Preface
Acknowledgements
Native Flowers
Native Trees
Native Shrubs
Mosses
Ferns
Lichens & Slime Molds
Non-Natives
Non-Native Flowers
Non-Native Trees
References
Index - Common
Index - Latin
As we have moved around the planet in the past hundreds of years, we have taken plants with us, often inadvertantly. Plants have hitched rides on every method of transport we have devised, most recently, airplanes. Vehicle tires and undercarriages are great places for an adventurous seed to stash itself, as are our animals and animal feed. We ourselves become modes of transport --- unless we venture out buck-nekked we are probably wearing something with cuffs, pockets, knappy material, all-terrain soles, or what-have-you. Some non-natives are garden plants, and become escaped ornamentals. Many are toxic, and probably as many have medicinal properties.
"Weed" is the common name given to plants if they are found in a place where they did not grow as natives, and also if they are growing in places man prefers to usurp for his own needs. In the latter case, natives are also called "weeds."
The category I have here is strictly plants who have not co-evolved with predators and diseases also native to this area. They have no enemies to control their populations, hence they may become aggrassive colonizers, stealing nutrients and space from native species.
The State of Colorado has a list of plants considered noxious:
www.ag.state.co.us/CSD/Weeds/statutes/weedrules.pdf
We have only one plant from the "A" list up here, and that is Tithymalus myrsinites, or Donkeytail/Myrtle Spurge, which has been used as an ornamental, but is considered a major baddie. From the "B" and "C" lists we have several.
Boulder County also has a weed list:
www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace/resources/weeds/weeds_noxious.htm
These sites also have information on best treatments and required disposal.
I would encourage everyone to be familiar with at least the Boulder County Weed Management Plan, as it clearly states that it is illegal to harbour suspected invasive plants! Absentee landlords, in particular, who have ignored their weed problems, have found that they might not go unnoticed.
There are also other links to sites about weeds. You could spend hours at your computer, but you should be outside pulling weeds.
Major points: Know what works! It isn't a good idea to pull perennials, as it breaks the roots and produces more plants. Perennials need to be cut, grazed, or poisoned. Go ahead and pull or dig annuals and semi-annuals. Work to prevent seed formation. Bag and dispose of all seed and flower heads. Revegetate treated areas with native plants. If you use herbicides, follow directions.
DO NOT THROW PULLED WEEDS ONTO THE ROADS. THEY MUST BE DISPOSED OF PROPERLY .
Open a family to go to genera and species.
My attitude toward the natural world has been guided by exposure to such persons as E.O. Wilson, Paul Martin, Erik Bonde, and Arthur Holmes. My friend David Laing, who was my husband for many years, taught me more than he intended. My Dad, Hugh Stewart, a graduate of Oregon State University School of Forestry, kept trying to teach me to indentify members of the Pinacaea from ski lifts --- I do remember "cork-bark fir." Jim Halfpenny fed my starving brain at a crucial time. Nan Lederer has been a helpful email correspondant, helping me with tough identification puzzles. Craig Jones, of the Colorado State Forest Service, validated me by hiring me. The Plant Lab on the CU campus has been a wonderful resource, as has the internet. And all those books! Especially Weber.
The cast of characters goes on. I love and thank you all.
My beloved husband, Dan Metzger, has made all this possible. With immeasurable gratitude I dedicate this site to him.
All photographs were taken by me, and any errors are mine.
Jennifer Stewart
larkspur@mric.net
Trees are defined as tall, woody, single-stemmed perrenial plants. We have a few. In Rosaceae, the tree is Prunus emarginata , Bitter Cherry.
Open a family to go to genera and species.
Lichens are the products of symbiotic relationships among algae or cyanobacteria and fungi.They are found globally, in every ecoogical niche. While there may be 20,000 species known world-wide, I can only offer a paltry six.
A shrub is defined as a plant with multiple woody stems which is smaller than a tree. Our shrubs range from underfoot (Kinnikinnik) to overhead (Rocky Mountain Maple). I've also linked the maple and birch to trees because in some cases"tree" is the first descriptive that comes to mind, multiple stems or not.
Open a family to go to genera and species.
We are fortunate in living in an area that still supports some natural flora and fauna. I can't imagine living in an area that didn't.
Here is a list of some of the wildflower families that grow here, beginning with Magnolia Road where it leaves Canyon. Open a family to go to genera and species. The list will be dynamic, with additions and revisions pretty much any time. I find new species, or have to update an identification, or two or three, every year.
If I don't have a species name, I simply say "sp.".
Non-native flowers can be beautiful, indeed, but they didn't originate here, and they don't belong here. They displace native pants and have no natural controls out of their place of origin.
Open a family to go to genera and species.
I have found only one non-native tree up here, on 68J, and it is yet a mere spindle. Siberian Elm is now considered a weed, officially so in a few states, and more commonly by landowners. It arrived in the 1860's from Asia, to be planted as a windbreak, and for lumber(!).
