Flora of Southeast Santa Rosa Mountains

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Introduction
Checklist

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Introduction

This checklist is a start at a flora of the portion of the Santa Rosa Mountains that are in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in the extreme northeast corner of in San Diego County. It consists of:

• voucher records from the San Diego Plant Atlas, augmented by vouchers from other herbaria;

• the fairly-confidently identified species found from field surveys in the following five areas: Villager Peak Trail, Palo Verde Canyon, Smoke Tree Canyon, the Palm Wash / Calcite Mine Area, and the Extreme Northeast Corner of San Diego County.

The general location of the southeast Santa Rosa Mountains is delineated by the red rectangle in the following map:

The vouchers came from a search on 29 December 2007 of the Consortium of California Herbaria and the San Diego Plant Atlas and Herbarium records.

The Consortium records were searched for San Diego County specimens that contained the words santa rosa in the locality. Records for the Santa Rosa Plateau were removed, as were records that were outside the area as determined by the locality information. This left 88 vouchers; only three of these vouchers came from a non-San Diego Herbarium based collector! (There are a handful of duplicate San Diego vouchers present at other herbaria.)

The San Diego Plant Atlas vouchers for an area can only be retrieved by their grid cells. As a result, the area searched for vouchers from the Plant Atlas and SD Herbarium is most, but not all, of the entire southeast Santa Rosa Mountains, outlined with blue lines in the following map:

This area corresponds to eight San Diego Plant Atlas grid cells, C27, C28 and C29 along the north side; D27, D28 and D29 along the middle; and E28 and E29 along the south side. Only two of those grid cells were labeled in the above map in order to preserve the features of that map. The short blue line at the left of the south side is the beginning of Palo Verde Wash immediately north of Highway S22.

A small portion of the southeast Santa Rosa Mountains is in grid cell E27, but vouchers cannot be included from that grid cell without detailed coordinates for those vouchers.

The area for the Coyote Mountain Area Flora is outlined in dark blue / purple arrowed lines at left; the Borrego Badlands Flora (grid cells F26-F29 and G26-G29) is immediately to the south.

Most of this area is wilderness, without roads, and therefore it takes some effort to explore.

Grid cells C27, C28, C29, D27, D28, D29, E28 and E29 were retrieved from the San Diego Plant Atlas and the San Diego Herbarium database, resulting in an additional 197 records after deleting identical vouchers present in the Consortium records. One of those records, for Ceanothus oliganthus, was deleted after consulting the locality in the Consortium Records and finding the coordinates for that record were erroneous.

The final voucher database consisted of 284 vouchers. 162 of these are from the San Diego Plant Atlas; 119 are from the San Diego Herbarium; and only 3 are from elsewhere.

The dominant collector in the final voucher database was Larry Hendrickson, 82 vouchers; other collectors with a significant number of vouchers were Bill Sullivan, 27 vouchers; and Joe Barth, 19 vouchers.

There were 151 total unique taxa from the 284 vouchers. 16 of those 151 taxa were not listed in the 1985 Duffie Clemons Borrego Springs Floristic Area Checklist. The number of new taxa from these vouchers is not surprising, since this area was almost completely unsurveyed when that 1985 list was created, and it contains much higher elevations than the rest of the Borrego Springs Floristic Area. Although 36 voucher determinations had not yet been verified, very few of them are likely to be revised.

The five field surveys found 113 total unique taxa from 254 individual species records. Of the 113 taxa, 30 were taxa not found in the voucher records.

The total checklist below contains 181 taxa.

The size of this area is eight Plant Atlas Grid Cells, a total of 72 square miles. An area of this size in most of the rest of San Diego County would have roughly 500 native species, whereas this area has 150 so far recorded. There is little doubt that most of this area is unsurveyed, and future surveys will increase the number of species significantly.

For comparison, the Flora of the Granite Mountains in eastern San Bernardino County has 460 native taxa in an area of 107 square miles, about 85% of the number of taxa expected from an area in the CA-FP. Using that same factor of 0.85, one would expect 415 native taxa in this flora, 2.7 times more than is listed below. That is probably an upper limit to the number of taxa expected here, since this area contains only one aspect of the Santa Rosa Mountain Range, lacking the high-elevation north-facing slope.

Checklist for Southeast Santa Rosa Mountains

The Checklist is sorted first by category - ferns, gymnosperms, dicots, and monocots - and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.

