Woody Plants of the Western National Parks 



Introduction 



To many people the national parks and other recreational areas are centers 

 of botanical interest and they will become increasingly so as more is learned 

 about the floras. In travelling from one area to another similarities and dif- 

 ferences in the vegetation are noted. Many of the sixteen national parks 

 discussed here have bulletins dealing with the plants of the particular areas, 

 but no single guide has been available for use in all. Located as they are 

 in different parts of the Cascades, Sierra Nevada, Rocky Mountains, Colorado 

 Plateau, and in the Lake Superior Region, the vegetation is representative of 

 much larger areas than those outlined by the park boundaries and hence, 

 this guide should prove useful to those interested in floras of the general 

 regions as well as the national park areas. There are represented here coastal, 

 mountainous, desert, lake, and swamp types, species of northern, middle, and 

 southern latitudes, and of elevations ranging from a few hundred feet to 

 14,500 feet above sea level. A total of over 560 woody plants are listed for 

 these national parks, the areas of which total roughly 11,600 square miles. 



The report is based on field observations and plant collections made 

 during a vegetation survey carried on under the direction of the Division of 

 Forestry of the United States National Park Service. Several weeks to several 

 months were spent by the authors in most of these areas either in connection 

 with the survey or while engaged in research and education work. In this 

 part only the shrubs are considered in detail, the section on trees having 

 been previously published. ^ However, in order to broaden the scope of the 

 work and thus increase its usefulness, a key to the trees is included. 



Since the bulletin will be used by the laymen interested in plants seen 

 in the national parks, certain technical terms have been avoided and uses of 

 plants and other items of interest have been often included. Also, in the 

 interest of the standardization of English as well as Latin names, the nomen- 

 clature used is, in general, in accordance with that set down by the American 

 Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature. - 



We wish to express our appreciation to the many officers and men of the National 

 Park Service who have so generously cooperated in the promotion of this project. 

 Special mention should be made of the Division of Forestry under whose supervision 

 the vegetation surveys were made and for permission to use certain vegetation data. 

 Acknowledgments are also made to the park naturalists for their cooperation in checking 

 plant lists for their particular areas. Park floras and other lists which have proved 

 of great value in the compilation of this work are marked with an asterisk in the 

 bibliography. 



1 Bailey, H. E. and V. L., Forests and Trees of the Western National Parks. 

 United States Department of the Interior, Conservation Bulletin no. 6. 1941. 



2 American Joint Committee on Horticultural Nomenclature, Standardized Plant 

 Names. Second Edition. 1942. 



