This
was a part "check out the blooms by car trip" and part "get
in some hiking" trip. It worked out perfectly!
I
met Jeff Fields and Jim Roberts in the Lake Henshaw area at the
junction of S2 and SR79 at 10:15 a.m. where the temp was a very
chilly 44 deg.
We car surveyed first along S22 beginning
at S2. Nearly throughout our survey, we found happy plants from
all the monsoonal and fall rain, so I won't mention that again, and
will report primarily the blooms we saw from the car, and from our
stops.
Surprisingly, blooms were not as numerous as I had
expected in most places, although they were still very good for this
time of year, and in some places the blooms were spectacular.
Note that there could be a number of small blooms that would not have
been visible from the car.
All species mentioned below
were in bloom unless mentioned otherwise.
Jim, Jeff
and I posted a total of 99 observations of 55 species from our trip,
of which at least 31 species were in bloom:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-11-04&place_id=any&user_id=jeffrey264,jimirob1,tchester
Jim
posted 58 obs of 49 species; Jeff posted 31 obs of 29 species, and I
posted 10 obs of 4 species.
From the car, we saw
nothing in bloom along S2 in the Ranchita area.
We
stopped at the ABDSP park entrance, where it was still horribly
cold. There was a lot of germination there, but it was mostly
non-blooming Erodium cicutarium, with a much smaller-number of
non-blooming native annuals (alas, I've now forgotten who they were).
Descending into Culp Valley from the park entrance,
the only noticeable blooms were from Encelia actoni. Most
plants of that species were in bloom, with a good number of blooms,
but they didn't produce anywhere near the show that E. farinosa does
in full bloom.
We stopped at the Culp Valley
Campground entrance, where there was a fair amount of Pectis, a large
number of Euphorbia melanadenia, and a few Encelia actoni. The
hillside of Bahiopsis parishii was almost completely finished.
We found both Kallstroemia californica and K. parvifolia there, both
species essentially finished. There were young plants of
Lupinus bicolor not in bloom.
Jim's post of Encelia
actoni from there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141200563
From this stop onward throughout the entire day, we
found large fields of Kallstroemia californica nearly everywhere.
It was absolutely amazing! There were sometimes scattered small
flowers on it, but mostly the plants were on their last fruit.
We
stopped at the parking area on the left (north) that is the starting
point for the Big Spring Hike. There were a few Encelia
farinosa in good bloom, some Bahiopsis on their last blooms, Pectis,
and a huge number of Ditaxis neomexicana (now D. serrata to some).
It was remarkable that both Ziziphus and Prunus fremontii were fully
leafed out, non-blooming, making it easy to tell the difference from
the color of the leaves.
Jim's post of Encelia farinosa
from there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141197473
There were patches of Boerhavia triquetra
intermedia where essentially every flower stem was eaten! This
was pretty curious, since there is not much forage from those
stalks. But maybe some critters like the taste of the flowers
and/or fruit to flavor more substantial forage. (:-)
My
post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141399282
The chuparosa plants there were mostly not in
bloom, continuing the trend that some of the ordinarily-reliable
bloomers at this time of year, are not blooming after all this warm
season rain. Jim and/or Jeff did find a few blooms hiding on one side
of the plants.
After that, everything along the
Montezuma Grade looked dry, except for the ocotillos which still
mostly had green leaves. The turnout area at the top of the
Grade had nothing happening. The overlook area had only a few
patches of Perityle producing green, with one Physalis plant in
bloom. Near the bottom we saw one creosote in bloom.
I
had been hoping for much more from that Grade!
We
stopped at the Hellhole Parking area. Again, except for the
Psorothamnus schottii and cheesebush with leaves, nothing else was
happening. The only annuals were mostly-dried up Chamaesyces
(Euphorbias). My pix showing how dry it looked for annuals:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/pano_hellhole_canyon_parking_4_30.jpg
Things changed for the better on the desert
floor. There were scattered Pectis along the road to Xmas
Circle, and some very good fields of Pectis along Borrego Springs
Road. They were so good we had to stop twice before our next
planned stop at the 90 deg bend in the road with Henderson Canyon
Road. There was also one "town" lot covered with
Abronia.
