COLORADO rNATI VE PLANT -SOCIETY NEWSLETTER Volume 10, Number 3 May 1986 "DEDICATED TO THE APPRECIATION AND CONSERVATION OF THE COLORADO FLORAl! •••••••--•••-----.--•••JIIL••••••••••••••••---­•••••••••• • iV_ ••••••1Ir6 • • ~ • • .rv••wwr....• It¥_ •••••••• _ ••~ -.r_ ••• *'*Ywrtr• .......·······--IIUI····················1r. -.rwr..__••••_TV••••••••• - • ­ ACTIONS FROM THE BOARD! \fuat's new from your Board of Directors? CONPS is to have a display at the Alpine 86 conference in Boulder, June 28 - July 2. Anna Thurston is coordinator, so if you would like to help, please call Anna at 433-3705. TALLGRASS PRAIRIE RESEARCH Planning goes forward on the Rare Plant Publication. Anyone A management plan for the ~,interested in joining the working Colorado Tallgrass Prairie Natural ~ group will be most welcome. Please Area is nearly complete. The Colo­ call Eleanor Von Bargen, 756-1400. rado Natural Areas Program, City of The first effort will be in assemb­ Boulder and other pertinant agen­ ling photographs and technical data cies and organizations, including on the species selected for inclu­ the Colorado Native Plant Society, sion. This is one of the larger have developed grazing and burning enterprises that CONPS has prescriptions for the 270 acre undertaken, and the board solicits natural area. Intensive monitoring your active involvement! will determine if the types of After a highly successful management are suitable for these first year of workshops, with relict tallgrass communities. Con­ excellent speakers and challenging tact Virginia Crosby, 666-5303, if topics, the board decided to insti­ you are interested in working on tute modest fees for workshops in the floristic survey. Permanent the future, to cover expenses. vegetation transects will be estab­ Registration procedures will be lished and sampled. If you would streamlined, so that more members like to assist with vegetation will be able to take advantage of sampling, contact Sue Galatowitsch, the workshops. 459-3243. Work on the floristic Questions or comments about survey will be conducted throughout what your Society is doing (or NOT the growing season. Vegetation doing)? THEN CALL A BOARD MEMBER. sampling will occur in mid-August. Ann Cooper, Secretary No experience necessaryl CLOUD RIDGE NATURALISTS FIELD DISCOVERY SEMINARS 1986 Once again the Cloud Ridge Lichens and Bryophytes Naturalists are offering a series September 13-14, 1986 of educational field seminars. They will be taking interested This seminar provides an in­ participants from the Colorado High troduction to the identification of Country to the islands of Hawaii. the lichens and bryophytes asso­ We would like to draw your atten­ ciated with Colorado's subalpine tion to two seminars on Colorado forests and wetlands. We will flora taught by Dr. William Weber: concentrate activities in the Win­ ter Park-Tabernash area and the Flora of the Plateau Country: Fraser Experimental Forest. In Dinosaur National Monument addition to learning how to recog­ June 8-11, 1986 nize many of the most common li­ Dinosaur National Monument chens, mosses, and liverworts, we sprawls across northwestern Colora­ will also study the ecological do and northeastern Utah, encompas­ distribution and life histories of sing the deeply cut canyons of the these fascinating plants. Price: Green and Yampa Rivers. Though the $100 ($50 deposit). mountain forests and meadows are missing from this high-desert land­ For more information, contact Aud­ scape, flowering plants are every­ rey D. Benedict, Director, Cloud where: from the near-vertical Ridge Naturalists, Overland Star cracks in canyon walls to the Route, Ward, Colorado 80481, 459­ plnon-juniper woodlands. High­ 3248. lights will include visits to Irish Canyon, E.ch~~Fa~.k-L-.___tne~Gates of Lodore, and Blue Mountain. Price: --~---'---"------- $150 ($50 deposit) PHOTOS NEEDED Dr. Robert H. Mohlenbrock is prepa­ ring a wildflower guide for the MacMillan Publishing Company. If you have high quality close-up wildflower photos, contact Dr. Moh­ lenbrock at the Department of Bota­ ny, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, IL 62901. CRESTED BUTTE WILDFLOWER FESTIVAL The Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring a Wildflower Festival on July 18-20. The festi­ val will include workshops on wild­ flower natural history, photogra­ phy, landscaping/planting, and tours in the Crested Butte area. For further information, contact the Festival at P.O .. Box 1288, Crested Butte, CO 81224. 2 FIELD TRIPS 1986 Location: Second Creek Trail, Location: Chautaugua Park, Boulder r--- Berthoud Pass. Date: Saturday, August 30 Date: Sunday, July 20 Leader: Tina Jones, 722-8514 Leader: Bob Heapes Meet: In front of Kinko's in Meet: In the Point of Boulder. Take the Baseline- Geological Interest north parking University of Colorado exit off the lot (1-70 exit near Morrison). 6:30 Boulder Turnpike. Kinko's is in am the shopping center at the corner Second Creek originates in a of Baseline and Broadway. 