Calochortiana December 2012 Number 1 December 2012 Number 1 CONTENTS Proceedings of the Fifth South- western Rare and Endangered Plant Conference Calochortiana, a new publication of the Utah Native Plant Society . 3 The Fifth Southwestern Rare and En- dangered Plant Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2009 . 3 Abstracts of presentations and posters not submitted for the proceedings . 4 Southwestern cienegas: Rare habitats for endangered wetland plants. Robert Sivinski . 17 A new look at ranking plant rarity for conservation purposes, with an em- phasis on the flora of the American Southwest. John R. Spence . 25 The contribution of Cedar Breaks Na- tional Monument to the conservation of vascular plant diversity in Utah. Walter Fertig and Douglas N. Rey- nolds . 35 Studying the seed bank dynamics of rare plants. Susan Meyer . 46 East meets west: Rare desert Alliums in Arizona. John L. Anderson . 56 Calochortus nuttallii (Sego lily), Spatial patterns of endemic plant spe- state flower of Utah. By Kaye cies of the Colorado Plateau. Crystal Thorne. Krause . 63 Continued on page 2 Copyright 2012 Utah Native Plant Society. All Rights Reserved. Utah Native Plant Society Utah Native Plant Society, PO Box 520041, Salt Lake Copyright 2012 Utah Native Plant Society. All Rights City, Utah, 84152-0041. www.unps.org Reserved. Calochortiana is a publication of the Utah Native Plant Society, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organi- Editor: Walter Fertig ([email protected]), zation dedicated to conserving and promoting steward- Editorial Committee: Walter Fertig, Mindy Wheeler, ship of our native plants. Leila Shultz, and Susan Meyer CONTENTS, continued Biogeography of rare plants of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada. Leanna Ballard . 77 Assessing vulnerability to climate change among the rarest plants of Nevada’s Great Basin. Steve Caicco . 91 Sentry milkvetch (Astragalus cremnophylax var. cremnophylax) update. Janice Busco . 106 A tale of two single mountain alpine endemics: Packera franciscana and Erigeron mancus. James F. Fowler, Carolyn Hull Sieg, Brian M. Cassavant, and Addie E. Hite . 110 Long-term population demographics and plant community interactions of Penstemon harringtonii, an endemic species of Colorado’s western slope. Thomas A. Grant III, Michele E. DePrenger-Levin, and Carol Dawson . 115 Conservation and restoration research at The Arboretum at Flagstaff. Kristin E. Haskins and Sheila Murray . 120 The digital Atlas of Utah Plants: Determining patterns of biodiversity and rarity. Leila M. Shultz, R. Douglas Ramsey, Wanda Lindquist, and C. Garrard. 122 Molecular genetic diversity and differentiation in Clay phacelia (Phacelia argillacea Atwood: Hydrophyllaceae). Steven Harrison, Susan E. Meyer, and Mikel Stevens . 127 A taxonomic revision of Astragalus lentiginosus var. maricopae and Astragalus lentiginosus var. ursinus two taxa endemic to the southwestern United States. Jason Alexander . 134 Ecology of Rusby’s milkvetch (Astragalus rusbyi), a rare endemic of northern Arizona ponderosa pine forests. Judith D. Springer, Michael T. Stoddard, Daniel C. Laughlin, Debra L. Crisp, and Barbara G. Phillips . 157 Long-term responses of Penstemon clutei (Sunset Crater beardtongue) to root trenching and prescribed fire: Clues for population persistence. Judith D. Springer, Peter Z. Fulé, and David W. Huffman . 164 ¡Viva thamnophila! Ecology of Zapata bladderpod (Physaria thamnophila), an Endangered plant of the Texas- Mexico borderlands. Dana M. Price, Christopher F. Best, Norma L. Fowler, and Alice L. Hempel . 172 Intraspecific cytotype variation and conservation: An example from Phlox (Polemoniaceae). Shannon D. Fehlberg and Carolyn J. Ferguson . 189 Prioritizing plant species for conservation in Utah: Developing the UNPS rare plant list. Walter Fertig . 196 2 Calochortiana December 2012 Number 1 Calochortiana, a New Publication of the Utah Native Plant Society Hundreds of scientific journals already exist for the dissemination of research on botany and ecology (including several fine publications based in Utah and the west). Nonetheless, space and financial constraints prevent many use- ful papers from being published in first and second-tier journals, relegating such work to the gray literature. In June 2012, the board of the Utah Native Plant Society (UNPS) recognized the need for a peer-reviewed, electronic journal for unpublished gray-literature reports that pertain to Utah botany and vegetation. The board voted to establish an annual, technical journal that would complement its bimonthly member’s magazine, the Sego Lily. The objective of the new publication, named Calochortiana (“of or relating to Calochortus or Sego Lily”, the state floral emblem of Utah), is to provide a forum for professional and