Participant Info

Species

Oxypolis fendleri [Archemora fendleri]

Family

Apiaceae

CommonName

cowbane

Presence

Yes

Status

native

EarliestDate

1902

LatestDate

2020

Ecosystem

foothill, montane, subalpine

Geobotanical

SSawatch, SSanjuans, Culebras, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Hinsdale, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta, San Juan

Passes

La Manga, La Veta, Medano, Music, Stony, Wolf Creek

WildlifePreserves

Great Sand Dunes

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, Bear Creek trail 13.3 air miles SW of Del Norte 17 June 2020

Comments

It is odd that with this common species there are no vouchers from the La Garitas range. Yet there plenty of records from the mountains to the south and north. In the USA, Oxyplis fendleri is disjunct from the other three species of Oxypolis. O. rigidior and O. ternata are found east of the Mississippi, and O. occidentalis in California and Oregon. Our O. fendleri occupies the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado and New Mexico with small parts of Utah, Wyoming, and Arizona. In New Mexico it follows the Rio Grande drainage to Socorro Co, but not farther down stream. [Note that the common name "cowbane" suggest this species is toxic to cattle, but I could find no documentation for that. Possibly the name was first attached to Old World species of Oxypolis with that property.

Annotation