This
was a magical trip!
Walt Fidler, Jane Gomery, Don
Rideout, Jim Roberts and I began in the field of flowers at the
Canyon 41 parking area; hiked through vast fields of sand verbena in
stunning bloom; and topped it all off by seeing 20 plants of
turtleback in bloom; 100 plants of bristly langloisia in full bloom;
and many plants of Chorizanthe corrugata and Eriogonum trichopes in
bud.
We saw 62 species in bloom, a new record for this
year. In DECEMBER, when we usually have just 7 to 10 species in
bloom per trip. The full list of species in bloom is given at
the end of this email.
What a great desert season!
Best
of all, we get to have an extended season to enjoy these flowers, as
well as cool temperatures, since the spring and summer heat is still
months away.
The plants were so fabulous that Jim
and Don posted 138 observations of 73 species at iNat, and I
contributed 13 obs of 3 species, for a total of 151 obs of 73
species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-18&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1,tchester
NINETY-NINE (99) of those observations show plants in
bloom!
This is what you get when you have the
remnants of a tropical storm dropping lots of rain in September,
following a good summer monsoon, conditions that only happen once
every ten to twenty years.
Here is just a small
sampling of the delights; see the iNat posts for all of them.
-
The Abronia fields. They kept being so spectacular that it was
hard to resist taking pix every time a new patch was seen.
My
pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/abronia/abronia_villosa_3_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/abronia/abronia_villosa_3_6_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/abronia/abronia_villosa_5_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/abronia/abronia_villosa_5_3_30.jpg
Don's pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/rideout/abronia_field_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/rideout/abronia_near_dusk_30.jpg
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144674765
Additional posts from me are at iNat.
The
Abronia had the most wonderful rich color near sunset, but cameras
can't capture it.
The desert pavement delights are
mostly small plants that are beautiful up close, but are hard to see
from a distance. Here's Don's pix of me and Jane admiring one
of those, while Jim and Walt are off seeking more:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/rideout/desert_pavement_delights_30.jpg
Here are some of those delights:
Langloisia:
Don's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144684892
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144682994
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144706188
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144710995
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144701754
Turtleback:
Don's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144686650
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144684818
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144710167
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144709729
and, of course, Monoptilon:
Don's
posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144701117
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144683864
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144709585
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144709616
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144711190
OK, that's the sampler; see the main iNat link
above for more treasures.
Details:
Along
SR76, near the Rancho Cuca area at Palomar, there are cultivated
annual sunflowers in bloom in one spot, presumably from someone
spreading seeds at that location. Don also thought the Ribes
indecorum near Red Gate Road might have been in bloom, but it was
hard to be sure due to the lighting at this time of year.
The
cottonwood fall color in San Felipe Valley is mostly gone, with the
leaves blown off the trees by the last storm.
Blooms
along S2 are the same as we've seen in the last month, with nothing
happening until we get near Agua Caliente County Park.
Don
and I met Jim, Jane, and Walt at the Canyon 41 parking spot just
before 11:30 p.m. Jim and Walt had showed up a bit earlier,
with Jim photographing plants near the parking area and Walt scouting
out Ironwood Wash.
Jane is from the CNPS Santa Clara
Chapter, visiting San Diego, and has hiked with Don and me once
before.
Our forward hiking progress was pretty slow
at first, since we were hiking in fields of sand verbena and we had
to stop frequently to admire them! (;-)
We
eventually started making some progress up Ironwood Wash, but didn't
see any Ironwoods for a while. The first one we saw was
leafless except for small clusters of new growth at the ends of a few
branches.
Some trees had the number of leaves expected;
Don and Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144682556
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144691564
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144691868
Other trees had bare branches in part.
I
spotted a sandpaper bush that had weird dense growth on it like we
see occasionally in Bebbia. My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144756348
I spotted the first baby ocotillo at the first
Langloisia location, and Don and I ended up spotting EIGHT seedling
ocotillos! Don photographed all of them. We measured one
as 3 cm tall and 5 cm wide. We also measured some older
ocotillos that appeared to be 3, 4, 5, and 7 years old, by using the
new growth lengths. Don and I will make a webpage with this
info, to document that this species is not "on the way out",
as has been speculated by Jim Cornett, from the lack of seedlings
that he has seen. Don and Jim's 13 posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-18&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1&view=&taxon_id=49325&page=
One article reporting Cornett's findings:
-----------------------------
This ocotillo and
many others are starting to die as climate change takes effect and no
new plants are springing up to replace those that have died.
