Desert Ecology of Tucson, AZ

Background: | plant terms | flowering plant life cycle | types of photosynthesis | Tucson Mt. plants | plant list | thumbnails by color |

VASCULAR PLANTS OF THE TUCSON MOUNTAINS
INTRODUCTION (578 Species)
from Rondeau et al. (1996)

Intro

Trees

Shrubs

Subshrubs

Succulents

Herbs wi | sc | lo | lo-r

Grasses

Vines

Misc

Arizona sports more than 3000 plant species (Epple 1995), of which 610 (plus 23 infraspecies) were found to occur in the Tucson Mountains (Rondeau et al. 1996). I have decided to include 578 species here, leaving out most species that had not been seen for a long time and had not been collected by Rondeau et al. (1996). Also, I chose not to include most infraspecies.

I have grouped the plants by life form (tree, shrub, etc.); see the links above. Within each life form, species are sorted by distribution (widespread, scattered, local), then by abundance (abundant, very common, common, uncommon, rare), and finally by scientific name.

I want to highly recommend that you read the article by Rondeau et al. (1996) because, in addition to the annotated species list, they have a superb introduction to the plants of the Tucson Mountains that is well-written and contains a lot of fascinating information.

Each species entry appears as shown below using information from Rondeau et al. (1996). As I take pictures of each species, I will include a link to their spotlight.

Common Name Scientific Name Family LS D A

ironwood Olneya tesota Leguminosae p w 2vc

LS = lifespan (p = perennial; a = annual; a-b = annual or biennial; a-p = annual or perennial)
D = distribution (w = widespread; s = scattered; l = local)
A = abundance (1a = abundant; 2vc = very common; 3c = common; 4uc = uncommon; 5r = rare)

Here are how the species break out:

`By Lifeform`	`Widespread Species`	`Scattered Species`	`Local Species`
`9 Trees`	`14 widespread-abundant`	`1 scattered-abundant`	`6 local-abundant`
`53 Shrubs`	`57 widespread-very common`	`5 scattered-very common`	`12 local-very common`
`42 Subshrubs`	`81 widespread-common`	`65 scattered-common`	`60 local-common`
`26 Succulents`	`19 widespread-uncommon`	`51 scattered-uncommon`	`69 local-uncommon`
`22 Vines`	`0 widespread-rare`	`9 scattered-rare`	`129 local-rare`
`323 Herbs`	`171 TOTAL`	`131 TOTAL`	`276 TOTAL`
`89 Grasses`
`4 Parasites`
`10 Mosses/Ferns`
`578 TOTAL`		`70 Exotic Species`

LITERATURE CITED

Epple, A. O. 1995. A Field Guide to the Plants of Arizona. Lew Ann Publ. Co.: Mesa, AZ.
Rondeau et al. 1996. Annotated flora and vegetation of the Tucson Mountains, Pima County, Arizona. Desert Plants 12(2):1-47.

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Common Name	Scientific Name	Family	LS	D	A
ironwood	Olneya tesota	Leguminosae	p	w	2vc