December 2012 Number 1 - Utah Native Plant Society

Calochortiana December 2012 Number 1
Calochortiana, a New Publication of the Utah Native Plant Society
Hundreds of scientific journals already exist for the dissemination of research on botany and ecology (including
several fine publications based in Utah and the west). Nonetheless, space and financial constraints prevent many useful
papers from being published in first and second-tier journals, relegating such work to the gray literature. In June
2012, the board of the Utah Native Plant Society (UNPS) recognized the need for a peer-reviewed, electronic journal
for unpublished gray-literature reports that pertain to Utah botany and vegetation. The board voted to establish an
annual, technical journal that would complement its bimonthly member’s magazine, the Sego Lily. The objective of
the new publication, named Calochortiana (“of or relating to Calochortus or Sego Lily”, the state floral emblem of
Utah), is to provide a forum for professional and amateur scientists to share their findings on Utah botany and ecology
with their colleagues. Calochortiana will focus primarily on monitoring or status surveys of rare species, seed
propagation protocols, floristic checklists, genetic studies, vegetation mapping, natural history research, or other topics
that might not otherwise be accepted in existing journals. All submissions will be peer-reviewed and the journal
made available for free on the UNPS website. The journal is put together by an all-volunteer editorial board, though
supported by UNPS. Readers, of course, are encouraged to show their appreciation by becoming members of UNPS!
This first issue of Calochortiana contains papers presented at the 5th Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant
Conference, hosted by UNPS in March 2009. These papers were originally intended for publication by the US Forest
Service as part of a proceedings volume. Unfortunately, staff changes, budget shortfalls, and new policy review requirements
greatly delayed publication of the proceedings by the Forest Service. In October 2012, UNPS assumed
responsibility for disseminating the conference papers to help launch its new journal. The second issue of Calochortiana
will be published on the UNPS website (www.unps.org) in the fall of 2013. Submissions for that issue will be
accepted through 30 April 2013. For more information, please contact me (walt@kanab.net). - Walter Fertig
The Fifth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference
Salt Lake City, Utah, March 2009
In late 2007, botanists in the southwestern United States began discussions about holding a region-wide rare plant
conference modeled after the Fourth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plants meeting held in Las Cruces, New
Mexico in 2004. It was widely acknowledged through the botanical grapevine that it ought to be Utah’s turn to host
the event. Mindy Wheeler, who was chair of the Utah Native Plant Society (UNPS) at the time, proposed that the
Society take the lead in organizing a conference, slated for early spring 2009. UNPS already had experience with cohosting
the annual state rare plant meeting with Red Butte Garden, so how hard could a regional conference be?
Without going into the gory details, the months of developing an agenda, finding a venue, creating a website, signing
up sponsors, sending out invitations to speakers and attendees, organizing field trips, hiring caterers, and completing
hundreds of other tasks all just seemed to whisk by. On the evening of March 16, 2009, UNPS was proud to host
the first event of the Fifth Southwestern Rare and Endangered Plant Conference - an informal mixer at historic Fort
Douglas on the campus of the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. Fortified by good food, fine spirits, and excellent
company, the organizers and participants of the conference were off to a good start.
The conference officially began the following morning. Noel Holmgren, curator emeritus of the New York Botanical
Garden, gave the keynote address in which he briefly outlined the history of the Garden’s Intermountain Flora
project and described patterns of species richness and endemism in the Great Basin, Colorado Plateau, and the rest of
the Southwest. UNPS presented Noel and Pat Holmgren with hand-crafted lanyards (for their hand lenses) in appreciation
of their decades of work on the Intermountain Flora.
Over the next three days, 36 additional speakers gave presentations or workshops and an additional 20 posters
were displayed at an evening reception. Presentations covered a variety of topics, ranging from seedling ecology and
rare plant biology to distributional modeling, impacts of climate change, plant biogeography, and fire ecology.
The conference concluded with a Friday field trip to Stansbury Island along the south side of the Great Salt Lake.
Despite the unusually warm temperatures of mid-March, relatively few plants were flowering, though attendees were
treated to a display of violet buttercup (Ranunculus andersonii var. andersonii) in bloom.
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