...
In a pair of recently published
research articles, Cornett, of JWC Ecological Consultants,
describes how ocotillos and another botanical giant of the
southwest desert, Washington fan palms, are succumbing to the
impacts of drier
<https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2021/09/21/despite-drought-californians-barely-conserving-water-palm-springs-and-bermuda-dunes-top-10-water-use/8366861002/>,
hotter weather.
https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/environment/2022/01/21/beloved-california-desert-plants-beset-climate-change-thirsty-animals/9193421002/
--------------
Of course, not all seedlings
make it. Don photographed a seedling right at the Canyon 41
parking area four years ago, in a very distinctive location, and it
was gone when we checked it. Don's post from 4 years ago:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/18529392
After the excitement of the desert pavement
species, Jim and Jane headed back to the cars, while Don, Walt and I
continued on. Don took this pix of Whale Peak from that area:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/rideout/view_of_whale_peak_30.jpg
Our feet took us up the east branch of Ironwood
Canyon, close to what I call the "Middle Wash" to the
east. So we decided to try to do a loop with that.
There
was no problem getting to Middle Wash, but there was a little problem
when we got to its western bank and discovered it was pretty steep,
looking a bit treacherous to descend. Don's pix from the top of
that bank:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/rideout/steep_bank_midddle_wash_30.jpg
The slope in his pix looked much more hazardous in real
life than in his pix.
I looked around, and spotted the
more gentle descent of a ridge to the north, that just sticks above
the shadow of the bank in the middle of Don's pix. That descent
worked perfectly. Don and Walt skipped down that ridge, and I
was able to cautiously negotiate it. (:-)
We
had run out of time, so we mostly hiked back to the car, getting
there just at the last drop of decent light.
Here's
a map of our route:
http://tchester.org/temp/221218/route_221218.PNG
List of species in bloom on our hike:
#Pls
in bloom name
99 Abronia villosa
var. villosa
99 Achyronychia cooperi
99
Allionia incarnata var. incarnata
99
Chamaesyce micromera
99 Chylismia claviformis
ssp. peirsonii
99 Cryptantha angustifolia
99 Dalea mollissima
99
Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima
99
Palafoxia arida var. arida
99 Perityle emoryi
99 Trichoptilium incisum
50
Ditaxis lanceolata
50 Monoptilon bellioides
50 Pectis papposa var. papposa
40
Hyptis emoryi
30 Physalis crassifolia
20 Hibiscus denudatus
20
Plantago ovata
15 Psathyrotes
ramosissima
10 Amaranthus fimbriatus
10 Cuscuta psorothamnensis
10
Dithyrea californica
10 Encelia farinosa
10 Eremothera boothii ssp. condensata
10
Geraea canescens
5 Acmispon strigosus
5 Adenophyllum porophylloides
5
Brassica tournefortii
5 Chamaesyce setiloba
5 Eremothera refracta
5
Eriogonum trichopes
5 Eulobus californicus
5 Hilaria rigida
5
Phacelia distans
5 Psorothamnus schottii
5 Psorothamnus spinosus
4
Mentzelia involucrata
3 Justicia
californica
3 Loeseliastrum schottii
3
Psorothamnus emoryi
2 Ambrosia dumosa
2 Boerhavia wrightii
2
Croton californicus
2 Datura discolor
2
Encelia frutescens
2 Fagonia laevis
2
Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi
2 Phacelia
crenulata var. minutiflora
2 Stephanomeria
pauciflora
1 Aliciella latifolia ssp.
latifolia
1 Asclepias subulata
1
Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia
1
Chamaesyce pediculifera
1 Ericameria
paniculata
1 Eriogonum inflatum
1
Eriogonum thomasii
1 Fouquieria splendens
ssp. splendens
1 Krameria bicolor
1
Krameria erecta
1 Lupinus arizonicus
1
Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa
1 Sisymbrium
irio
--
tom
chester