The column Observed gives the number of areas where a taxon was observed on one of the five field surveys detailed above.

The column Vouchers gives the number of vouchers found in this area, as detailed above.

The final column, Clemons 1985, indicates whether a taxon was present in Floristic Area #16, the extended Borrego Springs area, in Duffie Clemons' 1985 Checklist of Vascular Plants of the Anza-Borrego Desert.

The number of vouchers in the table below totals to 295, not the 284 actual number reported above, since I failed to remove 11 duplicate vouchers when I tallied those numbers.

#	Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	Ob- served	Vouch -ers	Clemons 1985
1	PTE	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	1	1	X
2	CUP	Juniperus californica	California juniper		2	X
3	EPH	Ephedra aspera	Mormon tea		2	X
4	PIN	Pinus monophylla	pinyon pine		1	X
5	ACA	Justicia californica	chuparosa	2		X
6	AMA	Tidestromia oblongifolia	Arizona honeysweet	1	1	X
7	ANA	Rhus trilobata	basketbush		2	X
8	ASC	Asclepias albicans	white-stemmed milkweed	1	2	X
9	ASC	Asclepias subulata	rush milkweed	1	1	X
10	ASC	Sarcostemma hirtellum	rambling milkweed	1	1	X
11	AST	Adenophyllum porophylloides	San Felipe dogweed	1	1	X
12	AST	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	5	2	X
13	AST	Baileya pauciradiata	Colorado Desert marigold		1	X
14	AST	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	5	3	X
15	AST	Brickellia arguta var. arguta	California spear-leaved brickellia		1	X
16	AST	Calycoseris wrightii	white tackstem	2	3	X
17	AST	Chaenactis artemisiifolia	meally white pincushion		1	X
18	AST	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	pebble pincushion		2	X
19	AST	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. peirsonii	Peirson's pincushion		1	X
20	AST	Chaenactis fremontii	Fremont pincushion		1	X
21	AST	Chrysothamnus teretifolius	needle-leaved rabbitbrush		1	X
22	AST	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	5	2	X
23	AST	Encelia frutescens	button encelia	1		X
24	AST	Ericameria linearifolia	narrowleaf goldenbush		1	X
25	AST	Geraea canescens	hairy desert-sunflower	1	1	X
26	AST	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola	cheesebush	5	3	X
27	AST	Malacothrix glabrata	desert dandelion	1		X
28	AST	Monoptilon bellioides	desert star		4	X
29	AST	Palafoxia arida var. arida	desert needle	2	2	X
30	AST	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy	5	5	X
31	AST	Peucephyllum schottii	pygmy-cedar	2	3	X
32	AST	Pleurocoronis pluriseta	arrow-leaf	2	1	X
33	AST	Rafinesquia neomexicana	desert chicory	4		X
34	AST	Senecio mohavensis	Mojave ragwort	2	2	X
35	AST	Sonchus oleraceus	*sow thistle		1	X
36	AST	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	wire-lettuce	5	1	X
37	AST	Trichoptilium incisum	yellow-head		3	X
38	AST	Trixis californica var. californica	California trixis	1		X
39	AST	Viguiera parishii	Parish's viguiera		1	X
40	AST	Xylorhiza orcuttii	Orcutt's woody-aster	1	3	X
41	BOR	Cryptantha angustifolia	narrow-leaved cryptantha	1	4	X
42	BOR	Cryptantha barbigera	bearded cryptantha	1	7	X
43	BOR	Cryptantha maritima	Guadalupe cryptantha	2	2	X
44	BOR	Cryptantha micrantha	purple-root cryptantha		1	X
45	BOR	Cryptantha pterocarya var. cycloptera	wing-nut cryptantha	1	1	X
46	BOR	Cryptantha racemosa	bushy cryptantha	1	1	X
47	BOR	Pectocarya heterocarpa	chuckwalla pectocarya	1	2	X
48	BOR	Pectocarya platycarpa	broad-fruited combseed	1		X
49	BOR	Pectocarya recurvata	curvenut combseed		1	X
50	BOR	Tiquilia palmeri	Palmer's coldenia	3	1	X
51	BRA	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	4	3	X
52	BRA	Descurainia pinnata ssp. glabra	smooth western tansy-mustard		1	X
53	BRA	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod		2	X
54	BRA	Draba cuneifolia	wedge-leaved draba		1	X
