Plant Inventory
Moss Campion
Mary Beth Cook, Botanist, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park
The primary objectives of the vascular plant inventory are to 1) develop a comprehensive, voucher-based vascular flora for each of the Central Alaska Network park units, and 2) document the occurrence and distribution of the species of particular management concern within these parks, including rare and sensitive taxa. The central Alaska plant inventory has completed field work in all three of the network units.
In Denali, almost 4,000 specimens were collected and identified over the course of four summers of field work at 202 sites across the Park and Preserve. This work documented the occurrence of one species new to the flora of Alaska, 220 species new to the park flora, and more than 200 occurrences of 48 taxa listed as rare in Alaska by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program (AKNHP). In addition, range extensions for 109 vascular plant taxa were documented by these collections.
Vascular plant inventories of 90 sites were performed in Yukon-Charley during 2002. During this work, almost 2700 voucher specimens were collected, which documented the occurrence of 207 species new to the preserve and numerous occurrences of at least 40 taxa listed as rare by the AKNHP (although some compiling of 2002 results continues).
Eighty-two sites were surveyed in Wrangell-St. Elias during 2003, and 2916 specimens were collected. For specimens that have been determined, ten new species have been documented for the park; three of these were not on the expected list.
Work during 2004 will focus on specimen preparation and completion of a final report.
Final reports for the DENA and YUCH vascular plant inventories:
- The Vascular Plant Floristics of Denali National Park and Preserve (2004) ( 15.4Mb pdf web version , 45Mb pdf print version )
- YUCH Vascular Plant Inventory (2004) (5.8Mb pdf)