A Quantitative Flora of Wellman Cienega, San Jacinto Mountains

Tom Chester, Dave Stith, James Dillane, Krista Adamek and Michael Charters

Pano of four individual photos showing the North Wellman Cienega from its upper point looking east, by Tom Chester. Note the person (Krista Adamek) at upper left for scale. The tree-covered valley formed by Willow Creek is in the middle to far distance, which joins Tahquitz Valley in the far distance. The lowest point on the horizon is the Caramba area. Sam Fink Peak is the rocky peak just south of Caramba. See also larger picture, and picture showing the camera location, taken by Krista Adamek with Tom Chester in the middle

Introduction

Wellman Cienega is located at 8960-9420 feet (2730-2870 m) elevation in the San Jacinto Mountains, and is the headwaters of Willow Creek in the Tahquitz Valley. For more information about Willow Creek and the Tahquitz Valley, including their location plotted on a large-scale map, see A Quantitative Flora of Willow and Tahquitz Creeks.

The USGS topographic map (the San Jacinto Peak 7.5' sheet) shows Wellman Cienega as two nearby separate areas, a north Cienega and a south Cienega. The centers of each are separated by ~0.25 miles, and their closest edges are separated by ~0.15 miles. Each Cienega is roughly circular, with a diameter of ~0.1 miles and an area of ~5 acres (2 hectares), although the north Cienega is actually somewhat bigger than the South Cienega.

However, most of the area between the two Cienegas is somewhat moist, with lots of bracken and some other wet area species such as Lupinus latifolius. There is also a much smaller wet area just to the south of the North Cienega. No additional species were found in any of this in-between area, and the species abundance estimates below do not include that area.

See also a Google satellite map showing these areas (labeled version) and a pano of the northern boggy area of the south Wellman Cienega taken from the trail.

This flora of Wellman Cienega was compiled from three surveys:

• 11 July 2008: A roughly one hour survey of the north Cienega and the northern part of the south Cienega, only in the vicinity of the Wellman Divide Trail, by Tom Chester, Dave Stith, James Dillane and Michael Charters. This survey was part of a survey of the Trail, and records were not kept separately for the Cienegas. See the Photo Gallery by Michael Charters for the entire trip from the Tram in Long Valley to Wellman Cienega.

• 3 September 2010: A three hour survey of the south Cienega by Tom Chester and Dave Stith, with abundance estimates made just for the south Cienega. The survey was primarily of the western flattish boggy-area part, above the steeper dense bracken and Veratrum field below.

• 10 September 2010: A two hour survey of the north Cienega by Tom Chester, Dave Stith and Krista Adamek, with abundance estimates made just for the north Cienega. The portion west of the Wellman Divide Trail was quite thoroughly surveyed, but no portion east of the Trail was surveyed.

In addition, a one hour trip was done on 12 October 2010 in order to confirm the determination of the Thalictrum species, which resulted in finding two more species for the south Cienega and one more species for the north Cienega.

Since this Checklist results from only a total of seven hours of surveying on four different days, with some parts of the Cienega unsurveyed, it undoubtedly is incomplete.

Numbers of Species in the North and South Cienega

We observed a total of 79 species in one or both of the Cienegas. Of those, 56 are wet area species observed in at least one of the Cienegas. (The others were dry area species found incidentally around the periphery of the meadows.)

Of those 56 wet-area species, 12 were observed only in the south Cienega; 4 were observed only in the north Cienega; and 40 were observed in both Cienegas. (See the checklist below to see the species in each category.)

These numbers are consistent with those expected from the fundamental species / area relationship in which the number of species scales as area to roughly the 1/3 power. If the two meadows are equal in size, and the exponent is 1/3, one would expect 60% of the species observed in at least one meadow to be found in both meadows, and 20% of the species to be confined to each meadow, calculated as follows.

The number of species in the combined area is the third root of 2, about 1.25, times the number in each half. Thus 0.25 out of 1.25, or 20%, of the total species will be found only in each half, making a total of 40% of the species will be found only in one half or the other. Only 60% of the species will be found in both areas.

