Botany

“The (Klamath-Siskiyou) region possesses a greater diversity of forest communities, in a more complex vegetation pattern, than any comparable area of the West… With the exception of pygmy conifer woodlands, all the plant formations dominated by trees of the Western US occur there, as they do in no other area.”
--Whittaker, Robert H. 1960. Vegetation of the Siskiyou Mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs 30: 279-338. (Quote is on page 282.)

The region has a very ecologically diverse mosaic landscape, including mixed evergreen and subalpine forests, serpentine vegetation, oak woodlands, unusual chaparral associations, savannahs and meadows. The Siskiyou Crest supports at least 20 of the region’s 36 different conifer species, more than any other temperate forest in the world. Endemic (which means that a species exists in this one location and nowhere else on the planet) conifers along the Crest include the Port-Orford cedar, Baker’s (or Siskiyou) cypress and Brewer’s (or Weeping) spruce. The largest grove of Weeping spruce in the world, the last tree species discovered in America, occurs in the heart of the proposed monument. Many other conifers here live at the edge of their range, such as Engelmann spruce and Alaska yellow cedar.

The Rogue River/Siskiyou National Forest is the most floristically diverse national forest in the United States and the region is well known by botanists around the world for its unique array of unusual and endemic flowering plants. Endemic plants include the Mt. Ashland lupine, Henderson’s horkelia, lavender (or splithair) paintbrush, Yreka phlox and Gentner’s Fritillary among many others (Click here to see a partial list of rare and listed-status species). Many species found here are known as “relic” species, meaning they were once more widespread across the continent, but are now found only here. Still others evolved here so recently they have not yet had time to expand their distribution beyond the bioregion.

An illustration of the Siskiyou Crest’s astounding botanical richness, Cook and Green Pass in the center of the proposed monument is described by the Klamath National Forest on their website’s list of Special Places as “containing a mosaic of plant communities and is considered to be the dividing line between the eastern and western Siskiyous. This area has a phenomenal concentration of native plant species, one of the richest areas in California, with possibly as many as 300 species present. The area also contains a large stand of Siskiyou Cypress (Cupressus bakeri ssp. matthewsii). Rare or sensitive plants present include Pedicularis howellii, Siskiyou lewisia (Lewisia cotyledon), Antennaria racemosa, and Lilium wigginsii. Botanists and plant enthusiasts from around the country have considered the Cook and Green Pass area signifcant for years. Sensitive species not found elsewhere in the Forest include: Cypripedium californicum, Gentiana newberryi, Narthecium californicum and Mimulus primuloides ssp. linearifolius.” (emphasis ours)



view map larger

• top of page