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Ecology Overview:
Outstanding Features:
Six otherwise distinct biological provinces overlap and intergrade in the Peloncillo region. Many plant and animal species characteristic of the Rocky Mountains reach their southern extent here, and even more species from Mexico’s Sierra Madre reach their northern limit. Although the Peloncillo region lies within the bounds of the Chihuahuan Desert, elements of the Sonoran Desert infiltrate from the west, and some characteristics of the Great Basin and Great Plains appear as well.
The floral and faunal diversity produced by the mix of these provinces is enhanced by the basin and range topography of the area—long, north/south oriented mountain ranges separated by valleys. These isolated mountain ranges of southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona are referred to as “Sky Islands,” since in their upper, cooler and wetter elevations they support an assemblage of plants not found in the valleys below. Thus within a very short linear distance one can find desert-adapted species such as cacti, mesquite trees, and creosote bushes, then montane species such as oaks, junipers, and pines. Also notable in the mix of Peloncillo habitats are several remarkably intact riparian corridors largely free of invasive plant and animal species.
In the United States, the Peloncillo region includes:
A final element affecting diversity in the Peloncillos lies in a twist of continental topography. The long spine of the Continental Divide, stretching from British Columbia to Central America, reaches its lowest point at several passes in the Peloncillo region. These passes allowed “leakage” of plant assemblages otherwise blocked by high elevations. For example, the Animas Valley, between the Peloncillo Mountains and the Animas Mountains to their east, is considered the southwestern most extension of the Great Plains.
The great diversity of plants and habitat in the Peloncillo region supports an equally rich fauna. Within each life zone—Chihuahuan desertscrub, desert grassland, oak woodland, pine/oak forest, and riparian corridor—many species of invertebrates, reptiles, birds, and mammals flourish, including an impressive percentage of endemic species. Hidalgo County, which contains much of the U.S. Peloncillos, has 91 recorded mammal species. As an additional indication of the density of mammals, one 49 acre study site in the San Simon Valley, seven miles west of the Peloncillo Mountains, has produced 25 small mammal species—more than all the mammal species in the state of Pennsylvania. And the Gray Ranch, which constitutes the northeastern portion of the Peloncillo region, has recorded 75 mammal species—more than are known from Yellowstone National Park, America’s most famous mammal haven.
A salient feature of biodiversity in the Peloncillo region is the number of relatively intact species assemblages—groups of indigenous, interdependent species existing with little competition from exotic, introduced or invasive species. Birds are the most visible form of biodiversity, and their success in the Peloncillo region is obvious. At least 318 species are known here, including 15 hummingbirds, the majority of hummingbird species found in the United States. Many birds are resident year-round; others find in the region suitable habitat for summer nesting or over wintering.
Like birds, many species of butterflies—most famously the monarch—use this same continental pathway that bridges the tropical south and the temperate north. Two endangered nectar-feeding bat species that have Central American winter ranges feed on agave plants in the oak woodland and desert grassland habitats of the Peloncillo region during their summer residency.
The region also provides opportunity for the movement of larger species. The most spectacular example of this was the jaguar photographed in the southern Peloncillos in 1996. This large male is believed to have moved north from a population in Sonora, and the incident bridged a decade long gap in the documentation of jaguars north of the U.S./Mexico border. Given the recent photo documentation of other jaguars in southern Arizona, the value of the Peloncillos as potential habitat for more of these large cats is very high. Efforts to protect habitat in Sonora— where sustained breeding has been documented just 150 miles south of the Peloncillo Mountains—further raise the potential for this region to function both as vital habitat for recovering jaguar populations, and as a conduit for these cats to repopulate portions of their former U.S. range.
The diverse terrain and isolation of the Peloncillo region provide refuge for dozens of threatened and endangered species. Although so-called charismatic megafauna species such as the jaguar receive the most publicity, many lesser-known animals also survive here, with less benefit from news reports. One of the rarest snakes in the United States, the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake, is found only in the Peloncillo region. The ranges of the Chiricahua leopard frog, federally listed as threatened, and the lowland leopard frog, a New Mexico state endangered species, both overlap the Peloncillo region. Little recognized is the importance of the Peloncillo region as a refugium for indigenous southwestern fish species. Although only a few sources of perennial water exist in the region, those sources, such as Cajón Bonito, are high in native species and low in invasive exotic species.