Open a family to go to genera and species.
Ackerfield, Jennifer, Flora of Colorado, Colorado University Herbarium, 2015
Anderton, Laurel K.; Barkworth, Mary E.; Capels, Kathleen M.;, Long, Sandy; Piep, Michael B.. Manual of Grasses for North America.Intermountain Herbarium and Utah State University Press, Utah State University. Logan, Utah. 2007.
An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG IV, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/boj.12385/full
Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, Versions 12 & 13. https://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/welcome.html
Biodiversity Sciences Technology. University of California, Berkeley.
Boulder County Weed Management Plan www.co.boulder.co.us/openspace/management_plans/mgmtplans_pdfs/weed_mgmt_plan2004.pdf
The Botanical Society of America
Bugwood Images, www.forestryimages.org
Buhner, Stephen Harrod. The Lost Language of Plants. Celsea Green Publishing.White River, Vermont. 2002
BLM National List of Invasive Weed Species of Concern
Burrill, Larry C., Cudney, David W., Dewey, Steven A., Lee, Richard D., Parker, Robert. Whitson, Thomas D., Editor.Weeds of the West. The Western Society of Weed Science. Newark, California. 1996.
Carter, Jack L.. Trees and Shrubs of Colorado. Johnson Books, Distributer. Boulder, Colorado. 1988
Colorado State Forest Service.
Colorado State-listed Noxious Weeds.
Colorado State U. Cooperative Extension - Natural Resources.
Craighead,John J., Frank C. Craighead, Ray J. Davis. Peterson Field Guides, Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Houghton Mifflin Company. Boston, Massachusetts. 1963.
Dunmire, William W.. Tierney, Gail D.. Wild Plants and Native Peoples of the Four Corners. Museum of New Mexico Press. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1995.
Dunmire, William W., Tierney, Gail D.. Wild Plants of the Pueblo Province. Museum of New Mexico Press. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 1995. 1997.
Elmore, Francis H.. Shrubs and Trees of the Sounthwest Uplands. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association.Tucson, Arizona. 1976.
APG - classification by consensus
Grant, Michael C. The Trembling Giant. Discover Magazine, October 10,1993
Harris, James G. and Melinda Woolf. Plant Identification Terminology. Spring Lake Publishing. Spring Lake, Utah. 2004.
Kane, Charles W.. Medicinal Plants of the American Southwest. Lincoln Town Press. 2013.
Moerman, Daniel E.. Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon, and London, England. 1998
Moore, Michael. Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West. Museum of New Mexico Press. Santa Fe, New Mexico. 2003.
National Invasive Species Information Center
Phillips, Wayne. Central Rocky Mountain Wildflowers. Falcon Publishing Company. Helena and Billings, Montana. 1999.
Phillips, H. Wayne. Plants of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Mountain Press Publishing company. Missoula, Montana. 2003.
Porter, C. L.. Taxonomy of Flowering Plants. W.H. Freeman and Company. San Frqancisco, California. 1967.
Southwest Wildflowers, Schneider, Al and Betty Lewis, Colorado.
Shaw, Robert B.. Grasses of Colorado.University Press of Colorado. Boulder, Colorado. 2008.
Spellenberg, Richard. Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers. Alfred A. Knopf. New York, New York 1979.
Smith, James Payne, Jr.. Vascular Plant Families. Mad River Press, Inc.. Eureka, California. 1977.
Taylor, Ronald J.. Sagebrush Country, A Wildflower Sanctuary. Mountain Press Publishing Company. Missoula, Montana. 1992.
World Flora Online(WFO)Plant List
Van Driesche, Jason. Van Driesch, Roy. Nature Out of Place, Biological Invasions in the Global Age. Island Press, Washington, D.C. and Covelo, California. 2000.
Weber, William A. and Wittman, Ronald C.; Colorado Flora, Eastern Slope. University Press of Colorado. Niwot, Colorado. 1996.
Weber, William A.. Colorado Flora, Western Slope. Colorado Associated University Press. Boulder, Colorado. 1987.
Wikipedia!
This website is now pretty old, and I have decided to rewrite that absurd spiel from the first edition.
Completion is unattainable. When I can no longer work on it, it will just have to exist on its own merit, somewhere in the ether.
I am using sources now that I didn’t even know about when I started. iNaturalist and Southwest Colorado Wildflowers are primary sites I go to, while good old Wikipedia has tons of information. Individual states usually have botanical websites, as may some counties. Every time I look, I see more! It’s almost frightening, knowing I will never get to prowl through each one.
I do have a references section, which I update when I feel moved to do to.
I’ve only gotten as far as Montiaceae in updating heading information. The work continues.
Non-natives have taken back seat. Poor things haven’t had any updates at all. There they are, but I just haven’t gotten that far.
So, love of plants has gotten me here. It’s been a wonderful learning experience.