Participant Info

Species

Helictotrichon mortonianum [Arrhenatherum mortonianum] [Avena mortoniana]

Family

Poaceae

CommonName

alpine oatgrass, Morton's alpine oatgrass

Presence

yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1962

LatestDate

2015

Ecosystem

tundra

Geobotanical

SSawatch, Garitas, Culebras, NCristos

Counties

Costilla, Saguache

Passes

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

Comments

NEED IN SITU PHOTOS. Morton's alpine oatgrass has been vouchered from only a few Watershed locations, all in the tundra or Krummholz: Methodist Mountain (Saguache Co, 1999); head of Sheep Creek (Saguache Co, 1962); head of La Garita Creek (Saguache Co, 1984), northwest of Mosquito Lake (Saguahe Co, 1998), southwest of Purgatoire Peak (Costilla Co, 1986), head of upper Johnson Creek (Costilla Co, 2015). Note that there are as yet no records of Helictotrichon mortonianum from the south San Juans. The species, native and monogeneric, runs down the central Rockies of Colorado, with patches in northeastern Utah, central Wyoming, and northern New Mexico, where it follows the Rio Grande drainage only one third of the way down from the Colorado border.

Annotation