The Peloncillo region offers potential for the return to the United States of several bird species formerly found there, but now generally restricted to Mexico. These include the thick-billed parrot and the aplomado falcon. Higher elevations of the Peloncillo region also appear to be ideal habitat for the eared quetzal, sighted sporadically in Arizona but not officially recorded for New Mexico.
The Peloncillo region has world-class biological value within the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion. Recently, Conservation International (CI) recognized the importance of this region by naming the Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands of Mexico and the United States—of which the Peloncillo region is the northernmost portion—a Global Biodiversity Hotspot, in need of continued study and protection. According to CI’s Hotspot description, “The Madrean Pine-Oak Woodlands are home to about 5,300 species of flowering plants, a quarter of the Mexican flora. Although it is difficult to gauge the level of endemism because of the incompleteness of inventories, high-end estimates suggest that as many as 75 percent of these species may be found nowhere else on Earth . . . Amphibian diversity is remarkable . . . and a quarter of the 200 butterfly species are endemic.”
Birds of the Peloncillo Region: Globally Significant
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Birds represent one of the most visible aspects of biodiversity in any ecosystem. Because of its prime geographic location between wintering and summering grounds of hundreds of bird species, the Peloncillo region boasts a list of over 50 migrant species that routinely pass through here but do not linger. As a major migratory pathway, this region helps sustain the bird diversity of the rest of the U.S. and Mexico––not to mention Canada and the New World tropics. Perhaps most important to the birds themselves, however, is the role this area plays as full-time or summer range for approximately 150 species known or thought to breed here. Many species known to breed in surrounding mountain ranges or valleys have yet to be recorded nesting in the Peloncillo region, but such documentation is improving. In quadrat-by-quadrat sampling of breeding bird diversity across Arizona, the Peloncillo region revealed one of the five richest assemblages in the state, with 87 species of breeding bird recorded in just one ten-square-mile block.
Outstanding Features:
In terms of conservation, resident species and migratory species have different needs and are worth considering somewhat separately. In the Peloncillo region, the resident birds remain close to home their entire lives and are completely dependent on local environmental conditions. A fire, prolonged drought, or a change in management practices can drastically affect local resident populations. Migrants, on the other hand, are especially vulnerable to fragmentation of flyways and to the degradation of a relatively small number of key refueling spots (some of which are well known, while others remain known only to the birds themselves). While rare migrating vagrants tend to attract the most attention from birders, the greatest conservation value of the Peloncillo region is as home to this tremendous suite of resident breeders, for whom the habitats here provide a lifetime of sustenance.
In the Chiricahua – Peloncillo region a wide variety of habitats from grassland and playa lakes to desert riparian, oak woodland, and pine forest each support distinct avifauna. With the inclusion of the higher elevations found in the Animas Range and the unique wet canyons of Cajon Bonito in Mexico, the bird list reaches 362 species. Of the 28 species of birds occurring in New Mexico listed as threatened or endangered under US or state law, 23 are found in the greater Peloncillo area. Southwestern riparian systems are among the most endangered and critical habitats in North America. These oases provide food, water, and shelter for a variety of migrants and residents alike, both mammalian and avian. Very little permanent water is found in the Peloncillo region, so the few springs, perennial streams, and even stock tanks scattered throughout the area are critical to the diversity of species found in the mountains.
The highest elevations in the Peloncillo region occur in the Animas Mountains and Sierra San Luis at more than 8,500 feet. These mountains contain most of the high-elevation coniferous forest in the region and best populations of higher-elevation birds such as yellow-eyed junco, greater pewee, red-faced warbler and eared quetzal. The eared quetzal, formerly called eared trogon, is a mysterious bird not well known even in its stronghold of the Sierra Madre. It has occurred sporadically in the Sky Islands of Arizona with apparent irruption years of 1977 and 1991 when multiple birds appeared in the Chiricahua and Huachuca Mountains of southeastern Arizona. There are unconfirmed reports of eared quetzal from the Animas Mountains, although the bird is not officially recorded for New Mexico. The high mountain meadows of the Animas Mountains are also the best habitat for the suite of high-elevation hummingbirds for which this area of the country has become famous among birders. Magnificent, white-eared, blue-throated, berylline, calliope, and rufous are the mountain hummingbirds among the 15 species recorded in the region.
