A Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National Recreation Area

About this book

A Guide to Common Plants of Lake Mead National Recreation Area is the definitive book for weekend explorers and botanists alike who venture into the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (LMNRA) on the border of Nevada and Arizona, ready to discover the many wonders of the local flora. The authors highlight 183 plants that hikers are most likely to encounter along popular trails, washes, and surrounding hot springs, helping the area's millions of annual visitors identify and enjoy these common plants. This guide includes photos and descriptions of each plant, along with a map of LMNRA.

The authors also provide a primer on plant ecology, including a guide to plant structures, desert adaptations and life forms, plant-to-plant interactions, and plant-animal interactions. Plants are grouped by life forms, such as trees, shrubs, cacti, or grasses, and by flower colour within the wildflower section. The guide will encourage readers to pause and look carefully at each plant they encounter, giving them an enriched experience during their exploration.

Contents

Cover Page
Title page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
Preface

Lake Mead National Recreation Area
- Plant Ecology
- Plant Communities
- Life Forms
- Organizational Notes

Trees
- Desert Willow
- Western Honey Mesquite
- Smoketree
- Turbinella Oak (Shrub Live Oak)
- Singleleaf Pinyon Pine
- Tree Tobacco
- Athel

Shrubs
- White Bursage (Burrobush)
- Woolly Bursage
- Seepwillow (Mulefat)
- Parish's Goldeneye
- Sweetbush (Chuckwalla's Delight)
- Virgin River Brittlebush
- Sticky Snakeweed
- Pygmy Cedar
- Paperflower (Paper-Daisy)
- Spiny Goldenbush
- Four-Wing Saltbush
- Shadscale
- Winterfat
- Torrey Ephedra
- Sand Croton
- Spiny Senna
- Pima Rhatany
- Desert Sage
- Thurber's Sandpaper Plant
- Globemallow (Desert Mallow)
- Desert Almond
- Desert Rue (Turpentine Broom)
- Saltcedar
- Creosotebush

Cacti
- Teddybear Cholla (Jumping Cholla)Silver Cholla (Golden Cholla)
- Hedgehog Cactus
- Devil Cholla (Parish's Club-Cholla)
- Fishhook Cactus
- Pygmy Barrel Cactus (Johnson's Bee-Hive Cactus)

Yuccas
- Beargrass (Bigelow's Nolina)
- Mojave Yucca

Sedges and Grasses
- California Sawgrass (Twig Rush)
- Red Brome
- Fluffgrass
- Sixweeks Fescue (Sixweeks Grass)
- Common Reed
- Mediterranean Grass
- Southern Cattail

Aquatic Plants
- Spiny Naiad (Holly-Leaved Water-Nymph)

Wildflowers
- Woolly Bluestar (Small-Leaved Amsonia)
- Pebble Pincushion
- White Woolly Daisy (Woolly Sunflower)
- Rock Daisy (Emory's Rock Daisy)
- Odora (Slender Poreleaf)
- Nevada Cryptantha
- Winged-Nut Cryptantha
- Flattened Combseed (Wide-Toothed Pectocarya)
- White-Margined Spurge (Rattlesnake Weed)
- Smallseed Sandmat
- Rock Nettle
- Dune Primrose (Birdcage Oenothera)
- White Desert Gold
- Yerba Mansa (Lizard Tail)
- Sacred Datura (Jimson Weed)
- Sunray
- Woolly Daisy (Wallace's Woolly Daisy)
- Desert Dandelion
- Nevada Goldenrod (Showy Goldenrod)
- Fiddleneck (Desert Fiddleneck)
- Sahara Mustard
- Prince's Plume
- Desert Birdfoot Trefoil (Deervetch)
- White-Stemmed Blazing Star (White-Stemmed Stick-Leaf)
- Las Vegas Bearpoppy (Bearpaw Poppy)
- Little Gold Poppy
- Little Desert Trumpet
- Trailing Milkweed
- Spanish Needles
- Wire Lettuce
- Tumbleweed (Russian thistle)
- Filaree (Cranesbill, Redstem Filaree)
- Weakstem Mariposa
- Sand Verbena
- Giant Four O'Clock
- Palmer's Penstemon (Beardtongue)
- Rock Gili
- Notchleaf Phacelia (Scorpionweed)
- Yellowthroats (Fremont's Phacelia)
- Palmer's Phacelia
- Desert Larkspur (Mojave Larkspur)
- Honeysweet
- Peppergrass
- Woolly Plantain
- Spiny Herb (Devil's Spineflower)
- Desert Mistletoe

- Flower Color Cross-Reference Guide
- Leaf Shapes
- Leaf Arrangements
- Flowers
- Inflorescence Types

Glossary
Suggested Reading
Index
About the Authors

Customer Reviews

Biography

Elizabeth A. Powell has an MS in biology and a PhD in botany. She has published a number of scientific papers on pollination ecology and conservation biology. As the botanist for LMNRA (1996-2005), she managed rare and invasive plants.

Frederick H. Landau was a research associate at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas where he conducted research on plant ecology and physiology and also taught courses in plant taxonomy, economic botany, and field ecology. He has resided in the Mojave Desert since 1977.

Lawrence R. Walker has an MS in botany and a PhD in plant ecology. He has published more than 140 scientific papers and eleven books, including A Natural History of the Mojave Desert with Frederick H. Landau. He taught ecology, conservation biology, and scientific writing for thirty years.