THE FLORA OF BIRD HAVEN RANCH, GLENN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA

Abstract

This flora documents the vascular plant diversity of Bird Haven Ranch, a privately owned property with restored wetlands, rice fields, and riparian habitat, located in the Northern Sacramento Valley in eastern Glenn County, CA. Bird Haven Ranch is managed as waterfowl habitat. With increasing acreage of the Sacramento Valley being converted to restored wetland habitat, it is important to understand what plant taxa occur in these areas. We collected specimens documenting 57 families, 159 genera, and 222 vascular plant taxa, of which 58 percent were non-native. Thirty-six of the taxa collected represent new specimen records for Glenn County. Noteworthy collections from this project that add to our knowledge of the native flora of the floor of the north Sacramento Valley include Chlorogalum pomeridianum (DC.) Kunth var. pomeridianum, Perideridia kelloggii (A.Gray) Mathias, and Stuckenia striata (Ruiz & Pav.) Holub. In addition, two special-status plants, Hibiscus lasiocarpos Cav. var. occidentalis (Torr.) A. Gray, and Azolla microphylla Kaulf. were encountered during the survey.