The remote location and rugged nature of the Peloncillo region have spared it from many of the development pressures facing most of the other Sky Island mountain ranges. Even the Chiricahua Mountains, the largest of the Arizona Sky Islands, are feeling the encroachment of subdivisions. The Chiricahua Mountains have also hosted several controversies surrounding intensive recreation pressures related to birdwatching. The Peloncillo Mountains have experienced similar controversy; when rare bird reports drew large numbers of birdwatchers (many of whom flew thousands of miles just to see one bird), local ranchers began closing their lands to recreational birdwatching because of the habitat degradation they felt was being caused by vehicular and foot traffic. More on birds.
Fishes of the Peloncillo Region: Rarity and Endemism in an Arid Region
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Aquatic habitats harboring native fish populations have become increasingly scarce in the Southwestern US and Northwestern Mexico. As water use and drought have increased, aquatic habitats have diminished drastically. By many estimates Arizona has lost over 90 percent of its riparian habitat.1 In most of the aquatic ecosystems that remain, introduced species of fishes, amphibians, and crustaceans have had a devastating impact on the native fish fauna. These losses have made preservation of surviving aquatic ecosystems and their native fish populations a major conservation priority. The Peloncillo region is highly significant for preserving some of the last intact assemblages of indigenous fishes left in the Chihuahuan Desert Ecoregion.
Outstanding Features:
According to GIS data compiled byW.L. Minckley and Heidi Blasius, three main areas within the greater Peloncillo region/upper Río Yaqui basin support native fish populations, with 13 species, including two undescribed. These areas are Cajon Bonito and the upper Bavispe watershed in northern Sonora; and two sites on the northern Bavispe watershed in the United States—the San Bernardino Wildlife Refuge, and Leslie Creek. The most significant stream in the region is northern Sonora’s Cajon Bonito, which flows from the western slopes of the Sierra San Luis to join the Río Bavispe. About 20 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border, Cajon Bonito supports the most intact suite of native fish species in the Southwestern US and Northwestern Mexico, including Yaqui beautiful shiner, Mexican stoneroller, ornate shiner, Yaqui longfin dace, Mexican roundtail chub, Yaqui sucker, Yaqui topminnow, Yaqui catfish, and Yaqui chub, the last three of which are listed as endangered by the U.S. government.
The suite of fishes in the Río Bavispe, one of the Río Yaqui’s major tributaries, reflect the same assemblage found in Cajon Bonito. Higher elevations of the upper Río Bavispe have produced records of two as-yet undescribed species, the Yaqui trout and Yaqui mountain sucker. North of Cajon Bonito and the Río Bavispe, about 17 miles east of Douglas in the U.S., is the San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge, which protects a third source of the Río Yaqui. Historical records indicate that this area once supported around a quarter of the 35 known indigenous fish species in Arizona. More on fish.
Herpetofauna of the Peloncillo Region: Legendary Diversity
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More species of amphibians and reptiles live in the Peloncillo Mountains than in any other single mountain range in New Mexico—at least 89 species, which is 72% of the 123 species known to occur throughout the entire state of New Mexico. Even more impressive is the fact that these comprise almost a third of the amphibian and reptile species of the Western United States. And just one small pass in the Peloncillos—the 4,265-foot Antelope Pass, between the towns of Animas and Rodeo in Hidalgo County, New Mexico—has the highest lizard diversity of any comparable-sized place in the United States. These facts underscore the contribution of these mountains to the overall U.S. and global biodiversity.
Outstanding Features:
Primarily due to the overall xeric nature of the habitat, amphibian diversity in this region is limited. There are 14 native and one introduced species of amphibians—including two salamanders and 13 toads and frogs—known to occur in this region. This is 58% of the 26 amphibian species known to occur in New Mexico, and 32% of the species reported for Chihuahua. Many (e.g., Bufo, Scaphiopus, Spea) are well-adapted to the arid conditions, being “explosive” breeders with short-duration, high-density breeding aggregations that form in ephemeral pools during periods of summer thundershowers. Others (e.g., Ambystoma, Hyla, Rana) rely upon semi-permanent or permanent streams or stock tanks for breeding.