Jim's post of the Pectis from there:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141195905
My view pix of the Pectis fields there:
town
lot on the east of BS Road:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/bs_road/Pectis_papposa_pano_1_3_30.jpg
area on west of BS Road, a bit farther north of the
previous pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/bs_road/Pectis_papposa_pano_2_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/bs_road/Pectis_papposa_pano_3_2_30.jpg
We stopped at the 90 deg bend, and it had mats of
Kallstroemia and some cute Datura discolor plants. I didn't
notice this in the field, but the plant that both Jim and Jeff
photographed has a seriously-weird calyx, all twisted and coming off
the corolla:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141196117
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141193592
There were a number of frostmat plants just
beginning bloom here, and throughout the rest of the trip. Jim
and Jeff's photo of the plants at the 90 deg bend:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141195463
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141193697
I noticed that there was a considerable variation
in the size and color of the leaves of Tiquilia plicata at this
spot. My iNat post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141402760
We stopped at the pavement end of Di Giorgio Road,
and I was ECSTATIC to see ginormous mats of Kallstroemia well over 3
feet across! I had seen pix of these huge mats from a long time
ago, and always wanted to see them myself, and verify that they
weren't Tribulus. (:-)
Jim and Jeff's posts that
show the mats:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141195029
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141193465
My view pix of the mats:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/di_giorgio_road/Kallstroemia_californica_pano_2_3_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/di_giorgio_road/Kallstroemia_californica_pano_3_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/di_giorgio_road/Kallstroemia_californica_pano_3_3_30.jpg
There were some Abronia plants blooming there as
well.
We stopped along Henderson Canyon Road, where
the Geraea plants were just beginning to bloom. We stopped at
the first blooming plants, but when we drove east we passed by much
denser Geraea fields. Jim and Jeff's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141194250
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141193023
We really hit the jackpot as we drove east of Fonts
Point Wash. First, in the distance to the north we could see a haze
of purple, and I knew it was due to a field of Abronia in flower!
Then we stopped at the huge field of Abronia in the sandy area right
next to the road, first pointed out to me by Fred and Carla. It
was FABULOUS!!! We spent a full half hour soaking in the color
and walking around.
I took NINE different sets of pano
shots from different vantage points!
A sampling of those:
zoom shot from the parking pullout area:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_1_zoom_1_30.jpg
shots from in the field:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_4_2_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_6_3_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_8_2_30.jpg
Jeff and Jim in the field:
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_5_6_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221104/abronia/abronia_villosa_pano_7_zoom_1_30.jpg
We parked at the Villager Peak Trailhead to do our
hike, and were greeted by a nice field of Pectis. We had seen
hills of gold to the south, and it was clear now that they were due
to Pectis.
It was wonderful to hike that trail when the
plants were so happy! Desert lilies were up, Allionia was in
good bloom, and we even found a single plant of diamond cholla
(=pencil cholla), C. ramosissima, with a good bloom! Jeff and
Jim's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141191329
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141168376
North of Lute Ridge, there were a number of large
Dalea plants with flowers.
When we neared
Rattlesnake Canyon, the bouldery rocks were filled with Perityle, and
we saw the first two flowers from those plants. Jim and Jeff's
pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141173438
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141194004
At Rattlesnake Canyon we decided to turn left, and
do a loop to go back to the cars. The most notable thing about
that loop were quite a few seedling plants of Palo Verde and catclaw
acacia.
We got back to the cars at 4:30 p.m.
Jim and Jeff drove back home. I wanted to get some more hiking
in.
I had planned to hike to the fields of Abronia
previously seen in the distance, beyond the fields right at S22, but
as I drove there, an area of white sand on the ridge to the south
caught my eye. I had wanted to find some Aristida californica
for Carla and Fred, and I remembered that this was probably the
location where I had seen one plant, found by Keir Morse.
I
parked on S22, and hiked the 0.4 mile to the very white sand-dune-y
area I remembered from that past trip. I was hiking through
fields of small Pectis, verifying that was what made the hills gold.
I found a patch of Aristida in the very sandy area, but
they were all A. adscensionis.
I continued to survey in
the less-sandy area, and quickly found a patch of at least 40 plants
of A. californica.
These seven posts show about 30 of the
40 plants here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132827
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132828
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132829
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132830
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132831
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132833
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141132832
The last post above gives a "location"
pix for two of the plants.
While I was looking for
the Aristida, I came across a sphinx moth getting nectar from the
abronia at high speed. My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/141423672
This time I got back to the car at sunset, a
nicely-timed end to a flower-filled day.
--
tom
chester
