Owl Clover Habitat

Mt. Shasta

This map uses raster analysis techniques to identify suitable habitat on the slopes of Mt. Shasta for a critically endangered wildflower Orthocarpus pachystachyus, Shasta owl’s-clover. This species was assumed to be extinct until 1996, when eight individual plants were identified in the vicinity of Mt. Shasta. Given the terrain variables (elevation, slope, and aspect) at the locations of these observations, what other areas have similar characteristics and would be a good place to look for Shasta owl’s-clover?

Shasta owl’s-clover is so rare that it is at severe risk of extinction, if it is not already extinct. There have been no documented observations of the plant since 1996. Could the Shasta Owl’s-Clover (SOC) still exist? Or has a changing climate and human activity finally pushed the species to extinction? Where might naturalists focus their search for the Shasta Owl’s-Clover if they wanted to have the best chance of finding a specimen?

I used the GIS technique of extraction to establish a range of suitable habitat terrain traits based on the conditions at the geographic coordinates of the previous observations of SOC.

This process follows the logic that if a plant was able to grow in one position with a particular elevation, slope, and aspect, these values represent “suitable” habitat. With multiple observations, I looked at the terrain variables at each location to build up a range of suitable values for each variable (elevation, slope, and aspect). Then with these guidelines established I made a map that shows where the suitable extents of all three variables overlap.