Two native species of true frogs (Ranidae) occur in this region. Both are experiencing significant population declines in the Arizona and New Mexico and neighboring states, as a result of a combination of factors. Both require permanent to semi-permanent water for breeding and refugia during long-term drought, although both use temporary stock tanks and may disperse considerable distances along aquatic corridors. Fritts et al.8 reviewed these species in New Mexico.
Overall reptile diversity within the study area is very high, with at least 74 forms known, including three turtles, 34 lizards, and 37 snakes. That is 76% of the 97 reptile species known to occur in New Mexico. For example, Antelope Pass is a hotspot of herpetofauna biodiversity. Antelope Pass is a low pass through the Peloncillo Mountains between Animas and Rodeo, New Mexico. The landscape of the area surrounding Antelope Pass is Chihuahuan Desert desert scrub with steep rocky hills and associated bajadas and arroyos. Data collected by NMDGF during pitfall studies at Antelope Pass conducted between 1987-93 resulted in a catch representing a sampling of the herpetofauna from an area of 3.48 square miles (9 km2). The total catch consisted of 8,288 lizards of 18 species, 177 snakes of 21 species, and 89 amphibians of six species. The herpetofaunal assemblage (lizards and snakes) at Antelope Pass may be the most diverse of any comparable-sized area within the United States.
There are 37 species of snakes that are known from this region. That is 80% of the 46 snake species known to occur in New Mexico; 70% of 53 snake species known to occur in Arizona; 58% of the 62 snake species from Chihuahua (and 39% of the state’s 79 subspecies); and even includes 51% of 72 snake species known from Texas. The New Mexico Ridge-nosed rattlesnake occurs mostly within the highlands of the Sierra Madre Occidental and associated ranges of northwest Mexico. In the United States it occurs in a few isolated mountain ranges in southeast Arizona and southwest New Mexico. The federally Threatened subspecies, Crotalus willardi obscurus is known only from the Animas and Peloncillo Mountains, Hidalgo County, New Mexico and Cochise County, Arizona, and from the Sierra San Luis, Chihuahua and Sonora, Mexico. More on reptiles and amphibians.
Invertebrates of the Peloncillo Region: Richness and Mystery
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Although few formal studies on invertebrate diversity have been conducted within the bounds of the Pelconcillo region, several sources of information suggest that this area represents one of the most diverse arthropod communities in the nation. Many fascinating species are known to occur in nearby lands, but researchers have not yet looked for them in this focal area. When they do collect in the Peloncillo region, researchers often find that their catches extend a species’ known range by hundreds of miles, add a new name to lists for the state or for the nation, or reveal a species entirely new to science. Even for species known to occur here, additional research often reveals that local populations have diverged from their outside relatives in genetics, morphology, and/or behavior.
Outstanding Features:
Studies conducted just outside the region provide quite a bit of information about species that most likely also exist here, and about the ecological roles of invertebrates in similar habitats. Two main sources contribute the lion’s share of information: the American Museum of Natural History’s Southwestern Research Station (SWRS) and the Jornada Experimental Range (JER). Many of the scientists consulted on site-specific data have also worked out of one or both of these institutions.
The Southwestern Research Station is located on the east flank of Arizona’s Chiricahua Mountains, just seven miles across the San Simon Valley from the Peloncillo Mountains. SWRS has been one of the nation’s most productive sites for invertebrate research since 1955 when the station was founded at the urging of scientists who felt they had found entomological heaven. SWRS-affiliated scientists work throughout the Chiricahua Mountains, from mid-elevation pineoak habitats that are well-represented in the Peloncillos, to higher mixed-conifer habitats that do not exist in the Peloncillos proper but do occur at the tops of the Animas and Sierra San Luis. They also work in the bajadas and bottomlands of the San Simon Valley, within the Peloncillo focal area.
Unfortunately, taxonomic lists have been compiled for only a handful of the invertebrate groups studied in and around the Chiricahuas; most of the lists that do exist remain unpublished, available only from the list authors or informally circulated online. Nevertheless, the Chiricahua-based research is full of fascinating biological stories, and a determined researcher can glean from this scattered literature a large number of taxa that may well occur in the Peloncillos, as well as an idea of what these creatures may be doing. When a species is found in the Peloncillos, Chiricahua research can add depth to the discovery by bringing to bear previous studies on its behavior, ecology, and/or natural history.
