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) (this is the hyperlink to their article on the web) 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. See also http://eebweb.arizona.edu/herb/TUCSONS/tucsons.htm

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