amateur scientists to share their findings on Utah botany and ecol- ogy with their colleagues. Calochortiana will focus primarily on monitoring or status surveys of rare species, seed propagation protocols, floristic checklists, genetic studies, vegetation mapping, natural history research, or other top- ics that might not otherwise be accepted in existing journals. All submissions will be peer-reviewed and the journal made available for free on the UNPS website. The journal is put together by an all-volunteer editorial board, though supported by UNPS. Readers, of course, are encouraged to show their appreciation by becoming members of UNPS! This first issue of Calochortiana contains papers presented at the 5th Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference, hosted by UNPS in March 2009. These papers were originally intended for publication by the US Forest Service as part of a proceedings volume. Unfortunately, staff changes, budget shortfalls, and new policy review re- quirements greatly delayed publication of the proceedings by the Forest Service. In October 2012, UNPS assumed responsibility for disseminating the conference papers to help launch its new journal. The second issue of Calochor- tiana will be published on the UNPS website (www.unps.org) in the fall of 2013. Submissions for that issue will be accepted through 30 April 2013. For more information, please contact me ([email protected]). - Walter Fertig The Fifth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2009 In late 2007, botanists in the southwestern United States began discussions about holding a region-wide rare plant conference modeled after the Fourth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plants meeting held in Las Cruces, New Mexico in 2004. It was widely acknowledged through the botanical grapevine that it ought to be Utah’s turn to host the event. Mindy Wheeler, who was chair of the Utah Native Plant Society (UNPS) at the time, proposed that the Society take the lead in organizing a conference, slated for early spring 2009. UNPS already had experience with co- hosting the annual state rare plant meeting with Red Butte Garden, so how hard could a regional conference be? Without going into the gory details, the months of developing an agenda, finding a venue, creating a website, sign- ing up sponsors, sending out invitations to speakers and attendees, organizing field trips, hiring caterers, and complet- ing hundreds of other tasks all just seemed to whisk by. On the evening of March 16, 2009, UNPS was proud to host the first event of the Fifth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference - an informal mixer at historic Fort Douglas on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Fortified by good food, fine spirits, and excellent company, the organizers and participants of the conference were off to a good start. The conference officially began the following morning. Noel Holmgren, curator emeritus of the New York Bo- tanical Garden, gave the keynote address in which he briefly outlined the history of the Garden’s Intermountain Flora project and described patterns of species richness and endemism in the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and the rest of the Southwest. UNPS presented Noel and Pat Holmgren with hand-crafted lanyards (for their hand lenses) in appre- ciation of their decades of work on the Intermountain Flora. Over the next three days, 36 additional speakers gave presentations or workshops and an additional 20 posters were displayed at an evening reception. Presentations covered a variety of topics, ranging from seedling ecology and rare plant biology to distributional modeling, impacts of climate change, plant biogeography, and fire ecology. The conference concluded with a Friday field trip to Stansbury Island along the south side of the Great Salt Lake. Despite the unusually warm temperatures of mid-March, relatively few plants were flowering, though attendees were treated to a display of violet buttercup (Ranunculus andersonii var. andersonii) in bloom. 3 Utah Native Plant Society All told, over 150 botanists attended the week-long conference. Much of the success of the conference could be attributed to the hard work of the planning and program committees, both chaired by Mindy Wheeler with the able assistance of Bill Gray, Ann Kelsey, Bill King, Therese and Larry Meyer, Robert and Susan Fitts, Loreen Allphin, Rita (Dodge) Reisor, and Leila Shultz. A number of volunteers from UNPS and Red Butte Garden helped with regis- tration, food, and behind the scenes work, including Elise Erler, Tony Frates, Celeste Kennard, Kipp Lee, Bill Nelsen, Kody Wallace, Sue Budden, Pamela and Robert Hilbert, Allene Keller, Jena Lewinsohn, Marilyn Mead, and Bev Sudbury. Artist Laura Call Gastinger provided a beautiful