Participant Info

Species

Fallugia paradoxa [Fallugia micrantha] [Sieversia paradoxa]

Family

Rosaceae

CommonName

Apache plume, ponil

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1900

LatestDate

2021

Ecosystem

basin, shrubland, foothill, montane

Geobotanical

NCristos, LBasin

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Great Sand Dunes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Conejos Co, San Luis Hills, 2 miles NE of Flat Top mesa, in association with Tetradymia canescens, Eriogonum cernuum, Opuntia polycantha, typical sagebrush community 28 July 2021

Comments

In the Watershed Fallugia paradoxa is not common but present in several scattered localities: the foothills and shrubland around the Great Sand Dunes; the sagebrush country W of La Veta Pass around Blanca; and the San Luis Hills. One outlier was found on the Conejos River 9 miles ENE of Platoro. These records represent the northeast edge of the distribution of a Southwest USA plant, much more common, for instance, in the Rio Grande drainage of New Mexico. It follows that drainage through Texas to within a hundred miles of the Gulf of Mexico. Incidentally, the "paradoxa" of the scientific name means, in late Roman Latin, not "paradoxical" but "unexpected." It probably refers to the species often being in flower and in seed at the same time—a trait shared by many other flowers.

Annotation