Plants

Hovenweep is located in the heart of the Great Sage Plain. On a breezy day, the spicy scent of sagebrush hangs over the canyons here.

NPS photo

 

For many, the word ‘desert’ conjures up images of a barren, lifeless expanse of sand. This desert actually supports a surprising diversity of plants (and animals) that can be seen by the careful observer. Shrubs and trees are the most visible plant life at Hovenweep, but monsoon rains bring impressive wildflower blooms and low-lying cacti may surprise the careless hiker!

 

Native plants like cliffrose provide both beautiful scenery to modern visitors and key insight into how the ancestral Pueblo people thrived at Hovenweep.

NPS Photo by Jacob W. Frank

Environments

Hovenweep is located on Cajon Mesa in the heart of the Great Sage Plain, which stretches from Cortez, CO, to Blanding, UT. As the name of the area suggests, abundant sagebrush is one of the vegetative features of this arid, high desert zone.

The highest and wettest point on Cajon Mesa is northeast of Cutthroat Castle at 6,800 feet, with an average annual precipitation of 15 inches. From there, the mesa’s elevation drops 1,900 feet, sloping gently to the southwest. It reaches its lowest and driest point near Cajon Ruin, where average annual precipitation is about 6 inches.

Four distinct vegetative groups can be identified at Hovenweep: pinyon-juniper forests blanket Cutthroat Castle; sagebrush interspersed with juniper trees are found around Holly, Horseshoe and Hackberry; sagebrush is dominant at Square Tower; and Cajon is surrounded by scrubland.

The park contains about 325 different plant species. Types include shrubland, mixed sage and juniper woodland, pinyon-juniper forest, and riparian communities. Rabbit brush, cliffrose, Mormon tea, yucca, and serviceberry, which were important to prehistoric ancestral Puebloans, are all still common. Historic sheep grazing eliminated much of the park’s ground cover and caused soil loss, but exotic plants have not had a great impact to date.

 

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

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Species attribute definitions

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Pinyon pine nuts have the same amount of protein per pound as steak and were a very important part of the ancestral Puebloan diet.

NPS photo

Life in the Desert

Plants fill a number of important roles in all ecosystems and deserts are no exception! There would be no animals without plants, because plants are the foundation of the food web supporting everything above them. In many cases plants provide important animal habitat as well, whether it is a shrub providing a rattlesnake with a cool place to hide, a narrowleaf yucca (Yucca angustissima) providing a woodrat with nest-building materials, a snag serving as a perch for a hawk searching out its prey, or a ringtail sleeping in a tree hollow.

Humans depend on desert plants so much that, without them, it would be much too hot here to live! In the dry sandy desert, plants can capture dust and filter pollutants, making the air we breathe cleaner. Plants also convert carbon dioxide to oxygen in an energy-producing process called photosynthesis. This conversion accounts for a major reduction in CO2, which is considered a primary "greenhouse" gas. In other words, plants help control our global climate! Plants are also vital to humans for the food, medicine, and raw materials, with which we make clothing and build houses.