American Midland Naturalist published Clover and Jotter's "Floristic Studies of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River," the first comprehensive scientific catalog of the river's flora.
On April 1, 1939, the journal American Midland Naturalist published Volume 21, No. 2, featuring Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter's landmark paper, "Floristic Studies of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado River." This publication represented the first comprehensive scientific catalog of plant species collected along the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon.
The paper detailed hundreds of plant specimens gathered during their grueling 1938 expedition, providing botanists and ecologists with foundational data about the canyon's riparian and desert plant communities. It remains a frequently cited reference in Grand Canyon botanical and ecological research to this day, decades after its original publication.
The significance of this work extended beyond its immediate scientific content. It stood as tangible proof that the expedition, often reported in newspapers as a daring adventure story about "women in a man's world," was fundamentally a serious scientific undertaking. Clover and Jotter's rigorous methodology and comprehensive documentation elevated the field of desert river botany and set a standard for future ecological surveys of remote wilderness areas.
This publication cemented Clover's reputation as a serious botanical scientist and became a cornerstone reference work still cited by researchers studying the changing ecology of the Colorado River, particularly after the construction of Glen Canyon Dam altered the river's flow and vegetation patterns.