Participant Info

Species

Eritrichium argenteum [Eritrichium nanum] [Eritrichium aretioides var. elongatum] [Eritrichium elongatum] [Myosotis nana]

Family

Boraginaceae

CommonName

Arctic alpine forget-me-not, king-of-the-Alps

Presence

YES

Status

native

EarliestDate

1942

LatestDate

2018

Ecosystem

subalpine, tundra

Geobotanical

Garitas, SSanjuans, NCristos

Counties

Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande, Saguache, Archuleta

Passes

Grayback, Hayden, Whiskey, Venable

WildlifePreserves

Other Localities

PhotoRecords

YES Rich Haswell: Rio Grande Co, last slope before peak of Grayback Mountain 21 Aug 2014

Comments

Eritrichium argenteum is a common tundra plant collected mainly from the peaks in the west of the Valley, but also present in the north Cristos. Its USA range is the Rockies nearly up to the Canadian border in Montana, and south through New Mexico to Santa Fe Co (but no farther down the Rio Grande drainage). There are isolated pockets in the north Cascades of Washington and the Wallowa mountains of northeastern Colorado. Note that currently POWO treats this taxon in the USA as Eritrichium argenteum, restricting Eritrichium nanum to the Old World (see D. F. Murray, 2015). So far FNA and BONAP still treat the USA species as E. nanum.

Annotation