55	BRA	Guillenia lasiophylla	California mustard	1		X
56	BRA	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass	1	4	X
57	BRA	Sisymbrium irio	*London rocket	1	3	X
58	BRA	Streptanthella longirostris	longbeak streptanthella	1	1	X
59	CAC	Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus	cottontop cactus	1	5	X
60	CAC	Echinocereus engelmannii	Engelmann's hedgehog cactus		2	X
61	CAC	Ferocactus cylindraceus	California barrel cactus	4	3	X
62	CAC	Mammillaria tetrancistra	fish-hook cactus	1		X
63	CAC	Opuntia acanthocarpa var. coloradensis	buckhorn cholla		1	X
64	CAC	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	4	2	X
65	CAC	Opuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla	2		X
66	CAC	Opuntia echinocarpa	silver cholla	4		X
67	CAC	Opuntia erinacea	Mojave prickly-pear		1	X
68	CAC	Opuntia ganderi	Gander's cholla	4		X
69	CAC	Opuntia ramosissima	pencil cholla	4	1	X
70	CAM	Nemacladus rubescens	desert nemacladus		1	X
71	CAR	Achyronychia cooperi	frost mat	1	2	X
72	CHE	Atriplex canescens ssp. canescens	four-wing saltbush	1		X
73	CHE	Atriplex hymenelytra	desert holly	3	1	X
74	CHE	Chenopodium murale	*nettle-leaved goosefoot	1	1	X
75	CRA	Crassula connata	pygmy-weed	1		X
76	CRO	Crossosoma bigelovii	rock crossosoma		1	X
77	CUC	Cucurbita palmata	coyote melon		1	X
78	ERI	Arctostaphylos glauca	bigberry manzanita		2	X
79	EUP	Bernardia myricifolia	western bernardia		1	X
80	EUP	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	5	3	X
81	EUP	Ditaxis lanceolata	narrowleaf ditaxis	3	4	X
82	EUP	Euphorbia eriantha	beetle spurge	1	1	X
83	FAB	Acacia greggii	catclaw	5		X
84	FAB	Astragalus nuttallianus var. cedrosensis	Cedros milk-vetch		1	X
85	FAB	Calliandra eriophylla	fairyduster		1	X
86	FAB	Cercidium floridum ssp. floridum	blue palo verde	3	6	X
87	FAB	Dalea mollis	silky dalea		1	X
88	FAB	Dalea mollissima	downy dalea	1	1	X
89	FAB	Lotus salsuginosus var. brevivexillus	short-bannered coastal lotus		1	X
90	FAB	Lotus strigosus	strigose lotus	1	2	X
91	FAB	Lupinus arizonicus	Arizona lupine	3	1	X
92	FAB	Lupinus concinnus	bajada lupine	1		X
93	FAB	Marina parryi	Parry's marina		1	X
94	FAB	Olneya tesota	ironwood	1		X
95	FAB	Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana	honey mesquite	1		X
96	FAB	Psorothamnus emoryi	Emory's indigo-bush	2	1	X
97	FAB	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	5	3	X
98	FAB	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree	4	1	X
99	FAB	Senna covesii	Coves's cassia		1	X
100	FAG	Quercus cornelius-mulleri	desert scrub oak		1	X
101	FOU	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	5	5	X
102	HYD	Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora	whispering bells	1	2	X
103	HYD	Eucrypta micrantha	desert eucrypta		1	X
104	HYD	Phacelia crenulata var. ambigua	heliotrope phacelia	2	4	X
105	HYD	Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora	little-flowered heliotrope phacelia	1		X
106	HYD	Phacelia distans	common phacelia	1	1	X
107	KRA	Krameria erecta	Pima rhatany	3	1	X
108	KRA	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	4	2	X
109	LAM	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	5	3	X
110	LAM	Monardella nana	little monardella		2	X
111	LAM	Salvia columbariae	chia	1	1	X
112	LAM	Salvia vaseyi	Vasey's sage		1	X
113	LOA	Mentzelia desertorum	desert blazing star		1	X
114	LOA	Mentzelia involucrata	bracted blazing star	1	3	X
115	LOA	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	Thurber's sandpaper-plant	3		X
116	MAL	Eremalche rotundifolia	desert five-spot	1	1	X
117	MAL	Hibiscus denudatus	rock hibiscus	3	2	X
118	MAL	Horsfordia newberryi	Newberry's velvet mallow	2	3	X
119	MAL	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rosacea	rosy apricot mallow		1	X
120	NYC	Abronia villosa var. villosa	hairy sand-verbena	1	3	X
