December 2012 Number 1 - Utah Native Plant Society

Calochortiana December 2012 Number 1
Table 3. Continued
County
TNC
Ecoregion
State/County/TNC Ecoregion
Extremely
High
High Watch Need
Data
Medium
Morgan County (Mor) 0 0 2 0 1 3
Piute County (Piu) 0 9 13 3 14 39
Rich County (Rch) 0 1 4 5 9 19
Salt Lake County (Slt) 0 8 12 2 20 42
San Juan County (Snj) 2 13 39 15 63 132
Sanpete County (Snp) 2 7 12 4 8 33
Sevier County (Sev) 3 13 18 6 21 61
Summit County (Sum) 0 1 5 3 15 24
Tooele County (Toe) 1 3 13 5 13 35
Uintah County (Uin) 6 15 36 10 23 90
Utah County (Uta) 1 9 14 12 14 50
Wasatch County (Was) 0 3 8 4 8 23
Washington County (Wsh) 6 18 76 17 115 232
Wayne County (Way) 6 12 13 11 22 64
Weber County (Web) 0 3 6 4 9 22
Colorado Plateau (CP) 13 47 98 41 124 323
Columbia River Basin (CRB) 1 1 2 2 19 25
Great Basin (GB) 2 16 43 28 63 152
Mohave Desert (MD) 4 11 44 12 67 138
Utah High Plateaus (UHP) 9 36 69 28 63 205
Utah-Wyoming Rocky Mtns
(UWRM)
Total
0 17 50 16 65 148
Wyoming Basins (WyB) 7 12 21 11 19 70
in the literature with ambiguous supporting data. The
majority of taxa in this category need additional information
on trend, threats, and abundance. At least 15 of
these species are designated as BLM or Forest Service
Sensitive. Eriogonum corymbosum var. nilesii is a candidate
for potential listing under the ESA, although a
recent monograph questions the veracity of Utah reports
(Reveal in Holmgren et al. 2012).
Low Priority The remaining 2302 native plant taxa of
Utah are presently scored as Low conservation priority
(72.8% of the total native flora). These species are usually
widespread rangewide and within Utah, have numerous
populations in the state, low habitat specificity
and intrinsic rarity, stable to increasing trends, and few
threats. These species are still important for the sake of
conserving overall biodiversity, but rarely warrant individualized
attention.
All told, 858 of Utah’s 3160 native plant taxa (27.2%)
have been identified as Extremely High, High, Watch,
or Medium priority, or are on the UNPS need data list
using the Wyoming protocol system. The distribution
of these species across the state is not random. With
232 taxa of conservation concern (27% of the state total),
Washington County has the highest number of species
of conservation concern of any county in Utah
(Figure 1, Table 3). This high richness can be explained
in part by Washington County’s location at the confluence
of four major floristic regions: the Mojave Desert,
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