Whither rare plants in The Jepson Manual?

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Mark W. Skinner; Barbara Ertter

Source:

Fremontia, California Native Plant Society, Volume 21, p.23-27 (1993)

Call Number:

A93SKI01IDUS

Abstract:

The California Native Plant Society's Inventory of Rare and Endangered Vascular Plants is widely considered the standard reference for California's plant conservation efforts. The CNPS Inventory provides information on distribution, ecology, and conservation status for all plants in California judged to be rare, threatened, or uncommon. Along with documentation produced by the Department of Fish and Game's Natural Diversity Data Base (the Special Plant List), it is widely used by resource managers and decision makers as the basis for allocating conservation effort to plants. The decision to include or omit a plant from the Inventory can have weighty consequences for the long term viability of that species. <br> Research for an updated fifth edition of the Inventory, to be published in summer 1993, proceeded simultaneously with preparation of The Jepson Manual, which is heralded as the most important event in the last thirty years of California botanical research. Preparation of The Jepson Manual stimulated a great deal of research, and the resulting taxonomic changes are changing the way we think about the California flora. The implications of this new research for conservation are significant, since many plants that have benefited from both active and passive conservation efforts are no longer recognized in The Jepson Manual. Although most of these plants may not merit formal taxonomic recognition, some remain worthy of protection on scientific grounds, but are at risk of being ignored by policy makers and conservationists. It is these rare plants, recognized in the Inventory and not in the Manual, that are our focus in this article.