Southern Rocky Mountain Interactive Flora (SRMIF).

Phase I: Key to Families

24 September 2003

 

Jeffrey Wayne Brasher and Neil Snow

 

Herbarium (GREE)

 

Department of Biological Sciences

 

 University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO 80639

 

jeff.brasher@sbcglobal.net and neil.snow@unco.edu

 

About the Project

Introduction. This interactive key to vascular plant families is Phase I of the Southern Rocky Mountain Interactive Flora (SRMIF) Project. This region includes much of southern and eastern Wyoming, all of Colorado, and northcentral New Mexico (details below). Phase II (in progress) is a key to genera. Phase III will be a key to all species of vascular plants. Phase IV will include supplementary information for each species such as photographic images, illustrations of selected character states, geographic distributions, nomenclatural synonyms, voucher specimens, text-based dichotomous keys to infraspecific taxa, conservation status, and links to a master database of specimens housed (primarily) at the Rocky Mountain Herbarium (RM), Univ. of Colorado-Boulder (COLO), Colorado State Univ. (CS), and Univ. of Northern Colorado (GREE).

 

Taxonomy. The SRMIF family classification for angiosperms follows the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II (APG II 2003), which includes a list of family synonyms. Circumscriptions for families of ferns and gymnosperms follow Flora of North America (FNA 1993). Recognition of species and infraspecific taxa largely follow those for Wyoming (Nelson & Hartman 1997) and Colorado (Hartman & Nelson 2001), with supplemental information from databases at the Univ. of New Mexico (unpublished).

 

Data. Character data are derived from observations of specimens and extracted from the literature, in part: Harrington (1954); FNA (1993-2003); Dorn (1997, 2001); Weber & Wittmann (1992, 2001a,b), Martin & Hutchins (1980); Yatskievych (1999); Great Plains Flora Association (1986); Judd et al. (2002); Kubitzki et al. (1990-1998); Stevens (2001); USDA (2001-2002); Correll & Johnston (1979); Cronquist et al. (1972-1997); Vascular Plants of Arizona (1992-2003); Welsh et al. (1993), as well and numerous revisions and monographic treatments not cited below.

 

To use the key. Use of the key requires Lucid Player Standard 2.1 (CPITT 2001) or 2.2 (CBIT 2003), obtainable as a free download, or with the more advanced Lucid Player Plus 2.1 or 2.2 for a modest fee (http://www.lucidcentral.com).

Project History. The project began as the Colorado Interactive Flora (CIF) with the on-line release (30 Aug 2002) of an interactive key to families of Colorado (Brasher & Snow 2002a,b). With support from the National Science Foundation the project has expanded to include southern Wyoming (Albany, Carbon, Converse, Goshen, Laramie, Niobrara, Natrona, Platte, and Sweetwater counties) and northcentral New Mexico (Colfax, Los Alamos, Mora, Rio Arriba, Sandoval, San Miguel, Santa Fe, and Taos counties).

 

Feedback requested.  The SRMIF key to families is fully functional but remains in the process of refinement. Specific comments about the Key to Families will be appreciated (see e-mail addresses above.) 

 

Suggested citation format: 

Brasher, J. W. & N. Snow. 2003. Southern Rocky Mountain Interactive Flora (SRMIF). Phase I:  Key to Families. (http://asstudents.unco.edu/students/lucid/). University of Northern Colorado, Greeley.

Acknowledgements

Support for the SRMIF comes from a National Science Foundation grant (DBI-0237149) to M. Simmons (CSU), N. Snow (UNC), R. Hartman (UW), and T. Ranker and R. Guralnick (CU-Boulder), Colorado Native Plant Society, and Dept. of Biological Sciences at the Univ. of Northern Colorado. A large debt is owed to Ronald Hartman and Ernie Nelson (UW), Jane Mygatt (UNM-Albuquerque), and William Weber (CU-Boulder) for maintaining current species lists for the region. A large number of botanists in the region recently have carried out intensive floristic work and/or detailed surveys of sensitive species, and their specimens collectively represent a critical source of data for this project.  Donovan Sharp has made many helpful suggestions regarding Lucid.  The Natural Heritage Programs of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico; U.S. Forest Service; Bureau of Land Management; National Park Service; and Colorado Division of Wildlife are thanked for their support of botanical fieldwork in the Southern Rockies.