Out of 56 species, that would be 34.0 ± 5.8 expected to be in both meadows, and 11.2 ± 3.3 to be in just one meadow.

The number observed in both meadows is 40, which is off by only one standard deviation from that expected, an entirely expected excursion. The 12 species observed only in the south Cienega is almost precisely that expected, and the 4 observed only in the north Cienega is off by only 7.2 / 3.3 = 2.2 standard deviations, which is within the realm of the difference expected due to chance.

Checklist for Wellman Cienega

The Checklist is sorted first by category - ferns, dicots, and monocots - and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the 1993 Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name would indicate a non-native taxon, but none were found here. (Note that it is debated whether Poa pratensis is native or non-native to the mountains of southern California.)

To save space, a three letter abbreviation is used for the Family. See Plant Family Abbreviations to decode the abbreviation.

The column labeled #Plants is our estimate of the minimum number of plants for each taxon in each of our surveys, separately for each Cienega. The maximum value is 99 plants. The main intent of this column is to indicate the species for which we found few plants.

The column labeled #SnJt is the number of occurrences for each taxon in all of our San Jacinto Mountain surveys. Taxa with a 1 in that column have been found so far only in this Cienega.

The column labeled Wet indicates whether a taxon grows in wet areas such as the Cienegas themselves. Such a designation does not imply that a species grows only in such areas. For example, Carex fracta grows in dryish areas as well as wet areas. Other taxa on the checklist were encountered around the edge of the meadow.

See the Photo Gallery by Michael Charters for pictures of some of the species observed along the trip from the Tram in Long Valley to Wellman Cienega.

Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (3 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided page). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)

