What an amazing trip! Ted Caragozian, Don Rideout, Jim Roberts
and I would have been happy with even 1/4 of the beautiful and
amazing things we saw. This was as good as many springtime
trips when the desert is in full bloom, yet it is DECEMBER!!!!
The
top news from this trip is that Petalonyx linearis is BACK! We
thought this sub-shrub was extirpated from ABDSP after it disappeared
from all known locations. But we found 33 very happy plants at
the location where it has been seen twice before, on 25 March 1984 by
Duffie Clemons, and on 12 March 2012 by Karyn Sauber and myself.
On
seeing these plants appear again, I immediately realized that these
were "monsoonal facultative annuals" in our area, or very
short-lived subshrubs, just like Eucnide rupestris. That is,
they are longer-lived plants elsewhere, in areas with reliable summer
rain, but not here in most years. So they disappeared not
because they were extirpated, but because they hadn't received enough
monsoonal rain to re-appear.
They clearly need a good
summer rain to germinate. That part is not unusual; many of our
shrubs germinate primarily from summer rains.
Many
perennial plants (including shrubs) can flower in their first year,
so that is not terribly unusual, either.
The only way
they can survive a full year or more is if they get good winter rain
after they germinate from a summer rain, and then the next summer has
good rain as well. This happens in most of its range, but not
here. Hence they are effectively annuals here.
Don,
Jim and I posted 42 observations of most of these 33 plants:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-04&place_id=95385&taxon_id=78458
My posts show their habitat, with my colleagues having an
immense amount of fun finding these rare plants:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143746401
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143750760
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143750761
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143750762
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143750763
Don took this great pix looking back down from one of the
highest plants he was able to reach:
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/rideout/looking_down_from_highest_petalonyx_30.jpg
The almost-as-top news was that there were flowers,
flowers, everywhere! We noted 65 (SIXTY FIVE) species in
bloom. And most of those species were not just represented by one
or two plants.
Many of the flowering plants are in the
159 obs of 60 species posted by Don, Jim and me:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-04&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1,tchester
Don posted 72 obs of 49 species; Jim posted 60 obs of 30
species; and I posted 27 obs of 7 species.
There
were thousands of Perityle plants in bloom. There were
something like 50 beautiful Bigelow's monkeyflower in bloom, and
almost as many ghost plants with flowers. Both Mentzelia
hirsutissima and M. involucrata were in bloom, with two huge plants
of each species growing right next to each other for an easy
comparison of the two.
There were other delights along
the way, of species we hadn't seen in bloom yet this year, such as
the first Chaenactis carphoclinia, Eriophyllum wallacei, Phacelia
crenulata, and broad-leaf Gilia, Aliciella latifolia.
See
the link above for pix of these beauties, some of which are also
discussed and linked below.
Details:
As
has been the case for some time now, there was not much in bloom
along S2 until we passed the Vallecito Stage Station, and rounded the
bend toward Agua Caliente County Park and flower paradise right now.
It is easy to see where flower paradise begins, since the road is
lined with Datura discolor and Abronia villosa in bloom.
Ted,
Don and I met Jim at the parking area for Canyon 41 at 11:30 a.m.
The temp was a pleasant 65 deg.
The hills in the distance
were still magenta from the fields of Abronia villosa in bloom.
The north-facing hillside right in the parking area
was absolutely amazing. It was filled with annuals, including
the first Chaenactis carphoclinia in bloom, and a number of plants of
Eremothera refracta, which I hadn't seen for a very long time, and
Cryptantha maritima.
The amazing thing about seeing
Chaenactis carphoclinia in bloom is that it is usually one of the
last spring annuals to bloom!
Pix of Eremothera refracta
(the flowers don't fully open until dusk):
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143749443
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143748916
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143702790
We could have spent an hour or more just on this
hillside, but we didn't since we wanted to get as deeply into Canyon
41 as possible.
We started hiking at 11:50 a.m.,
and got into the Canyon 41 wash at noon, where we were greeted by our
first Mentzelia hirsutissima in bloom.
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143703034
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143749648
Don took this pix soon after we entered the Canyon
41 wash, with the road pointing the way to the Canyon 41 entrance:
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/rideout/going_up_canyon_41_wash_30.jpg
Canyon 41 angles to the upper right of the pix.
We
soon came across a huge mass of our endemic species Cuscuta
psorothamnensis, which was in bloom!
Jim's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143750250
Don's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143706232
Soon after that, Ted spotted a ghost flower in
bloom:
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143805149
My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143764805
Once we saw ghost flower in bloom, we knew it was
going to be an even more-fantastic day than we had expected from that
first amazing north-facing hillside. And we didn't see just
those first ghost flowers in bloom, we saw them almost throughout our
hike. Some additional pix:
My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143764806
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143762035
The walls of the wash, and the canyon walls, were
covered with Perityle in bloom essentially everywhere. They
were so glorious that I took pix in six different locations where I
just couldn't stop myself from taking more pix.
Here are
some of my pix, in time order hiking up the canyon:
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/perityle/perityle_emoryi_2_2_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/perityle/perityle_emoryi_3_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/perityle/perityle_emoryi_5_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/perityle/perityle_emoryi_5_2_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/perityle/perityle_emoryi_7_2_30.jpg
My posts, with additional pix and locations, are here:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-04&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1,tchester&view=&taxon_id=78445&page=
We were in seventh heaven, but had no idea just how
fantastic the day was about to become.
We got to
the Petalonyx linearis location at 12:50 p.m., and I wasn't expecting
to see any. But almost immediately we spotted a plant that was
easily reached, and it was IN BLOOM! We were like kids in a
candy store studying, counting, and photographing the plants.
How
utterly wonderful!
The pix are linked above.
After
a half hour of sheer bliss, we continued on to see what other
delights were in store for us.
We were very pleased
to find two huge plants of Mentzelia hirsutissima and M. involucrata
growing right next to each other, for an easy comparison of the two.
My post has some labeled pix of the differences:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143764103
Don's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143772043
Jim's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143800445
We were delighted to see our first Bigelow's
Monkeyflower, and even more delighted when we saw plants that each
had a number of flowers.
My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143848305
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143749994
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143702933
Here are all 9 of our posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-04&place_id=95385&taxon_id=701989&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1,tchester
We even saw these two species blooming side by
side. Don's pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/rideout/mimulus_and_ghost_flower_together_70.jpg
I could go on and on about the species we saw, but
I don't have time to do that. Use the main link above to see
the other beauties.
Jim turned around at about 3
p.m., and I started hustling toward the Inner Pasture, with Don and
Ted following.
Due to all the time spent with wonderful
flowers, I didn't think I'd make it by 3:30 p.m., when we needed to
turn around, and I was right. We got pretty close, though,
making it to the fence where we were just 0.4 miles away from
entering Inner Pasture, by 3:15 p.m. We took a cookie break
there, and headed back to the cars.
Don took this pix
looking back up the canyon soon after we rounded the first bend in
the canyon heading back:
http://tchester.org/temp/221204/rideout/Looking_back_up_canyon_near_turnaround_point_30.jpg
We were walking down canyon at a fairly rapid pace
when I suddenly spotted a rosy boa in front of us! Don's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/143775446
The snake was quite lethargic, a very cooperative subject
for Don's camera.
We made it back to the cars
with the last drop of sunlight, arriving there at 5:12 p.m., 34
minutes after sunset, feeling very fortunate to have been on this
trip.
--
tom
chester