121	NYC	Allionia incarnata	trailing four o'clock	2	2	X
122	NYC	Mirabilis bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's desert four-o'clock		2	X
123	NYC	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	wishbone plant	3		X
124	NYC	Mirabilis californica	California four o'clock		1	X
125	ONA	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata	Booth's desert primrose	5	2	X
126	ONA	Camissonia californica	California suncup	5	1	X
127	ONA	Camissonia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla	heartleaf sun-cup	2	3	X
128	ONA	Camissonia chamaenerioides	long-fruit suncup		1	X
129	ONA	Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii	brown-eyed primrose	2	5	X
130	ONA	Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides	dune primrose	1		X
131	ORO	Orobanche cooperi	Cooper's broom-rape	1	2	X
132	PAP	Eschscholzia glyptosperma	desert golden poppy	1
133	PAP	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora	small-flowered poppy	1	1	X
134	PAP	Eschscholzia parishii	Parish's poppy	1	4	X
135	PLA	Plantago ovata	desert plantain	3	3	X
136	POL	Gilia latifolia	broad-leaf gilia	1	3	X
137	POL	Gilia stellata	star gilia	2	2	X
138	POL	Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima	bristly langloisia		2	X
139	POL	Linanthus jonesii	Jones' linanthus		1	X
140	POL	Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	brittle spineflower	2	2	X
141	POL	Chorizanthe corrugata	wrinkled spineflower		1	X
142	POL	Chorizanthe rigida	devil's spineflower	1	1	X
143	POL	Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium	California buckwheat		1	X
144	POL	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	5	2	X
145	POL	Eriogonum saxatile	rock buckwheat		2	X
146	POL	Eriogonum thomasii	Thomas' buckwheat	2	3	X
147	POL	Eriogonum wrightii var. membranaceum	Wright's buckwheat		1	X
148	POL	Pterostegia drymarioides	threadstem	1		X
149	RAF	Pilostyles thurberi	Thurber's pilostyles	1		X
150	RES	Oligomeris linifolia	narrowleaf oligomeris		3	X
151	RHA	Rhamnus ilicifolia	hollyleaf redberry		1	X
152	ROS	Cercocarpus betuloides var. betuloides	birch-leaf mountain-mahogany		1	X
153	ROS	Coleogyne ramosissima	black brush		1	X
154	SCR	Antirrhinum filipes	desert twining snapdragon		1	X
155	SCR	Mohavea confertiflora	ghost flower		3	X
156	SOL	Datura discolor	desert thornapple	1		X
157	SOL	Lycium parishii	Parish's desert-thorn	1
158	SOL	Nicotiana obtusifolia	desert tobacco	2	1	X
159	SOL	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry	2	2	X
160	STE	Ayenia compacta	ayenia		1	X
161	VIS	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe	4	4	X
162	ZYG	Fagonia laevis	California fagonia	3		X
163	ZYG	Fagonia pachyacantha	sticky fagonia	2	2	X
164	ZYG	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	5	6	X
165	LIL	Agave deserti	desert agave	2		X
166	LIL	Hesperocallis undulata	desert lily	2		X
167	LIL	Nolina parryi	Parry's nolina		1	X
168	LIL	Yucca schidigera	Mohave yucca		1	X
169	ORC	Epipactis gigantea	stream orchid		2	X
170	POA	Achnatherum speciosum	desert needlegrass		1	X
171	POA	Aristida adscensionis	six-weeks three-awn	1	3	X
172	POA	Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi	Nealley three-awn		1	X
173	POA	Aristida purpurea var. parishii	Parish three-awn		1	X
174	POA	Bouteloua curtipendula	side-oats grama		1	X
175	POA	Erioneuron pulchellum	fluff grass		1	X
176	POA	Melica imperfecta	coast-range melic		1	X
177	POA	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	5	2	X
178	POA	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus	4	3	X
179	POA	Vulpia bromoides	*brome fescue	1
180	POA	Vulpia myuros var. hirsuta	*hairy rattail fescue		1	X
181	POA	Vulpia octoflora var. hirtella	hairy six-weeks fescue		1	X

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