New Plant Records from the Sonoran Desert

Abstract

The vegetation and flora of the Sonoran Desert are among the most thoroughly documented of the arid portions of North America. The climate and relative accessibility of the area have attracted many botanists and the landmark studies resulting from their efforts, too numerous to list here (see Shreve and Wiggins 1964, and Kearney and Peebles 1960 for partial bibliographies) are a testament to their achievements. In an area covering over 310,000 square km (Shreve 1951) it is not, however, surprising that some less-known localities should exist, which might harbor plant species not previously known to exist there. For example, H.S. Gentry (1972) described two very distinctive Sonoran Desert species of Agave (A. zebra and A. pelona) from localities in the mountains near the Gulf of California. The plant records reported here were encountered during visits to observe these endemic century plants in a small range of mountains, the Sierra del Viejo.