), B. sericea x deltoidea (B), and B. deltoidea ................................................................................................ 27 Figure 10. Flowers of Orobanche uniflora (A and B) and O. fasciculata (C)................ 28 Figure 11. Variation in flower morphology of Epilobium brachycarpum ...................... 29 Figure 12. Number of taxa first flowering in each month............................................... 34 vii INTRODUCTION Purpose Deer Creek Center (DCC) is an approximately 332 hectare property in southwestern Oregon recently acquired by the Southern Oregon University Foundation and the Siskiyou Field Institute. The property is used for both educational and research purposes. This survey provides baseline data on the vascular plants of the property that will assist in management decisions pertaining to introduced and rare taxa on the property. It also provides information and resources for plant related educational and research activities. The data will contribute to the Oregon Flora Project (OFP) by adding to the official statewide distribution records of those vascular plants found on the property. Physical Location The DCC property is located within the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion in the state of Oregon in Josephine County just west of the town of Selma (Figure 1). The property consists of two separate land parcels. The southern parcel of about 148 hectares lies mostly adjacent and south of Illinois River Road and between Highway 199 and Squaw Creek. About 28 hectares lie on Eight Dollar Mountain. The boundaries on the western 1 2 Figure 1. Deer Creek Center location and boundaries (USGS,1996). 3 edge of the northwestern section of this parcel were unclear at the time of the survey with no boundary markers and a 35m discrepancy between available data sources. Ranchers lease approximately 70 hectares of the eastern half of the south parcel for cattle grazing. I decided against surveying most of this area as I wanted to focus my time on those areas of immediate research and/or educational use. The northern parcel is 185.5 hectares and about 1.2 km north of Illinois River Road in the Squaw Creek watershed. The boundaries of this parcel appear correct with permanent markers at each corner and marked boundaries along Forest Service land. Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion The Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion is located in southwestern Oregon and northwestern California with ambiguous boundaries that vary between resources. In general, this region encompasses the contiguous area of mountains and drainages connecting the Coast Ranges and the south Cascade Range (Coleman & Kruckeberg, 1999.) Comparing the temperate conifer ecoregions of the United States and Canada, the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion ranks fifth in vascular plant richness with 1859 native species, second in plant endemism with 7% of the native vascular plants endemic, and first in conifer richness with 30 species. One location within this region contains the world’s highest recorded number of conifer species at a single site: 17 in a 2.6 km 2 area. Worldwide, the Klamath-Siskiyou Ecoregion ranks in the top 10 most globally distinct temperate conifer forest ecoregions (DellaSala, 1999). 4 Several reasons account for the high richness and endemism of the Klamath- Siskiyou Ecoregion. Geographically, it provides a meeting ground for taxa of other floristic regions. The northern and southernmost ranges of many plants occur