TRINITY SITE FLORAL CHECKLIST

White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico

Results of a pedestrian survey on 22 December 2003 by David Lee Anderson, WS-ES-ES, Land Manager and Botanist. Use of this data is limited and requires authorization for publication. Email

Inner circle (3.3 acres around Ground Zero) - This area is mowed periodically. The vegetation type that surrounds this plot is ALKALI SACATON GRASSLAND WITH PATCHES OF BURROGRASS AND TOBOSA. This type intergrades to the north with
creosotebush (Larrea tridentate) and to the west with patches of soaptree yucca (Yucca elata),
black grama (Bouteloua eriopoda) and American tarbush (Flourensia cernua).


VASCULAR PLANT SPECIES LIST

Abundance 4 - common

Sporobolus airoides = alkali sacaton

Abundance 3 - frequent

Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi = Nealley's purple three-awn

Abundance 2 - infrequent

Aristida divaricata = poverty three-awn
Dasyochloa pulchella = fluffgrass
Lappula occidentalis = desert stickseed
Lepidium alyssoides var. angustifolia = narrow-leaf pepperweed
Machaeranthera pinnatifida var. pinnatifida = spiny golden aster
Pleuraphis mutica = tobosa
Scleropogon brevifolius = burrograss
Sphaeralcea angustifolia = narrow-leaf globe-mallow
Thymophylla acerosa = spiny dogweed

Abundance 1 = scarce

Allionia incarnata = trailing four-o'clock
Asclepias subverticillata = whorled milkweed
Atriplex canescens = four-wing saltbush
Bahia absinthifolia = hairyseed bahia
Baileya multiradiata = desert marigold
Bothriochloa barbinodis = cane bluestem
Brickellia eupatorioides var chlorolepis = false boneset
Chaetopappa ericoides = heath aster
Chamaesyce sp = spurge
Cirsium ochrocentrum = Santa Fe thistle
Eragrostis lehmanniana = Lehmann's lovegrass
Erodium cicutarium = stork's bill
Gutierrezia sarothrae = broom snakeweed
Machaeranthera tanacetifolia = Tahoka daisy
Muhlenbergia porteri = bush muhly
Nerisyrenia camporum = bi-colored mustard
Opuntia could be polyacantha or phaeacantha = prickly pear
Opuntia macrocentra = purple pricklypear
Psilostrophe tagetina = paper flower
Salsola tragus = Russian thistle
Senecio flaccidus = threadleaf groundsel
Setaria leucopila = plains bristlegrass
Solanum elaeagnifolium = silver-leaf nightshade

Other species seen nearby on 22 Dec 2003 were:

Artemisia filifolia = sand sagebrush
Baccharis pteronioides = yerba de pasmo
Bouteloua curtipendula = sideoats grama
Bouteloua gracilis = blue grama
Flourensia cernua = American tarbush
Larrea tridentata = creosotebush
Sporobolus flexuosos = mesa dropseed
Yucca elata = soaptree yucca



Exotic and introducted plants are in italics -

Updated December 24, 2022 - The Reveg Edge Ecological Restoration service