Notes on the Distribution of Some Rocky Mountain Plants

Abstract

A study of three collections of plants (Payson and Payson, 1926, and the writer's of 1927 and 1928) from the Uintah Mountains, Utah, revealed noteworthy extensions of the known ranges of a few species. These species, it will be noted, have their apparent centers of distribution in regions to the northwest and west of their newly discovered stations. The Uintah Mountains, situated in the north-central part of Utah between the 40th and 41st parallels, extend from the Wahsatch range nearly eastward to northwestern Colorado, a distance of one hundred and twenty-five miles. They are the highest mountains in Utah, several of the peaks approximating 13,500 feet in altitude. The foothills, which average about 8000 feet in altitude, are characterized by such typical regional plants as Eriogonum heracleoides Nutt., Orthocarpus Tolmiei H. & A., and the common Utah Mertensia, M. Leonardi Rydb. Large alpine meadows present a remarkably rich flora, and even such plants as Parrya platycarpa Rydb. and Papaver alpinum L. were found by the writer in plentifulness. With the exception of the Hesperochiron, the collections of the following species are, so far as the writer knows, the only ones from Utah. These new localities extend eastward and southward the previously known geographical ranges of the species here recorded. The Payson plants and the Goodman-Hitchcock specimen, cited below, are in various herbaria in this country. The Goodman plants are in his private collection, a nearly complete set of duplicates in the Rocky Mountain Herbarium, and the triplicates are in the Herbarium of Mr. George E. Osterhout, Windsor, Colorado.