I saved the best for last on my spring break botany trip. I spent a day in one of the coolest places in California you’ve (probably) never heard of–The Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument in Riverside County. Although parts of it had been previously preserved, the park was created by Congress in 2000, back when Congress did that nice sort of thing. The slightly taller San Jacintos sit to the north of the Santa Rosas. From them, the Peninsular Ranges head south for 900 miles, forming entire spine of Baja California. These mountains have a split personality. Hiking on their eastern slopes you are clearly in the desert.

And the flora on this drier side reflects that. Here are some species that are also found in higher elevations in the Mojave or Sonoran Deserts

Allium fimbriatum (Fringed Onion, Alliaceae)

Phacelia curvipes (Washoe Phacelia, Boraginaceae)

A couple plants with close relatives in my last post, Loeseliastrum schottii (Schott’s Calico, Polemoniaceae)

and Porophyllum gracile (Odora, Asteraceae)

And, of course, a cactus–Echinocerus engelmanii (Calico Hedgehog Cactus)

On the western side, however, rather than desert scrub, these mountains are covered in good old California chaparral.

Here, many of the species also occur in the Peninsular Ranges to north and west of here. For instance, Phacelia minor (California Bluebell, Boraginaceae)

Mimulus brevicaulis (Wide-throated Monkeyflower, Phyrmaceae)

Linanthus californicus (California Phlox, Polemoniaceae)

and Antirrhinum coulterianum (Coulter’s Snapdragon, Plantaginaceae)

But I really came for all the plants found in the Peninsular Ranges and nowhere else. And I found several of them. I’ll start with a couple of mustards–Caulanthus hallii

And C. simulans

Why do two closely related species of rare mustards both choose to grow in the same section of trail? I have no idea. But I do know they are both way cooler in person–it’s really hard to capture their lanky shape well in a picture.

Shrubs, such as this Ceanothus perplexans (Cupped-leaf Ceanothus, Rhamnaceae) are a bit easier to photograph.

As I frequently do, I’ve saved my favorites for last. Monardella nana (Little Coyote Mint, Lamiaceae), is definitely the most interesting-looking member of its genus that I’ve met. I didn’t even recognize it at first, as this group of plants usually has tight clusters of purple flowers (see Monardella sinuata from a couple posts ago). I just love the fuzzy white bracts and pink anthers.

And finally, the ridiculously bright pink Penstemon clevelandii (San Jacinto Beardtongue) seen here in its preferred rocky perch.

Thus concludes my spring break flower report. I haven’t yet made up my mind as to where I’m headed this weekend, but rest assured that there will be flowers involved.

I just spent a good portion of last week driving around Southern California chasing flowers. My last stop in at Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument had enough beautiful and unique things to warrant its own post–I’ll add that in a couple days. But first I want to show off some of the highlights from the rest of the trip, in which I looped around the Western, Northern, and Central Mohave. My first stop was the Kelso Valley, where the western Mohave meets the Southern Sierras. I had stopped here a few weeks ago, but not much was blooming then. This time I got the timing right, and found the rare monkeyflower for which I was looking, Mimulus shevockii (Kelso Valley Monkeyflower, Phrymaceae)

The spot also had another uncommon and extremely tiny plant, Canbya candida (Pygmy Poppy, Papaveraceae). I was there early in the morning so the flowers are still closed from the night before. For a sense of scale, the “pebbles” around the plant are actually grains of sand.

I then headed over Walker Pass toward the desert floor, stopping to look for a rare species of Astragalus which was not yet in bloom. I did get a consolation prize of a more common species in the same genus, Astragalus purshii (Woolypod Milkvetch, Fabaceae).

I hit the desert floor around Red Rock State Park, and fairly quickly found large numbers of a rare species of Blazing Star, Mentzelia eremophila (Pinyon Blazing Star, Loasaceae).

Also in the area were some nice patches of Linanthus parryae (Sand Blossoms, Polemonaceae). Individuals either have white or purple flowers, sometimes in the same population, as you can see from the second photo.

Further to the southeast at lower elevations, I made a quick stop in some Saltbrush Flats and found the uncommon Goodmania luteola (Yellow Spinecape, Polygonaceae). I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s the only species in its genus, and to a plant nerd like me, that makes it pretty interesting.

From the Western Mohave, I made the long drive to Death Valley National Park, where I had hoped to find a few beautiful and rare species that only occur on limestone cliffs in the Northern part of the park. Unfortunately, I got the timing wrong, and I was too late to catch these short-lived annuals. That’s not to say the trip wasn’t worth it though. On the way in, I found a couple common, but interesting species

Cleomella obtusifolia (Blunt-leaf Stinkweed, Cleomaceae), a small plant found around salty lakes.

Eucnide urens (Desert Rocknettle, Loasaceae), a shrub with extremely sharp hairs that I know now not to touch.

Despite striking out on the limestone specialists, I did find a couple of rare plants. Salvia funerea (Death Valley Sage, Lamiaceae) is a unique, incredibly woolly shrub with a funky smell found in the mountains around the valley.

The clear prize of the Death Valley leg of the trip was Enceliopsis covillei (Panamint Daisy, Asteraceae). This beautiful sunflower is only found in gypsum soils in a few canyons on the western side of the Panamint mountains. It’s the logo for the California Native Plant Society:

When I got to the area, I was dismayed to find the only road that goes through the range of the species was closed. I quickly formulated a back-up plan, driving as close as I could to the mountains, picking what looked like an interesting canyon with gypsum (the white rock below), and walking in.