The Jornada Experimental Range lies some 150 miles northeast of the Peloncillos in southern New Mexico. The site was included in the National Science Foundation’s Long-Term Ecological Research network in 1982, which brought a renewed focus on understanding effects of climate change and other long-term processes on flora, fauna, hydrology, and soils. JER studies on invertebrates have focused largely on the roles of invertebrates in ecological dynamics such as herbivory and plant competition, nutrient cycling, and soil aeration and fertility. JER studies have also included species inventory work for particular invertebrate groups, and behavior and natural history of selected species.
Mammals of the Peloncillo Region: Bridging the Tropical and Temperate
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The Peloncillo Mountains in southwestern New Mexico and southeastern Arizona are unique in that while they are comparatively low and dry in contrast to other Sky Island mountain ranges, they are part of a region that is biogeographically important for mammals because it provides a linkage between temperate and tropical faunal zones, most notably between the Sierra Madre to the south and the Rocky Mountains to the north.1 A classic example of this is the 1996 sighting of a jaguar in the Peloncillo Mountains, presumably coming from a breeding population some 150 miles south.
Outstanding Features:
This meeting of biomes and associated topographic variation results in phenomenally high mammal diversity for a semi-arid zone, with 91 species documented for New Mexico’s Hidalgo County, which contains much of the Peloncillo Mountains and all of the Animas Mountains and Animas Valley. The Animas Mountains, better surveyed for mammals than other parts of the Peloncillo region, report 76 mammal species.3 This is a full third more than the much larger Yellowstone National Park, North America’s park best-known for its mammals.
Bats comprise nearly one quarter of the region’s mammal diversity, with 18 species known from the Animas Mountains alone. Five additional species have been reported from Hidalgo County, and eight (including two of the Hidalgo County species) from other parts of the Peloncillo region, for a grand regional total of 26-29 species. Few other U.S. or Borderland locations can boast bat species numbers anywhere near this, with the closest we found being the Big Bend region of Texas with 19 species, and Saguaro National Park in Arizona with 20 species. As with many of the mammals of the Peloncillo region, the high diversity appears to be the result of overlap among species that are typically associated with divergent faunal provinces.
Two federally listed species of Leptonycteris bats have been located in the vicinity of the Peloncillos including the Mexican long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris nivalis) and the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae; formerly known as L. sanborni and L. curasoae yerbabuena and also referred to as the North American long-nosed bat). The core habitat of these species is in Mexico. For each the Mexican border region of the United States represents the extreme northern edge of their range.
The jaguar is another species that is at the northern extent of its range in the Borderlands. Even in the time of settlement from the 1880s through 1905, only 30 specimen records exist, with none in New Mexico prior to 1996. With core habitats 150 miles south, the sightings appear to be primarily dispersing young males. Sightings in Arizona and New Mexico occur several times a decade with one of the better-documented sightings in 1996 when rancher Warner Glenn photographed a young male in the central Peloncillos.
Jaguars have historically been associated with moist riparian areas, yet recent work by Carlos Lopez Gonzales and David Brown in Mexico indicates that in many areas midelevation scrub sites are more typical habitat. This information makes the Peloncillo region appear to be better jaguar habitat than formerly thought, though debate continues over whether the Peloncillo Mountains proper have the prey base to support jaguars. The individual photographed in 1996, however, made its living in the region for nearly a year after this first sighting. The major current threat to jaguar is hunting in Mexico; for example, Carlos Lopez Gonzales reports that the skin of the animal photographed by Warner Glenn was later seen in Mexico.
Though the region’s narrow endemics tend to be found in upper elevations, the majority of engineering and species listed as threatened or endangered occur in foothill and valley grasslands. This, and the biogeographic importance of the Peloncillos as a corridor between the Rocky Mountain to the north and Sierra Madre to the south, highlights the importance of focusing conservation efforts not just in upland areas, but in a mosaic of habitat types. Long-term conservation strategies must therefore focus on not just isolated low-human use core habitats held by public agencies, but also on preservation of the semi-natural matrix of habitats with a range of human uses.
