Single Record

PhotoRecords: YES Katherine Zybko Saguache Co, 2 km west of the Great Sand Dunes NPP, 19 June 2025

Comments: Wolf's saltbrush was first collected by John Wolf during the 1873 Wheeler survey, four specimens, two of which he located in the "San Luis Valley" and "Saguache." The next year Sereno Watson named the plant after its collector, describing it from a specimen Wolf had found "on alkaline flats at Saguache, Central Colorado" (Watson, 1874, p. 112). Since 1873 there have been a number of Watershed locations for Atriplex wolfii: "Alamosa" (Ramaley 1936); Blanca in Costilla Co; 1 mile W of Moffat; the Baca National Wildlife Refuge; 10 miles W of Mosca; and just west of the Great Sand Dunes NPP. Together, these locations mark the southeastern corner of the USA distribution, which is limited to eastern Utah; northwest, north central, and south central Colorado; and southern Wyoming. The Watershed specimens all belong to A. wolfii var. wolfii, with fruiting bracts of unequal size (see photos of plant from Russell Lakes SWA, Sept 9, 2022). Note that herbarium labels spell the collector's name sometimes as "John Wolf" and sometimes as "John Wolfe."