UC Merced

California endemic vascular plant range patterns were quantified using a flora-based geodatabase technique that defined species range by geographic area and elevation band. Resulting species spatial patterns are reported for 228 geographic units. Over 60% of the endemic species range size distributions were found to have range sizes less than 10,000 km2. The largest endemic taxon range was 275,749 km2, or 67% of the state. California endemic plant richness distribution patterns are summarized by 228 geographic units, and reported by various criteria. California's Central Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada foothills, high elevation Sierra Nevada Mountains, Channel Islands, San Jacinto Mountains, Napa and Lake Counties, Inyo Mountains, sections of the Mojave Desert, and San Bernardino Mountains were all identified as areas with unique endemic plant attributes. We compared endemic species richness between map units in zones containing similar topography and climate, and found that area only weakly correlated with species richness, suggesting other factors have stronger influence on endemism in continental California. The findings have implications for developing conservation plans that target endemic species. In particular, we identify areas of the state, previously de-emphasized, that deserve greater recognition based on the characteristics of their restricted endemic plants. This analysis underestimates the level of endemism near the borders with Oregon and Baja California because of the artificial limitation of the database to the boundaries of the state of California. However, range distribution estimates produced from digital renditions of floral keys proved effective in this study, an inexpensive approach that could be implemented in other regions of the world for which floras have been published.