Single Record

Species: Trollius albiflorus [Trollius laxus subsp. albiflorus] [Trollius laxus] [Trollius americanus]

PhotoRecords: YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, 3 miles S of Grayback Mt, wet meadow 14 July 2020

Comments: In the Watershed there are only two vouchers of Trollius albiflorus: west of La Veta Pass between Hwy 160 and Sangre de Cristo Creek (1987), and in the Alamosa River canyon (1983). Recent photorecords, however, indicate that the species may be more common in the Watershed: a little south of Grayback mountain in wet meadows beside the road to Summitville (2014); a little north of Grayback Mountain beside a natural pond (2017, 2020); west of Jasper (2020, iNaturalist observation 13742558). These are all in Rio Grande Co. Three or four more observations in iNaturalist are from Conejos Co. In Colorado the flower is much more common on the western slope. The Watershed occurrences mark the SW border of the USA distribution of Trollius albiflorus (it is not found farther down the Rio Grande drainage). The other USA species of Trollius, T. laxus, is found, rarely, in New England. In several states, this eastern species apparently has been extirpated. Note that this treatment of eastern and western Trollius as separate species is fairly recent. Only minor morphological features—e.g., a slight difference in size of the seeds—support the separation. As of 2024, FNA and POWO accept USA species, but BONAP does not.