Plants
Plant life in the Reserve
Plants in the Reserve are adapted to deal with shallow soil and scant water. Slow-growing desert scrub vegetation and fragile ephemeral species take advantage of winter and late summer rain. Sage, blackbrush, creosote, and scrub live oak, survive the hot, dry desert conditions using strategies such as light reflective coloration, small leaves, waxy leaf coverings, and the ability to drop their leaves and survive in a dormant state during extreme drought. Cacti store moisture in their fleshy pads. Annual grasses and plants quickly flourish after seasonal rains, flower, then leave their seeds to wait for the next rain.
Common Species Checklists
Trees
- Fremont_Cottonwood (populus fremontii)
- Honey Mesquite (prosopis juliflora)
- Pinyon Pine (pinus edulis)
- Utah Juniper (juniperus osteosperma)
Shrubs
- Banana Yucca (yucca baccata)
- Bitterbrush (purshia tridenta)
- Blackbrush (coleogyne ramosissima)
- Broom Snakeweed (gutierrezia sarothrae)
- Creosote Bush (larrea tridentata)
- Desert Sage (salvia dorrii)
- Indigo Bush (psorothamnus fremontii)
- Mormon Tea or Brigham Tea (ephedra viridis)
- Old Man, Sand Sagebrush (artemesia filifolia)
- Rubber Rabbitbrush (ericameria nauseosa)
- Shrub Live Oak (quercus turbinella)
- Utah Yucca (yucca utahensis)
Wildflowers
- Bottlebush or Desert Trumpet (erigonum inflatum)
- Common Paintbrush (castilleja chromosa)
- Desert Globemallow (sphaeralcea ambigua)
- Desert Marigold (baileya multiadiata)
- Firecracker Penstemon (penstemon eatonii)
- Four O’Clock (mirabilis multiflora)
- Sego Lily (calchortus nutallii)
Spectaclepod (dithyrea wislizenii)
Cacti
- Cholla
- Coryphantha (coryphantha vivipara)
- Engelmann Prickly Pear (opuntia phaeacantha)
- Mammillaria Tetrancistra or Common Fishhook Cactus
- Purple Torch (echinocereus engelmannii)
- Silver Cholla (opuntia echinocarpa)
