Colorado Flora PDF
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Page i Colorado Flora: Western Slope title: Colorado Flora. Western Slope author: Weber, William A.; Wittmann, Ronald C. publisher: University Press of Colorado isbn10 | asin: 0870813889 print isbn13: 9780870813887 ebook isbn13: 9780585033433 language: English subject Botany--Colorado, Plants--Identification. publication date: 1996 lcc: QK150.W39 1996eb ddc: 581.9788 subject: Botany--Colorado, Plants--Identification. Page ii COLORADO ALTITUDES feet meters 3000 914 3100 945 3300 1006 3500 1067 3700 1128 3900 1189 4000 1219 4100 1250 4300 1311 4500 1372 4700 1433 4900 1494 5000 1524 5100 1554 5300 1615 5500 1676 5700 1737 5900 1798 6000 1829 6100 1859 6300 1920 6500 1981 6700 2042 6900 2103 7000 2134 7100 2164 7300 2225 7500 2286 7700 2347 7900 2408 8000 2438 8100 2469 8300 2530 8500 2591 8700 2652 8900 2713 9000 2743 9100 2774 9300 2835 9500 2896 9700 2957 9900 3018 10000 3048 10100 3078 10300 3139 10500 3200 10700 3261 10900 3322 11000 3353 11100 3383 11300 3444 11500 3505 11700 3566 11900 3627 12000 3658 12100 3688 12300 3749 12500 3810 12700 3871 12900 3932 13000 3962 13100 3993 13300 4054 13500 4115 13700 4176 13900 4237 14000 4267 14100 4298 14300 4359 14500 4420 To convert feet to meters, multiply by 0.3048 University of Colorado Museum, Boulder ALTITUDES OF COLORADO TOWNS IN METERS Alamosa Aspen 2410 Boulder 1635 Buena Vista 2424 Castle Rock 1890 Cheyenne Wells 1309 Colorado Springs 1832 Cortez 1890 Craig 1885 Delta 1512 Denver 1609 Durango 1985 Fairplay 3034 Fort Collins 1519 Glenwood Springs 1751 Grand Junction 1398 Gunnison 2348 Hot Sulfer Springs 2338 Julesburg 1060 Kremmling 2245 LaJunta 1239 Lamar 1104 Leadville 3094 Lake City 2643 Limon 1636 Meeker 1905 Montrose 1766 Ouray 2349 Pagosa Springs 2158 Pueblo 1431 Rangely 1592 Rifle 1629 Saguache 2346 Salida 2145 Silverton 2840 Springfield 1330 Steamboat Springs 2041 Trinadad 1836 Walden 2469 Walsenburg 1885 Wray 1072 Yuma 1259 ALTITUDES OF MOUNTAIN PASSES IN METERS Apishapa 3354 Berthoud 3449 Cameron 3132 Cochetope 3058 Cottonwood 3696 Cucharas 3030 Cumbres 3055 Douglas 2519 Fremont 3450 Gore 2903 Guanella 3557 Hoosier 3518 Independence 3687 Kenosha 3048 LaManga 311 La Veta 2860 Lizzard Head 3116 Loveland 3655 McClure 2669 Milner 3279 Molas 3325 Monarch 3448 Mosquito 4020 Rabbit Ears 2873 Raton 2388 Red Mountain 3355 Slumgullion 3463 Trail Ridge 3713 Trout Creek 2849 Vail 3251 Wilkerson 2898 Wolf Creek 3307 Page iii Colorado Flora: Western Slope William A. Weber Fellow of the Linnean Society of London University of Colorado Museum Ronald C. Wittmann University of Colorado Museum UNIVERSITY PRESS OF COLORADO Page iv Published by the University Press of Colorado P.O. Box 849 Niwot, Colorado 80544 303-530-5337 © 1996 by William A. Weber All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Second edition First edition © 1987 by William A. Weber The University Press of Colorado is a cooperative publishing enterprise supported, in part, by Adams State College, Colorado State University, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, University of Colorado, University of Northern Colorado, University of Southern Colorado, and Western State College of Colorado. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials. ANSI Z39.48-1984 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Weber, William A. (William Alfred), 1918- Colorado Flora. Western slope / William A. Weber, Ronald C. Wittmann. Rev. ed. p. cm. "Companion volume to Colorado flora. Eastern slope" Introd. Includes index. ISBN 0-87081-388-9 (pbk.: alk. paper) 1. BotanyColorado. 2. PlantsIdentification. I. Wittmann, Ronald C. II. Title. QK150.W39 1996 581.9788dc20 96-10209 CIP 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Page v This book is dedicated to The Colorado Native Plant Society Page vii CONTENTS Preface ix Introduction xiii Key to the Families 1 Ferns and Fern Allies 19 Gymnosperms 30 Angiosperms 34 Figures 352 Glossary of Terms 457 Index to Common Names 475 Index to Scientific Names 483 Photo Section 497 Page ix PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION A flora is never completed. This edition incorporates many additions and corrections in the keys and text. Most of the abbreviations used in the first edition have been eliminated in order to make the text more "user-friendly", and I have provided a paginated index. A first edition of a key always contains errors of fact and awkward phraseology. Several years of use of the keys by a variety of students inevitably uncovered choices that are too difficult, better ways of distinguishing species, and errors and omissions. Unfortunately, this kind of a book needs to be used consistently over many seasons; it can never be perfect. This edition is my final effort. I will have completed fifty years as a resident botanist in Colorado, and I have seen over 99 per cent of the flora in the field. There are still a few species groups that I do not quite understand, but neither does anyone else. Since 19461 have built an excellent herbarium at Boulder, and carried on exchanges of specimens with almost a hundred institutions all over the world. I have botanized in other mountainous parts of the world. Most of my field work was carried out at my own expense and with limited time to spare, and virtually no funds to go to eastern herbaria to study Colorado collections made by the earlier botanists. Much material has had to be borrowed. A great deal of my time and energy was spent in retracing the steps of the early botanists in order to rediscover the species for which there were no specimens in this relatively young herbarium. My career in Colorado must set some kind of a record for a botanist who has spent a