Status of Winwards goldenweed (Ericameria discoidea var. winwardii) in Wyoming

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In September 1995, University of Wyoming graduate student Charmaine Refsdal Delmatier col-lected a dwarf, yellow-flowered shrub from the vicinity of the Bear River Divide while conducting a floristic inventory of southwestern Wyoming (Delmatier 1998). Initially, the specimen was iden-tified as Haplopappus macronema var. linearis (now known as Ericameria discoidea var. lin-earis), although Robert Dorn raised questions about whether it belonged to a new or different taxon based on the shape and pubescence of the leaves (Fertig 1996). In 2002, Alma Winward (ecologist with the US Forest Service) brought a second collection to the attention of Dorn at a rare plant conference in Laramie. Winward’s specimen from Bear Lake County, Idaho, matched Delmatier’s Wyoming collection in technical features. Later that summer, Dorn revisited Delmat-ier’s collection site in Lincoln County, Wyoming, and collected additional material. Citing consis-tent morphological and ecological differences, Dorn and Delmatier (2005) named the plants as a new taxon, Ericameria discoidea var. winwardii, in honor of Winward. <br> Due to its apparently limited geographic range and high habitat specificity, Ericameria discoidea var. winwardii (Winward’s goldenweed) is ranked as “critically imperiled” globally and at the state level in Idaho and Wyoming by NatureServe (www.natureserve.org/explorer, February 2012). The plant is listed as a species of concern in Wyoming and Idaho (Heidel 2012, Idaho Na-tive Plant Society 2009) and is formally designated as Sensitive by the Bureau of Land Manage-ment (BLM) in Wyoming (BLM 2010). <br> To date, formal surveys for Winward’s goldenweed have been conducted in southeastern Idaho and adjacent Wyoming (Kinter 2009), but not elsewhere in southwestern Wyoming. In 2011, the Wyoming state office of the BLM contracted with the Wyoming Natural Diversity Database (WYNDD) to perform surveys for this species in Wyoming and to assemble information on its life history, habitat, distribution, abundance, and potential threats. The results of this study are dis-cussed in the following report.

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Reference Code: U12FER01IDUS <br>

Full Citation: Fertig, W. 2012. Status of Winward’s goldenweed (Ericameria discoidea var. winwardii) in Wyoming. Report prepared for the BLM Wyoming State Office and Wyoming Natural Diversity Database, University of Wyoming By Walter Fertig, Moenave Botanical Consulting, Kanab, UT. 32 pp. <br>

Location: ELECTRONIC FILE - BOTANY: PLANT SPECIES: {Ericameria discoidea var. winwardii}