Introducing Our Rich County, UT Plant Guide

written by Jessie Danninger, project manager

Over the past 4 summers, I spent hours and hours in the field, flipping through countless plant guides and keys, hoping that one of them could tell me the name of the plant that I was staring at. To make it even harder, we are working with plants on a rangeland, that are more often than not partially grazed and missing parts of the plants. After much deliberation and sometimes debate with my field technicians, we finally would come up with an identification. However, I sometimes did not feel fully confident that we had just positively identified that plant species. With all of those guides and keys, I felt overwhelmed by the possibilities and all of the technical botanical jargon, and unsure that the description in the book matched what I was holding in my hand. While all of these guides were useful in their own ways, I couldn’t find one that had everything I needed in it. And quite frankly, I was getting tired of dragging half of a library into the field with us- it was getting a little heavy. I wanted a guide that had multiple pictures of the plant, from the basal leaves to the flower and everything in between, not just a singular photo of the plant that wasn’t close enough to see the details described in the guide. And I wanted any key identifying traits that could help me quickly look at the plant in front of me and know exactly what it was, and also help me distinguish it from any similar plants. And most importantly, I wanted a guide that I could give to the locals who utilized the rangeland, and that they could understand and use it. Meaning, not too many technical botanical terms, and equipped with a glossary to help understand any of those terms when they were used. And did I mention pictures? Not black and white drawings, but colored pictures so that you can easily visualize what this plant is supposed to look like, instead of using the description to come up with something in your head. I wanted something that anybody from the rancher’s kids to the seasoned field technician could look at and confidently say “Yep, that’s Kentucky Bluegrass.”

Stachys palustris, marsh woundwort

So I made our own. I compiled a list of every plant that we have so far identified in Rich County and I combined it with any plants that the Bureau of Land Management’s Sage-Grouse Habitat Assessment Framework states is important for sage-grouse habitat, that could grow in our research area. It should be noted that our research area is largely limited to riparian areas of the sagebrush steppe. So this guide is not a comprehensive guide to every plant in all of Rich County. Maybe in the second edition… Once I compiled that list of nearly 300 plants, I got to work. I used all of the guides and keys that I had at my disposal, along with the internet, and I started noting key traits for each species. And remember, we are often working with plants that have been partially grazed and missing parts that could be important to identify it. I made sure to note of each part of the plant that I possibly could, so that the next time I am holding just a singular leaf and no flower, I might have a chance of figuring it out. And I rounded up as many pictures as I could, making it easy to visualize the key parts of the plant, as well as the entire plant. I also wanted to include information about the plant that could tell us something about the landscape, like if it is an indicator of overgrazing. Plants can tell us so much about what is happening on the rangeland, and I wanted anybody using this book to recognize that.

Calochortus nuttallii, sego lily

After all of that hard work, it’s finally here! A usable plant guide for the riparian plants in the sagebrush steppe of Rich County, UT. In this guide, you will find labeled diagrams of the plant structures, a glossary, nearly 1200 plant photos, and a metric ruler on the back page. It is organized by plant type: forbs first, then grasses and sedges/rushes, followed by shrubs/trees. The forbs are first organized by flower color, and then each plant type is organized alphabetically by family name. If you are lucky enough to have the physical copy of this plant guide in your hands, you can see the colors on the page edges. The idea is, if you have a purple flower, you can quickly find the purple section and start your search from there, without having to sort through all of the yellow flowers first.

Zigadenus paniculatus, foothill deathcamas

This is the first edition of the plant guide, and I plan to add to it as we identify more plant species on the rangeland. Below, you’ll find a downloadable PDF version of this guide, for free. The only catch is, I want you to go outside and use this guide. Even if you have no clue where Rich County, UT is, I guarantee that at least one of the plants in this book is growing in your front lawn. So go outside, test out this guide, and then feel free to send us an email with any feedback that you might have so it can be included in the second edition. As we make changes, the button below will be updated with the most recent version. We want everybody to have access to this tool, to learn new things, and to share the excitement of successfully identifying plants! As a caution, this download is very large (1.4 G), so it is not recommended that you download it to your phone. If you would like a physical copy of this book, feel free to get it printed at your local print shop (it is formatted to be printed on 5.5” x 4.25” pages). We also have a very limited number of copies to share. Send us an email if you are interested in one.