2015 US-Russia Expedition to Colorado: Mesa Verde National Park

On Monday, we met George San Miguel, Natural Resource Manager of Mesa Verde for a tour of some of the botanically interesting areas of the park. The first place we stopped at had montane chaparral on one side of the road and pinyon-juniper woodland on the other side. Chaparral is a dense brush dominated by two shrubs here, Amelanchier utahensis and Quercus gambelii. The important distinction between these two is that chaparral is fire-adapted, and shrubs resprout after a fire. Pinyons and junipers are killed by fire however, and are believed to be a remnant population from a moister, cooler climate in the past. Fires have occurred many times in Mesa Verde's past, with the largest being in 2000, when 23,000 acres burned.

Another remnant population in the park is Douglas-fir, Pseudotsuga menziesii. It is found in a moister valley and reflects a time when the climate of the park was more similar to the Rocky Mountains.

George showed us a few rare plants in the park. Chapin Mesa milkvetch, Astragalus schmolliae, is endemic to the Chapin Mesa in Mesa Verde and is a candidate for the endagered species list. Another endemic to the area is Mesa Verde stickseed, Hackelia gracilenta. We found a few flowers of this plant. McDougal's indian parsley, Aletes macdougalii, was not in flower when we saw it, but still made a charming clump growing in a rock face. He also took us on a special tour of the Square Tower House, which is closed to the public. We later took a tour of Cliff Palace, the largest cliff dwelling in North America.

After leaving Mesa Verde, we wound our way northwest through the Paradox Valley and Manti-La Sal National Forest, to see Arctostaphylos patula, before arriving in Moab, Utah.