Validation and Verification
of Rare and Mislabeled Plant Specimens
Importance / IssuesWhiskeytown National Recreation Area’s vascular plant list was based largely on an inventory conducted by a California Native Plant Society volunteer from 1985 to 1987. The flora (1988) and associated voucher specimens contained the most comprehensive information on the park’s flora gathered to date. However, findings from recent vegetation related projects in the park have lead to a growing uncertainty in the accuracy of the park’s plant list. Of particular concern are the findings of Bunn that illustrate that 13 out of 26 CNPS listed rare plants on the park’s list are either misidentifications or range extensions of the species. Principal InvestigatorWindy Bunn |
 ObjectivesThe first objective was to obtain some measure of the reliability of voucher specimens as evidence for a species' presence in the park.The second objective was to develop a vascular plant species list in NPSpecies that is accurate and reliable. ParksWhiskeytown National Recreation Area. Project StatusCompleted |
Final DeliverablesA zipped file of all the final deliverables from this inventory (final reports and raw data) is accessible from the NPS Data Store at: http://science.nature.nps.gov/nrdata/metadata.cfm?ID=48316 | |
ResultsOverall, 123 specimens from the Whiskeytown Herbarium and nine specimens from the Shasta College Herbarium were targeted for validation. These specimens were sent to Margriet Wetherwax, Managing Editor of the Jepson Flora Project at Jepson Herbarium, for identification. Of the 132 specimens examined, 56 specimens (42%) were found to be incorrectly identified and 18 additional specimens were identified to a lower taxonomic level (i.e. specimens labeled with a genus were identified to species and those labeled with a species epithet were identified to ssp. or var.). Rare plants were the most commonly misidentified specimens with 12 out of 15 (80%) submitted specimens determined to be other species. Uncertainty on the part of the original collector also led to a high percentage (49%) of misidentification. Those species identified as potential range extensions were less problematic but still had a high (37%) error rate. As a result of these determinations, 36 new species names have been added to the park’s species list and substantial changes have been made to the park’s rare plant and NPSpecies certified plant lists. Additionally, Jepson Herbarium staff determined that some of the specimens from this project represent range extensions of the species in the state. In these cases, herbarium staff made copies of the voucher sheets and incorporated the park’s specimens in a database for the second edition of the Jepson Manual (M. Wetherwax, personal communication). Annotation labels reflecting Margriet Wetherwax’s determinations were added to all 132 specimens and the ANCS+ catalog records were updated accordingly. These updated records were emailed to the NPSpecies Data Manager in Fort Collins, Colorado, and uploaded to the park’s NPSpecies data file. Using the information gathered from this project, the park’s vascular plant list was submitted to the Klamath Network Data Manager for recertification. The newly certified list now contains the 36 new species names and has new “Park Status” ratings for all applicable species names, including “False Report” determinations for 42 species previously thought to occur in the park. |
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