Vegetation of the Peloncillo Region: High-Diversity Crossroads
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On first sight the Peloncillo region—particularly the Peloncillo Mountains and adjacent Lordsburg Playa—seem spare and devoid of note to botanical study. But the vegetation of the Peloncillo region is particularly noteworthy for a number of reasons: a high number of species catalogued to date (879 in the central Peloncillo Mountains alone); its placement at the convergence of four major floristic regions1 (Madrean, Chihuahuan, Sonoran, and Southern Rocky Mountain-Mogollon); and its relatively intact and large tracts of native habitats, which offer opportunities for further study and future conservation banking.
Outstanding Features:
The plant communities in the region are pine-oak woodlands, oak savanna, chaparral, short-grass prairie (including desert grasslands), and Chihuahuan desert-scrub. The Lordsburg Playas is largely a saltbush and dropseed community. Riparian systems in some canyons such as Guadalupe Canyon and Cloverdale Canyon are limited but floristically diverse where they occur. In the area surrounding Cloverdale at an elevation of 5,262 feet (1,603 meters) is the highest valley bottom in the Apachean or “sky island” region. This intact grassland is probably the most important community in need of conservation. Grasslands of this type are quickly vanishing in Mexico and elsewhere through abuse.
The Peloncillo Mountains, along with their southern extension, the Sierra San Luis, are part of the Sierra Madre Occidental Phytogeographic Province, where Apachean and Madrean biotic provinces blend. The area contains species from the Madrean province, which ends about 90 miles (150 km) south of the U.S. border but is mostly Apachean. The area’s species mix is complex because the mountains or “sky islands” are surrounded by basins that contain floristic elements characteristic of other vegetative assemblages.
The significance of the large diversity of plant species (879 species) found in the Peloncillo Mountains can only be appreciated after a comparison with the diversity in other ranges. Few mountain ranges in the region have been adequately studied, but one is the Organ Mountains. The Organ Mountains, in Doña Ana County, are located far enough from the Peloncillos to provide a good comparison. The Organ Mountains rise about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) above the surrounding basins to an elevation of 9,012 feet (2,746 meters), have limestone and igneous substrates, have permanent water, and have a well-developed Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine zone at the highest elevations. The Peloncillo Mountains rise only 2,200 feet (670 meters) from the surrounding basins to 25 feet (2,019 meters), have igneous and limestone substrates, lack the high-elevation Douglas-fir and ponderosa pine community, but have some wetland habitats. The Organ Mountains flora contains about 850 species while that of the Peloncillos is 879 species. The Peloncillos have perhaps 150 more species than would be expected for a range of its size. The reason for the increased diversity is the location of the range in an area where a number of biotic provinces converge.
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Section Authors:
INVERTEBRATES - Gitanjali Bodner, Ph.D. Biologist and Conservation Planner, Sky Island Alliance. Trained in systematics and biodiversity assessment of hyperdiverse invertebrate groups, Gita applies a range of research approaches to compiling place-based knowledge and filling data gaps.
MAMMALS - Charles Curtin, Ph.D. Conservation Biologist, Arid Lands Project and Malpai Borderlands Group. Founder of the nonprofit research institute Arid Lands Project, which conducts landscape-level experimental studies of the interaction of human and natural systems, Charles has coordinated a science program to support the efforts of the Malpai Borderlands Group.
FISHES - Jonathan M. Hanson. Ecologist and Naturalist. Jonathan is the author of more than a dozen books on nature and outdoor subjects, including the award-winning 50 Common Reptiles and Amphibians of the Southeast and Southern Arizona Nature Almanac.
REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS - Charles W. Painter. Herpetologist, New Mexico Department of Game and Fish Endangered Species Program. Charles has worked in New Mexico herpetology since 1976 and is coauthor of Amphibians and Reptiles of New Mexico. His current research includes conservation biology of the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake, sand dune lizard, and Jemez Mountains salamander.
BIRDS - Thomas Wood. Ornithologist, Southeast Arizona Bird Observatory. Tom is cofounder of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory, a nonprofit conservation organization.
VEGETATION - Richard D. Worthington, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, University of Texas at El Paso. Richard is curator of the UTEP herbarium, which is part of the Centennial Museum. His research specialty is floristics of mountain masses in the Southwest.
