Great Basin Naturalist Volume 35 Number 4 Article 1 12-31-1975 Endangered, threatened, extinct, endemic, and rare or restricted Utah vascular plants Stanley L. Welsh Brigham Young University N. Duane Atwood Bureau of Land Management, Cedar City, Utah James L. Reveal University of Maryland, College Park, and Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn Recommended Citation Welsh, Stanley L.; Atwood, N. Duane; and Reveal, James L. (1975) "Endangered, threatened, extinct, endemic, and rare or restricted Utah vascular plants," Great Basin Naturalist: Vol. 35 : No. 4 , Article 1. Available at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol35/iss4/1 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Western North American Naturalist Publications at BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Basin Naturalist by an authorized editor of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. The Great Basin Naturalist Published at Provo, Utah, by Brigham Young University Volume 35 December 31, 1975 No. 4 ENDANGERED, THREATENED, EXTINCT, ENDEMIC, AND RARE OR RESTRICTED UTAH VASCULAR PLANTS Stanley L. Welshi, N. Duane Atwood-, and James L. ReveaP Abstract.— The status of 382 vascular plant taxa with distribution in Utah is presented. Some 66 species are possibly endangered, 198 threatened, 7 extinct, and 20 extirpated within the state; 4 spe- cies have questionable taxonomic status. Included in the list are nearly 225 species of endemic plants, many of which are among the possibly endangered, threatened, and extinct or extirpated plants. Bibliographic citations, type locality, status, and distribution by counties is included for each species or infraspecific taxon. Two new species are described: Psoralen pariensis and Eriogonum natum. One new name. Astragalus barnebyi, is proposed; and one new variety, Eriogonum umbel- latum var. deserticum, is proposed. The following new combinations are made: Cycladenia hum- ilis var. jonesii; Aralia racemosa ssp. bicrenata; Heterotheca jonesii; Hymenoxys depressa; Xantho- cephalum sarothrae var. pomariense; Thelypodium integrifolium var. complanatum; Thelypodium sagittatum var. ovalifolium; Arenaria kingii var. plateauensis; Psorothamnus thompsonae; Najas caes- pitosus; Oenothera gouldii; Eriogonum corymbosum var. revealianum; Penstemon humilis var. ob- tusifolius; Penstemon lentus var. albiflorus; and Viola purpurea var. charlestonensis. The vascular plant flora of Utah is These are plants that are of much inter- both large and complex. Its components est to scientists, because they present liv- are diverse, representing numerous flor- ing proof of the origin and evolution of istic elements from many parts of North species, origin of floras, and indications of America, including unique and provin- relationships of plant species. These cial elements restricted to the state. Spe- plants are those entities which have orig- cies of many major geographical group- inated here or are mere remnants of spe- ings of plants occur within the multiplic- cies which have had a much broader area ity of habitats available within Utah, all of distribution in the past. to a greater or lesser degree of their entire The impress of man and his activities range. Some of these species are at the onto the natural habitats of Utah has re- edge of their total range, and these occur duced the area available to most native in smaller portions of the state. Other or indigenous plants. Those species of taxa occur only in one or few peculiar, broad extent and wide ecological toler- limited edaphic situations or habitats, ances have withstood these activities best, while others are more widespread and with only a reduction in their range and cover a broad altitudinal or latitudinal number. Less frequently their range has expanse of Utah. increased in size as less-tolerant plants of Those plants that occur only within adjoining areas have been reduced. How- the state, or within the natural basins that ever, many of the most unique species overlap the artificial political boundaries have areas of distribution that are very of the state, are known as local endemics. small, with only a few known individuals. Their range can be widespread within In some examples the species have ap- Utah, but more often they are restricted parently ceased to exist in the Utah flora. in distribution to very limited areas. In most cases the new habitats made ^Department of Botany, Brigham Young Universily, Provo, Utah 84602. -Bm-eau of Land Management, Cedar City, Utah 84720. ^Departments of Botany, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, and National Museum of Natural His- tory, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 20560. 327 — 328 GREAT BASIN NATURALIST Vol. 35, No. 4 available by the acthdties of man have viously undeveloped, low-elevation, arid been occupied by introduced, cultivated, lands in the southern portions of the state and adventive plants from the Old World. is all the more impressive when one con- These are the crop plants and weeds of siders that most of the narrowly restric- modern agricultural and industrial so- ted plants occur in those areas (Figs. 1 ciety. and 2). Plant species which were once The phalanxes of intolerant native remote from the impacts of civilization recreational ac- plants have been retreating under the im- industrial, agricultural, or only pacts of agriculture and grazing for more tivities—are now threatened not by than a century. Industrial development the effects of ranching, construction, and very during most of that period was limited off-road travel, but even by the ageiicies of government which are estab- in extent, if not in effect. In Utah most in the public of these activities were restricted mainly lished by law to oversee protection of the to the broad valleys and river basins, trust the proper use and where plant communities that were rela- public lands. At the present time, hardly of even that set aside as tivel}^ fragile are now almost totally a part Utah, parks, or wilderness lacking within the state. However, these national monuments, is safe degradation by masses sites apparently contained few of the nar- areas, from exploit the rowly endemic plant species. With the of people or by those seeking to features these advent of the second half of the twentieth very natural resources and century, there has occurred a resurgence unique areas were established to protect. and most of economic activities, mineral explora- Inroads into the most remote portions of state guarantee tion, and a greater use of the public lands arid the now which hitherto had been considered as further reduction of the unique flora of those entities that will useful (if considered useful at all) only Utah. Naturally, commercializa- for grazing and watershed. The rapid suffer greatest from the which have spread of industrial development into pre- tion of the state will be those specific and naturally restricted areas of Fig. 1. Distributional incidence of endangered, Fig. 2. Distribution of endangered, threatened, threatened, extinct, or extirpated Utah plants by extinct, and rare or restricted Utah plants, by county; total number is greater than the total phytogeographical subdivision. for the state due to overlap. Dec. 1975 WELSH, ET AL.: ENDANGERED UTAH PLANTS 329 distribution. Only the most enlightened probably extinct. Each category was ab- management and protection from un- breviated as T, E, PoEx, or PrEx, respec- reasonable exploitation will ensure the tively. continuation of the rich indigenous flora That report was prepared during the that these plants represent. calendar year of 1974 as mandated by Commerical exploitation need not bring the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (Pub- about the demise of species, although the lic Law 93-205) in which the secretary of basic nature of the flora will change. It the Smithsonian was to report to Congress is a fact of biology that in even the most within one year on all of the "species of enlightened and carefully planned devel- plants which are now or may become en- opment, there will be a reduction in the dangered or threatened" in the United native vegetation. Reclamation attempts States (sec. 12). The Congress provided will be made with Old World introduc- no funding for the preparation of this re- tions, or with selected ecotypes of indig- port, and the time restrictions prevented enous plants, and not with those that oc- a detailed field examination of all spe- curred in the region prior to its modifi- cies included in the list. Some states, cation. Both of these types of plants can notably California and Texas, with active hardly replace the quality of those cleared offices concerned with endangered plant and destroyed by construction activities. species, were able to provide precise data; Revegetation of a disturbed site can be other states were able to supply some in- more or less productive from an economic formation, and still others had little or no standpoint, but natural plant succession input into the final report, except that will require generations before any real gathered by the committee established by resemblance of the natural vegetation the secretary to prepare a statement for will again be possible, and then, depend- the Congress. The data for the state of ing on the nature of the disturbance, the Utah was provided by a number of indi- native vegetation occupying the site can viduals (including