#	JM Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	#Plants		#SnJt	Wet
				N	S
1	DEN	Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens	bracken	99	99	45	W
2	PIN	Abies concolor	white fir		1	52
3	PIN	Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana	lodgepole pine	40	99	28
4	PIN	Pinus jeffreyi	Jeffrey pine	3	1	49
5	API	Oxypolis occidentalis	western cow-bane		99	3	W
6	API	Perideridia parishii	Parish's yampah	99	99	14	W
7	API	Sphenosciadium capitellatum	ranger's buttons	5	10	31	W
8	AST	Achillea millefolium	yarrow	99	99	36	W
9	AST	Aster alpigenus var. andersonii	Anderson's oreastrum-aster	99	99	3	W
10	AST	Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. bernardinus	San Bernardino rubber rabbitbrush	20		38
11	AST	Helenium bigelovii	Bigelow's sneezeweed	20		1	W
12	AST	Solidago californica	goldenrod		20	39
13	CAP	Symphoricarpos rotundifolius var. parishii	Parish's snowberry	20	20	40
14	CAR	Sagina saginoides	pearlwort	10	1	25	W
15	CAR	Silene verecunda ssp. platyota	white catch-fly	10	10	36
16	CHE	Chenopodium atrovirens	forest goosefoot	50	1	16
17	CHE	Chenopodium fremontii	Fremont's goosefoot		10	20
18	ERI	Arctostaphylos patula	green-leaf manzanita	2		30
19	ERI	Rhododendron occidentale	western azalea		2	31	W
20	FAB	Lotus nevadensis var. nevadensis	Sierra Nevada lotus		3	37
21	FAB	Lupinus latifolius var. parishii	Parish's lupine	1	3	16	W
22	FAB	Trifolium monanthum var. grantianum	mountain carpet clover	30	99	31	W
23	FAG	Chrysolepis sempervirens	bush chinquapin	99	99	37
24	GER	Geranium californicum	California geranium	99	99	25	W
25	GRO	Ribes cereum var. cereum	wax currant	5	10	35
26	GRO	Ribes roezlii var. roezlii	Sierra gooseberry	40	1	27
27	HYD	Phacelia mutabilis	changeable phacelia	20	50	34
28	HYP	Hypericum anagalloides	tinker's penny	99	99	10	W
29	LAM	Monardella australis	southern mountain-monardella	50	20	13
30	LAM	Stachys ajugoides var. rigida	rigid hedge-nettle	20	10	24	W
31	ONA	Epilobium canum ssp. latifolium	mountain California-fuchsia	30	15	45
32	ONA	Epilobium ciliatum	willowherb	30	30	32	W
33	ONA	Epilobium glaberrimum ssp. glaberrimum	glaucus willowherb	20	20	23	W
34	ONA	Epilobium oregonense	slimstem willowweed	2	2	2	W
35	ONA	Gayophytum diffusum ssp. parviflorum	groundsmoke	99	50	16	W
36	POL	Allophyllum divaricatum	purple false-gilia		5	21	W
37	POL	Rumex salicifolius var. salicifolius	willow-leaved dock	99	10	20	W
38	PRI	Dodecatheon alpinum	alpine shooting star	99	99	4	W
39	RAN	Thalictrum fendleri var. fendleri	Fendler's meadow-rue	5	20	25	W
40	RHA	Ceanothus cordulatus	mountain whitethorn	1		40
41	ROS	Holodiscus microphyllus var. microphyllus	mountain spray	15	2	16
42	ROS	Horkelia clevelandii	Cleveland's horkelia	99	99	26	W
43	ROS	Potentilla glandulosa ssp. nevadensis	Nevada cinquefoil	30	50	21	W
44	ROS	Prunus emarginata	bitter cherry		15	22
45	SCR	Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii	Martin's paintbrush	3		29
46	SCR	Castilleja miniata ssp. miniata	giant red paintbrush	20	8	30	W
47	SCR	Mimulus breweri	Brewer's monkeyflower		2	9	W
48	SCR	Mimulus cardinalis	scarlet monkeyflower	3		17	W
49	SCR	Mimulus floribundus	floriferous monkeyflower		5	9	W
50	SCR	Mimulus moschatus	musk monkeyflower	20	99	32	W
51	SCR	Mimulus primuloides ssp. primuloides	primrose monkeyflower	99	99	12	W
52	SCR	Mimulus suksdorfii	Suksdorf's monkeyflower		1	4	W
53	SCR	Mimulus tilingii	larger mountain monkeyflower	99	99	38	W
54	SCR	Veronica serpyllifolia ssp. humifusa	thyme-leaved speedwell		10	18	W
55	URT	Urtica dioica ssp. holosericea	stinging nettle	20	10	10	W
56	CYP	Carex abrupta	abrupt-beak sedge	10	20	18	W
57	CYP	Carex fracta	fragile sheath sedge	50	99	40	W
58	CYP	Carex heteroneura var. heteroneura	vari-nerved sedge	30		8	W
59	CYP	Carex nebrascensis	Nebraska sedge		99	1	W
60	CYP	Carex senta	swamp sedge	99	99	36	W
61	IRI	Sisyrinchium bellum	blue-eyed grass	99	50	3	W
62	JUN	Juncus duranii	Duran's rush		1	8	W
63	JUN	Juncus longistylis	long-styled rush	50		13	W
64	JUN	Juncus macrandrus	long-anthered rush	99	99	26	W
65	JUN	Luzula comosa	hairy wood rush	10	99	21	W
66	LIL	Calochortus invenustus	plain mariposa lily		1	24
67	LIL	Lilium parryi	lemon lily	4	6	31	W
68	LIL	Smilacina stellata	little false-solomon's-seal		4	11	W
69	LIL	Veratrum californicum var. californicum	California corn lily	99	99	20	W
70	ORC	Platanthera leucostachys	white bog orchid	50	2	7	W
71	POA	Agrostis idahoensis	Idaho bentgrass	99	50	37	W
72	POA	Bromus carinatus var. carinatus	California brome	50	20	25	W
73	POA	Deschampsia elongata	slender hairgrass		50	31	W
74	POA	Elymus glaucus ssp. glaucus	blue wildrye	50	20	4	W
75	POA	Elymus trachycaulus	slender wheatgrass		20	18
76	POA	Muhlenbergia andina	foxtail muhly		30	11	W
77	POA	Muhlenbergia richardsonis	mat muhly	99	10	17	W
78	POA	Phleum alpinum	mountain timothy	30	15	14	W
79	POA	Poa pratensis ssp. agassizensis	Kentucky blue grass	50	7	24	W

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• Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras