Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: Listing the Desert Yellowhead as Threatened

We, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), determine Yermo xanthocephalus (desert yellowhead) to be threatened under the authority of the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended. This plant is a recently described Wyoming endemic known only from the south end of Cedar Rim on the summit of Beaver Rim in southern Fremont County, Wyoming. It is known from a single population with plants found scattered over an area of 20 hectares (50 acres). The total area actually occupied by the population is only 3.37 hectares (8.33 acres) within the 20 hectares. In 2001 this population contained 11,967 plants and existed entirely on Federal lands. Surface disturbances associated with oil and gas development, compaction by vehicles, trampling by livestock, and randomly occurring, catastrophic events threaten the existing population.