half century studying and producing floras for a single state continuously in print throughout that period. The different editions provide clues to my early taxonomic philosophy and the changes it has undergone as I gained knowledge, experience, and the courage of my convictions. Here I should introduce my co-author, Ronald C. Wittmann, without whose help and enthusiasm these books could not have been completed. Ron is a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder. He became interested in plant taxonomy while taking courses at the University of Washington, where his teacher was C. Leo Hitchcock, a joint author of Vascular Plants of the Pacific Northwest. I knew "Hitchy" well, and know that his knowledge was great and his enthusiasm contagious. Ron has taught me all I know about computers and has been my chief trouble-shooter. We have done field work together in widely separated areasnot only in Colorado, where he has become a competent amateur botanist as well as an excellent mountaineer, but in the Southwestern U. S., northern Mexico, and the Canary Islands. He has an eye for the unusual or rare species, and has often questioned some of my long-held but poorly thought-out taxonomic concepts. Over the past fifty years enormous changes have taken place in Colorado. At first there were hardly any people seriously interested in the local plants. It was difficult to justify publication of a botanical handbook because of our small population. But the start was made in a small way; my first handbook provided a field guide that could be used in classes and carried on field trips. The development of four-lane divided highways made travel quicker and easier; people began to move in; landscaping and gardening became important; botany as a hobby developed along with outdoor activities in general, and a nucleus of serious amateur botanists emerged. This group fortunately was established in time to become active when the conservation movement arose and the Endangered Species Page x Act was passed From a period during which people had to learn to distinguish vegetation as something more than various shades of green, we now have to protect it from rampant development. Now we are lucky to have a very knowledgeable body of amateurs and professionals who actually know the flora. To have been instrumental in achieving this is a great source of satisfaction. Many people do not realize that the information available to us in writing floras exists as files of pressed and dried plant specimens in the University Herbarium. Pressing specimens does not alter them except to compress them in a more limited space so that more can be accommodated. From about 30,000 specimens in 1946 the collection has grown to 500,000. These specimens, if protected from excessive light and moisture, should last for centuries. Many Colorado records date from Edwin James' collections made in the early 1800s. Immersion for a few seconds in boiling water will fill the tissues of flowers so they can be analyzed as when they were alive. Seeds preserved in collections may germinate after many decades. In writing floras, we do not accept sight records; for every report there should be a recorda pressed specimen in the herbarium. The herbarium is almost more important than the library, because the specimens are the raw information upon which the statements and descriptions in books are based. It is ironic that, while we now have some tools for plant identification, it has become much more difficult for us to freely wander the fields to study the plants in nature. Superhighways have cut off access, private landowners have posted their property, national parks, forests, and state parks now require permits for plant collecting. Still, botanical collecting for scientific purposes is vital to the growth of information on plant distribution and should be encouraged rather than restricted, but if collecting is encouraged, the collectors should be required to deposit voucher specimens in the state herbarium of record. There is little likelihood any more that populations of plant species will be eradicated by the thoughtless Sunday collectors who used to gather loads of blossoms from the roadsides. To populations of most plants there is more danger from the bulldozers, developers, wetland drainers, grazing animals, and invasions by noxious weeds, than from wild flower gatherers. A more insidious threat to populations of rare species known from few localities comes from professionals wishing to add the species to their collections or digging them for sale to gardeners. Unfortunately, we seem to have been more concerned about protecting rare plant populations than about protecting the native vegetation from aggressive weeds. We are beginning to see some extraordinary threats to our native vegetation from noxious weeds that have spread throughout Colorado by road-building operations, excessive trampling of open space trails, and human activities of all sorts. The successful invasions of Eleagnus angustifolia (Russian-olive), Lythrum salicaria (Purple Loosestrife), Linaria genistifolia (Giant Butter-and-eggs), Onopordon (Scotch Thistle), Carduus (Musk Thistles), and Acosta (Knapweed) are becoming very costly and perhaps impossible to reverse. Other potential weeds, such as Securigera varia, Astragalus falcatus, and A. cicer are being introduced for revegetation, and all sorts of exotics of unknown potential are being brought into gardens and sown in "meadows-in-a-can" by well- meaning people. The desire to revegetate a bum, an overgrazed field, or a road-cut scar needs to be tempered by extreme caution and preliminary study of the behavior of such plants in controlled plots.
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