About a mile up the canyon, I found one individual growing completely by itself on the side of the canyon. I shouted pretty loud when I saw it.

After leaving death valley, I spent an evening and morning botanizing around the Barstow area in the Central Mohave. There were a number of interesting plants in the area, including a couple more species from the extremely diverse sunflower family (Asteraceae), Nicolletia occidentalis (Hole-in-the-Sand Plant) and Adenophyllum cooperi (Cooper’s Dogweed, shown with a sleeping bee-fly, Bombylius sp.).

But another plant family, Polemoniaceae, led the highlight reel here. A pink patch of Leptosiphon breviculus (Mohave Linanthus) looked lovely in the evening light

 

Loeseliastrum matthewsii (Desert Calico, Polemoniaceae) was just beginning to bloom in the area.

And another tiny prickly annual with intricately patterned petals Langloisia setosissima (Lilac Sunbonnet) was surprisingly common.

From Barstow, I made the long drive south to the Santa Rosa Mountains. I’ll detail those highlights in my next post.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’m about to head out to the desert, but before I do, here’s a quick post about the overnight trip I just took up to Tuolumne County. I stopped along the South Fork of the Stanislaus River and at a nice outcrop of iron-rich serpentine soil called the Red Hills. Both spots have a bunch of uncommon or rare plants, but I was too early or too late for most of them. The couple I did manage to scrounge up definitely fall under the category of “plants only a botanist would love”.

Lomatium congdonii (Congdon’s Lomatium, Apiaceae). A rare plant only found in serpentine in Tuolumne and Mariposa counties

Leptosyne stillmanii (Stillman’s Coreopsis, Asteraceae), also a serpentine specialist.

The botanical highlights of the trip were actually three beautiful species that are common in the Sierras, but new to me (as far as I remember).

Lathyrus sulphureus (Snub Pea, Fabaceae)

Nemophila maculata (Fivespot, Boraginaceae)

and Calochortus monophyllus (Yellow Star Tulip, Liliaceae)

I’m feeling generous, so I’ll even throw in a couple plants that range widely across the Western US and Canada:

Phlox speciosa (Showy Phlox, Polemoniaceae)

Lewisia redivia (Bitter Root, Portulacaeae)

I’ll be hitting the road tomorrow with an ambitious itinerary wherein I will attempt to find many plants that are both rare AND beautiful.

The superbloom is in full swing in California’s deserts, so for my trip today of course I headed in the complete opposite direction.  I did find some sand though!

These are the Guadalupe Dunes in the Northwestern corner of Santa Barbara County–due east of Bakersfield. Don’t worry–I’ll be back to the desert soon.

I hiked around the dunes all morning, and I’ll give them 10/10, would botanize again. Coastal Dunes–never a common habitat to begin with, have suffered much habit loss through coastal development. This was the largest dune complex I’ve been to in the state, and other than a couple of invasive species, it was amazingly pristine. In addition to many more familiar species, I found four rarities here, all of which only occur on coastal dunes.

Erysimum suffrutescens (Woody Wallflower, Brassicaceae). Wallflowers have made a habit of speciating in sandy places–for instance there’s a species in the Santa Cruz Sandhills and another on the Monterey Peninsula. This one is found at scattered populations from San Luis Obispo County (the county north of Santa Barbara) south to the Long Beach area, and as it’s name would suggest, it was impressively bushy.

Malacothrix incana (Asteraceae). This might be my favorite common name for a plant ever–Dunedelion! It was the only one I found all morning, so I felt pretty lucky.

Monardella undulata (Wavyleafed Coyote Mint, Lamiaceae). A species only found on the Southern San Luispo and Northern Santa Barbara Coast. You can see the characteristic wavy leaves in the upper right. This genus usually blooms later in the season, but because the coastal climate is more constant than inland, many coastal species have longer bloom periods. This one blooms from April through November.

Cirsium rhothophilum (Surf Thistle, Asteraceae), with surf in the background! Another very rare plant (with the same range as the Monardella). This plant is still in bud–you can see the white flower head starting to stick out on the left side).

After a morning hiking around on the dunes, I headed several miles south to spend the afternoon in the coastal chaparral and prairie at Point Sal State Park.

This was also a very successful stop, with three particularly noteworthy species.

Ceanothus impressus (Santa Barbara Ceanothus, Rhamnaceae). I try to look up all the potential rarities for the spots I’m going to, but this species somehow wasn’t on my radar. However, I knew Ceanothus is very diverse , and I hadn’t seen this one before, so I made sure to snap a picture and grab a small branch to identify later. It turns out, it’s only found in a few spots in Western Santa Barbara County

Scrophularia atrata (Blackflower Figwort, Scrophulariaceae). This one I did know was here. It’s a relative of the way more common Scrophularia californica but the flower differs in having a much more constricted opening and that dramatic dark reddish-brown color.

Amazingly that wasn’t the only flower with a very dark color palate that I found today. Fritillaria biflora (Chocolate Lily, Liliaceae). This is a fairly uncommon plant that I’ve been wanting to meet for a while, but it’s actually the most common species in this post. It was a good day!