 

Literature Cited 

 

APG II (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II). 2003. An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG II. Botanical Journal of the Linnaean Society 141:399-436.

 

Brasher, J. W. & N. Snow. 2002a. Colorado Interactive Flora, Phase I: Key to Families. BOTANY 2002, Madison, WI. (http://www.botany2002.org/section15/abstracts/8.shtml).

 

Brasher, J. W. & N. Snow. 2002b. Colorado Interactive Flora (CIF) Phase I: Key to Families. CIF Website (http://asstudents.unco.edu/students/lucid/). Greeley, CO.

 

CBIT (Centre for Biological Information Technology). 2003. http://lucidcentral.com. Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane.

 

Correll, D. S. & M. C. Johnston. 1979. Manual of the Vascular Plants of Texas. Univ. Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX.

 

CPITT (Centre for Pest Information Technology and Transfer). 2001. Lucid Professional Version 2.1: Tools for Identification and Diagnosis. Univ. of Queensland, CSIRO Publishing, Collingwood, Victoria.  (www.lucidcentral.com).

 

Cronquist, A., A. H. Holmgren, N. H. Holmgren, J. L. Reveal, & P. K. Holmgren.1972-1997. Intermountain Flora. New York Botanical Garden, Bronx, NY.

 

Dorn, R. D. 1997. Rocky Mountain Region Willow Identification Guide. U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service, Denver, CO.

 

Dorn, R. D. 2001. Vascular Plants of Wyoming. Third Edition. Mountain West Publishing, Cheyenne, WY.

 

FNA (Flora of North America Editorial Committee). 1993-2003. Flora of North America North of Mexico. Oxford Univ. Press, New York, NY. (http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/).

 

Great Plains Flora Association. 1986. Flora of the Great Plains. Univ. Press of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

 

Harrington, H. D. 1954. Manual of the Plants of Colorado. Sage Books, Denver, CO.

 

Hartman R. L. & B. E. Nelson. 2001. A checklist of the vascular plants of Colorado. Rocky Mountain Herbarium, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie. (http://www.rmh.uwyo.edu/colorado).

 

Judd, W. S., C. S. Campbell, E. A. Kellogg, P. F. Stevens, & M. J. Donoghue. 2002. Plant Systematics: A Phylogenetic Approach. Second Edition. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

 

Kubitzki, K., K. U. Kramer, P. S. Green, J. G. Rohwer, & V. Bittrich (Editors) 1990-1998. Families and Genera of Vascular Plants. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.

 

Martin, W. C. & C. R. Hutchins. 1980. A Flora of New Mexico. Volumes 1 and 2. J. Cramer, Germany.

 

Nelson, B. E. & R. L. Hartman. 1997. Checklist with recent synonymy of the vascular plants of Wyoming. Rocky Mountain Herbarium, Univ. of Wyoming. (http://www.rmh.uwyo.edu/species/wysynlst.pdf).

 

Stevens, P. F. 2001 and onwards. Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis, MO. (www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb).

 

USDA, NRCS. 2001-2002. The PLANTS Database, Versions 3.1-3.5 (http://plants.usda.gov/) National Plant Data Center, Baton Rouge, LA.

 

Vascular Plants of Arizona Editorial Committee. 1992-2003. Vascular Plants of Arizona. Journal of the Arizona-Nevada Academy of Science.

 

Weber, W. A. & R. C. Wittmann. 1992. Catalog of the Colorado Flora: a Biodiversity Baseline. Univ. Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO.

 

Weber, W. A. & R. C. Wittmann. 2001a. Colorado Flora: Western Slope. Third Edition. Univ. Press of Colorado, Niwot, CO.

 

Weber, W. A. & R. C. Wittmann. 2001b. Colorado Flora: Eastern Slope. Third Edition. Univ. Press of Colorado, Boulder, CO.

 

Welsh, S. L., N. D. Atwood, S. Goodrich, & L. C. Higgins (Editors) 1993. A Utah Flora. Second Edition. Brigham Young Univ. Print Services, Provo, UT.

 

Yatskievych, G. 1999. Steyermark’s Flora of Missouri. Vol. 1. Missouri Botanical Garden Press, St. Louis.