9:00 am. beautiful subalpine bowl that is This trip will offer partici­ perched 1500 feet above the Ber­ pants an opportunity to learn human thoud Pass Road. Popular with and animal uses of Colorado foot­ wilderness skiers in winter, this hill plants. Find out how some area is a lush meadow filled with birds and animals can feast on over seventy varities of blooming poison ivy berries, and on some of plants in July. We will see many the toxic mushrooms which would moisture-loving plants including make us humans ill. The day will mertensia, Caltha, gentians, Parry also cover edible, medicinal, folk­ primrose, Mimulus and Penstemon lore, and American Indian uses of whipEleanus. Bob will provide an wild plants. This is the time of extensive plant list for this area. year to learn and observe the seed­ Participants must be in good heads, plus berries of certain physical condition due to the high species. Bring lunch, water, and altitude and elevation gains of expect to spend 3/4 of a day. Second Creek. To avoid missing the trailhead, we will reconvene at the summit of Berthoud Pass and caravan "back to the starting point. Bring miniature bunches of grapes. As a fortifying lunch, water, rain­ the spore cases mature, they turn gear, and good trail boots. Bob is brown and eventually open. They a longtime Society member, and is are usually the first part of the also an experienced naturalist and plant to be seen because they stand photographer (bring your cameras!). above the surrounding small plants. Register by calling Nevin BeBee, Unfortunately, in late summer there 733-1038 (leave message on recor­ are other plants, particularly der) • small goldenrod and dock that look very much like moonworts. Search­ ing for moonworts can be tedious and often unrewarding, but when you LOOK FOR MOONWORTS do find them, you may be surprised at their abundance in limited a­ Colorado's mountains are the reas. If you locate any, contact home of several species of moon­ Peter Root at 4915 VV. 31st Avenue, worts, small ferns of the genus Denver 80212. Botrychium. We still know very little about their distribution because they are seldom seen. They are most often found in clearings or disturbed roadside areas in the subalpine zone, usually associated with shrub willows or small coni­ fers. Moonworts.are usually about ~two inches taIlor smaller. The part we see is the leaf which is divided into a lobed sterile por­ tion and fertile segment bearing clusters of spore cases resembling 3 Colorado Native Plant Society Field primary responsibility for species Inventories and sites in one or more of the nine regions shown in Figure 1. The Society has undertaken a varie­ This approach provides an opportun-~' ty of field inventory projects over ity for local projects, and reduces the past several years. The very the amount of travel required to successful Fl'orissant National Mo­ visit study locations. Initial nument inventory project, now in responsibilities are as follows: its 4th year, has compiled a list Boulder and Fort Collins: 1. of nearly 400 species. A Society Northwestern; 2. Northcentral: 3. effort to extend our knowledge of Northeastern. the range of the tiny annual, Pha­ Denver Metro: 5. Central; 6. celia submutica resulted in the East Central. discovery of several additional Colorado Springs: 8. South­ populations beyond the single known central; 9. Southeastern. locality near DeBeque, Mesa County. Four Corners: 4. West Cen­ Because of the membership's conti­ tral; 7. Southwestern. nued interest, we plan to extend our efforts to new projects. We 3. CONPS will assign a liason with support the Colorado Natural Areas the CNAP to disseminate information Inventory Program which is the to the Chapters, and to insure that central repository for native plant information collected by CONPS mem­ and plant association data for the bers is reported. The specific state. We also offer our skills responsiblities of the liason are for conducting inventories for as follows; state parks, state natural areas, a. The liason will compile and national parks and monuments. descriptive informaton and collec­ tion location information from the The following discussion outlines CNAP and other sources, and distri- ~ some specific <jGals-£GF---4nventory bute this j nfo.r.ma.tiQO to the Chap­ projects, and a process for coordi­ ter-presidents. nating the information needed to b. The liason will publish conduct, and then report, inventory short articles in the CONPS results. newsletter that describe the appearance, habitat, and range of 1. The Colorado Natural Areas target species and communities. Program (CNAP) and CONPS issue a c. The liason will respond to priority list of species, plant requests by members for additional associations, natural areas, and information on particular species other inventory sites that need or sites. The purpose of directing investigation. The species and requests to the liason is to reduce plant association list (Table 1) the amount of time required by CNAP was compiled by Steve O'Kane of staff to respond to requests.