Sagebrush of Colorado: taxonomy, distribution, ecology and management

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Abstract:

There has been interest in sagebrushes of the western United States since their discovery and collection by members of the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1804 to 1806. The name Artemisia cana was first given to a collection from this expedition by Pursh in 1814. The name Artemisia tridentata was given to a collection from the Snake River Plains in Idaho from a sample collected and described by the famous Botanist Nuttall in 1841, after whom many western plant names have been derived. Naming and subsequent taxonomic revisions of various sagebrush species, subspecies and varieties have been occurring periodically since that time. Important revisions include: Rydberg (1916), Hall and Clements 1923, Ward (1953), Beetle (1960), Beetle and Young (1965) and most recently a treatment by Shultz IN: Flora of North America, (Sagebrush treatment-in draft). Several state or regional treatments have likewise been published during the past several decades, including a two-volume set for the state of Colorado by Weber and Wittmann (2001 ). All of these treatments have varied widely, both in scientific names and in degree of lumping or spurring of variants of the major sagebrush taxa. <br> For this report, I have chosen to follow a blending of treatments by Beettle (1960), Beettle and Young (1965), Goodrich and others (1985) and Shultz (in draft), with minor modifications of some taxa by the author. The author’s modifications have been clearly identified as such with reasons given for these adjustments. <br> Users of this report will be better able to identify the sagebrush taxa by using both the information contained in the key and char provided in the "Additional Taxonomic Information" section for each of the 21 described taxa. <br> I have purposely used common terminology and descriptive wording in hope that the key and discussions will be more user-friendly. <br> I also have been inclusive in describing all woody sagebrush taxa known to occur, or suspected to be present in Colorado. As scientists and land managers continue their studies of sagebrush, tl1ey may discover that taxa not previously known in the state can play important specific roles as habitat or foraging resources that might have otherwise been overlooked.

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Reference Code: B04WIN01IDUS <br>

Full Citation: Winward, A.H. 2004. Sagebrush of Colorado: taxonomy, distribution, ecology and management. Colorado Division of Wildlife. Denver, CO. 46 pp. <br>

Location: ELECTRONIC FILE - BOTANY: OTHER