Abstract

Abstract

The Nulato Hills region in western Alaska, managed by the Bureau of Land Management-Anchorage Field Office, is very remote and was essentially unknown botanically prior to this survey. A botany field crew based at Unalakleet during a portion of the summers of 1997 and 1998 visited select sites in the area including a representative sampling of all upland and alpine habitats as well as sites which were thought likely to support rare plants. The resulting collections, which are now electronically databased and curated at the University of Alaska Museum Herbarium, Fairbanks, document 350 vascular and over 200 non-vascular plant species for the region.

Several floristically significant finds resulted from this survey which may influence management decisions in the future. Ranunculus auricomus, the Goldilocks buttercup, was found at two sites, thereby documenting the first known records for this northern Eurasian species in North America. Both buttercup populations were small and a critically imperiled (S1) rank is expected to be assigned to this plant by the Alaska Natural Heritage Program (AKNHP). Three large populations of Douglasia beringensis, the Bering Sea douglasia, were also located. This plant was previously known from only two small populations on the Seward Peninsula and is ranked S1. Based on these new findings, its ranking is likely to be changed to imperiled (S2). One collection of Papaver, a poppy, is currently being reviewed and may represent an undescribed species. A total of 12 taxa ranked as critically imperiled to rare (S1-S3) by the AKNHP were documented, and many of these records represent considerable extensions of their respective known ranges.

This survey has made an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of both the common and rare flora of central western Alaska. General collection information is available to all concerned agencies and researchers, and more detailed information on rare plants has been shared with AKNHP. Recommendations for future floristic work are offered, plant species lists are included, and the localities surveyed are described.