Plants

Cliffrose is part of the abundant desert ecosystem at Hovenweep. Hopi and Paiute people use the shrub's inner bark to make clothing, padding, and rope.

NPS photo/ K. Barton

 

It's easy to imagine the desert as a barren and lifeless landscape, but there are thriving communities of plants and animals here. Shrubs, trees, cacti, and grasses all use special adaptations to flourish with limited water. Monsoon rains bring impressive wildflower blooms. For thousands of years, people like the ancestral Puebloans have learned to live in the desert by nurturing and gathering helpful plants.

 

Sagebrush is an important medicine plant for many tribes. The leaves create a tea that can be used to treat colds and bandages that can be used to treat joint aches.

NPS Photo/ K. Barton

Environments

Hovenweep is located on Cajon Mesa in the heart of the Great Sage Plain, which stretches from Cortez, CO, to Blanding, UT. As the name suggests, sagebrush is one of the most abundant plants in this arid, high desert zone.

The highest and wettest point on Cajon Mesa is northeast of Cutthroat Castle at 6,800 feet, with an average annual precipitation of 15 inches. From there,the mesa slopes gently to the southwest. It reaches its lowest and driest point near Cajon Ruin at 4,900 feet, where average annual precipitation is about 6 inches.

About 325 different species of plants live at Hovenweep. They grow in four distinctive vegetative zones: pinyon-juniper forests blanket Cutthroat Castle; sagebrush interspersed with juniper trees are found around Holly, Horseshoe and Hackberry; sagebrush is dominant at Square Tower; and Cajon is surrounded by scrubland.

 

Many tribes use juniper berries to prepare food and medicine. Ash from burned juniper bark is an important ingredient in piki, a flatbread with deep cultural significance to the Hopi people.

NPS photo/ K. Barton

The Desert Ecosystem

Plants are essential to all other life in the desert. They are the foundation of the food web. Pinyon pine trees produce calorie-dense and highly nutritious pine nuts enjoyed by many animals, especially the pinyon jays. Hackberries are another essential food source for Hovenweep's birds. Juniper trees produce berry-like cones eaten by jackrabbits and coyotes. Plants also provide shelter. Wooodrats and packrats use the fibrous leaves of yucca in their nests, and many animals enjoy the shade of junipers and pinyon pines. Plant roots also work alongside the biological soil crust to hold the loose, sandy soil in place. This helps prevent erosion and dust storms.

 

Pinyon pine nuts are calorie-dense and highly nutritious. They were an important source of plant protein to the ancestral Puebloans, and many tribes continue to gather them today.

NPS photo

Life in the Desert

Tribal consultants from some descendant communities believe the ancestral Pueblo people built the towers at Hovenweep for prayer. The people here may have spent most of their time conducting ceremony, while nearby farms and villages provided food and supplies. The ancestral Puebloans ate mostly cultivated crops, but they also gathered wild plants.

For those who know the desert well, plants offer all kinds of helpful resources, including nutritious food, seasonings and flavorings, medicine, rope and fiber, soap, dye in dozens of colors, and indicators of water and soil quality. Many of the plants that sustained the ancestral Pueblo people still grow at Hovenweep today. Modern Native people still gather plants for a variety of uses and offer clues about how people found nourishment in the desert 700 years ago.

 

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Species Attribute Definitions

Definitions

Occurrence

Occurrence values are defined below. One or more Occurrence Tags may be associated with each Occurrence value.

Present: Species occurs in park; current, reliable evidence available.

Probably Present: High confidence species occurs in park but current, verified evidence needed.

Unconfirmed: Species is attributed to park but evidence is weak or absent.

Not In Park: Species is not known to occur in park.

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Occurrence Tags

Adjacent: Species is known to occur in areas near to or contiguous with park boundaries.

False Report: Species was reported to occur within the park, but current evidence indicates the report was based on misidentification, a taxonomic concept no longer accepted, or other similar problem of error or interpretation.

Historical: Species' historical occurrence in park is documented. Assigned based on judgment as opposed to determination based on age of the most recent evidence.

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Abundance

Abundant:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, and counted in relatively large numbers.
• Plants: Large number of individuals; wide ecological amplitude or occurring in habitats covering a large portion of the park.

Common:

• Animals: May be seen daily, in suitable habitat and season, but not in large numbers.
• Plants: Large numbers of individuals predictably occurring in commonly encountered habitats but not those covering a large portion of the park.

Uncommon:

• Animals: Likely to be seen monthly in appropriate habitat and season. May be locally common.
• Plants: Few to moderate numbers of individuals; occurring either sporadically in commonly encountered habitats or in uncommon habitats.

Rare:

• Animals: Present, but usually seen only a few times each year.
• Plants: Few individuals, usually restricted to small areas of rare habitat.

Occasional:

• Animals: Occurs in the park at least once every few years, varying in numbers, but not necessarily every year.
• Plants: Abundance variable from year to year (e.g., desert plants).

Unknown: Abundance unknown

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Nativeness

Native: Species naturally occurs in park or region.

Non-native: Species occurs on park lands as a result of deliberate or accidental human activities.

Unknown: Nativeness status is unknown or ambiguous.

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List Differences

The Checklist contains only those species that are designated as "present" or "probably present" in the park.

The Full List includes all the checklist species in addition to species that are unconfirmed, historically detected, or incorrectly reported as being found in the park. The full list also contains species that are "in review" because their status in the park hasn't been fully determined. Additional details about the status of each species is included in the full list.

The checklist will almost always contain fewer species than the full list.

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Species attribute definitions

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