Catalog of the Colorado Flora
A Biodiversity Baseline
by William A. Weber and Ronald C. Wittmann
Biodiversity, during the past few years, has become a "buzz" word, as if this were a brand new concept. The word appears in the news, on television, in advertising, in grant proposals, particularly for tropical studies because it is in the tropics that the terrifyingly rapid extinction of plant and animal species and their ecosystems are threatening the earth's ecology. Hundreds of species are being exterminated before they become known to science. Furthermore, the study of biodiversity has become a magic new source of prestige and money, for many biologists as well as politicians.
The natural history repositories themselves, especially those housing the primary collections of a region or major political unit, have much to answer for in this crisis for not articulating their importance and value to research. They also have various responsibilities to their many classes of users. It has been our aim at the University of Colorado Museum to provide catalogs and regional taxonomic handbooks in order to develop a literate public and to increase the value of the collections to amateur and professional students of the flora and fauna. We don't generally refer to our work as studies in biodiversity. A much older word is floristics, the systematic study of floras, and faunistics, the study of faunas. We are proud of the fact that, through this work, the University of Colorado Herbarium has done much toward interesting the public in the flora of Colorado, and in providing the necessary documentation of the flora by building a comprehensive collection for future studies.
