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difficult to locate if it is not flowering. However, the pink and magenta flowers which are 1.5 -2 inches <br />in diameter allows a greater probability of locating the Uinta Basin hookless cactus. Following the short <br />Flowering period, usually about the week of May 5-11, (Smith 1996), the cactus shrinks in size and <br />• increases the difficulty of location. <br />The Uinta Basin hookless cactus is generally found on alluvial benches along the Green, Colorado, and <br />Gunnison rivers and is more abundant on south-facing slopes, but can occur on all exposures. <br />Associated vegetation includes the following: shadscale, saltbushes, winterfat (Erotia Janata), sagebrush <br />(Artemisia tridentate), greasewood, galleta grass (Hifaria jamesit), black sage (Artemfsia nova), Indian <br />ricegrass, prickly pear cactus, yucca (Yucca glauca), low rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus viscidiflorus) and <br />sand dropseed (Sporo6olus cryptandrus} within an elevation range of 4500fi000 feet. This callus has <br />been found in Garfield, Mesa, Delta, and Montrose counties, Colorado and to the west in Utah. <br />3.3.2 Debeque phacelia (Pbaoelia submutica) <br />Debeque phacelia is an annual forb with stems about 3/4 to slightly over 3 inches in length and often <br />much branched at the base. Leaves are elliptic-0blong to obovata and 1/4 to S/8 inch long. The Flowers <br />are small, 3/8 inch across, crowded, and cream colored with a tinge of yellow to purple. <br />Debeque phacelia blooms in May before the temperature bernmes too hot. Most of the herbarium <br />specimens viewed were collected between May 7 and May 22. This plant has been identified in <br />Garfield and Mesa Counties at the margins of the Colorado River Valley. •Debeque phacelia occurs in <br />alkaline, barren clay banks and flats in deserts and foothills. Large cracks generally occur in the soil at <br />locations where this plant occurs. The reported elevation where this plant occurs is about 4700 feet. <br />3.4 Survey Result <br />• Neither Uinta Basin hookless cactus, Debeque phacelia, or any of the USBLM Special Status Plants were <br />observed in the three survey sites. There were numerous prickly pear cactus found on all three of the <br />survey sites and approximately 100 hedgehog cactus. Only five bearclaw cactus which are •i~tLie same <br />genus as the Uinta Basin hookless cactus were identified in the surveyed areas and four of_these were <br />just beginning to flower. One was located. at_the west portal, and four at the Cameo Refuse_Dis~sal <br />.~ Areas. Both species have thepotential to occur within the survey_site but none~erere located within the <br />suryeyed_areas. Debeque phacelia appears to be limited to areas of barren soil, generally clayey, where <br />expansion and contraction in the soil occur creating large cracks. There were small areas on the survey <br />site that fit this habitat and soil description, but none had Debeque phacelia. <br />4.0 Literature Cited <br />Colorado Native Plant Society. 1989. Rare plants of Colorado Association and fhe Rocky Mountain <br />Nature Association. <br />Grunau, Lee. Colorado Natural Heritage. Letter of April 30, 1996 to Daryl Mergen, Western Ecological <br />Resource, Inc. <br />Rose, Keith. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Letter of May 2, 1996 to Daryl Mergen, Westem Ecological <br />Resource, Inc. <br />Smith, David. 1996. U.S. Bureau of Land Management, Grand Junction, Personal Communication with <br />Daryl Mergen, Westem Ecological Resource, Inc. <br /> <br />