Marriott, Hollis. 1999. Wind Cave National Park Floristic Survey Focusing on Rare Plants. 60+ p.

Abstract

In 1998, the National Park Service (NPS) contracted the Nature Conservancy (TNC) for an inventory of the vascular plant (sic) of Wind Cave NP, located in the Black Hills in western SD. Althought the Black Hills have been settled for over a hundred years, many areas remain relatively poorly known botanically. New discoveries continue to be made each year. Without better basic floristic information, it is impossible to address plant-related management issues, such as rare plant protection.

Prior to this project, it was strongly suspected that there still were large gaps in the knowledge of the flora of Wind Cave National Park. Just over 400 species of vascular plants had been documented as occuring in the pakr (i.e. based on herbarium specimens). In comparison, over 450 plant taxa are known from Devil's Tower National Monument in the northwest Black Hills, which is a much smaller park (1200 acres vs 28,000 acres).