Vascular Flora of the Powderhorn & La Garita Wilderness Areas and Adjacent Lands
Abstract
In the northeast San Juan Mountains of southwest Colorado lie the Powderhorn and La Garita Wilderness Areas, full of high peaks and alpine plateaus bordered by volcanic hoodoos, vast forests, and arid steppe. A floristic inventory was performed to describe and catalog the vascular plant diversity of these Wilderness Areas, as well as adjacent analogous habitat. Unique habitats and places lacking previous collections were targeted using an ad-hoc method to generate as complete a species list as possible. Forty-nine collecting days over the summers of 2022 and 2023 yielded a total of 1,232 plant voucher collections documenting 607 unique taxa in 266 genera and 75 plant families. The survey resulted in 21 new county records and 57 newly recorded species occurrences to the study area. Fifteen non-native species were found, four of which are on Colorado’s Noxious Weed Species List. Native species account for 97.5% of the total taxa documented. Novel locations for 21 species of rare and sensitive taxa monitored for conservation were discovered, including a new population of the narrowly endemic Aliciella sedifolia, expanding its known range significantly. An annotated checklist of each species found is included for land management agencies, researchers, conservation groups, and the public. The information therein will serve as a useful reference when making conservation decisions about the future of these incredible and remote landscapes, as well as provide distribution information on the taxa collected.
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