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DOI

10.5642/aliso.CDBI4407

First Page

1

Last Page

30

Abstract

The Inyo Mountains in Inyo County, California, are an arid mountain range located between the eastern Sierra Nevada and Death Valley National Park. The study site is ca. 433 km2 (167 sq mi), ranging in elevation from 549 to 2955 m (1800 to 9694 ft), and comprises the southern extent of the Inyo Mountains where the Great Basin Desert and Mojave Desert bioregions meet. This area had been poorly represented by botanical collections despite an abundance of distinctive biogeographic features and high diversity in rare and endemic plant species. The objectives of this study were to complete a specimen-based, vascular plant inventory of the southern Inyo Mountains, assess the status of rare species, and evaluate possible edaphic endemics. Searches of herbaria databases resulted in identifying 276 historical collections with the majority occurring along Cerro Gordo Road. Collection efforts for this study were focused on roadless areas and attempted to represent vascular plants from all habitat types. Between June 2018 and June 2021, 102 days were spent in the field, resulting in 950 vascular plant collections. Historical and current collections form the basis of the checklist presented here, which documents 55 families, 191 genera and 368 minimum-rank vascular plant taxa. Nine taxa appear to have a strong association with calcareous substrates and thirty-five taxa have special conservation status in California. A total of 33 taxa are evidently new records for the Inyo Mountains. Much of this ecologically intact and nearly roadless area is critically threatened by mining activities which would impact numerous rare plant species and culturally important plant populations.

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© 2024 Maria Jesus

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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