Flora of Butler and Rockhouse Canyons

Butler and Rockhouse Canyons are in the northwest portion of the Clark Valley Area. The portions of those two canyons surveyed as of 1 February 2009 are shown in the following map:

This page gives a preliminary checklist made of the species observed from fieldwork and from vouchers.

The fieldwork in Butler Canyon consisted of a single survey of 1.4 miles on 24 January 2009 by Tom Chester, Michael Crouse, and Michael Charters, beginning 0.55 miles above the junction of Butler and Rockhouse Canyon Roads.

The fieldwork in Rockhouse Canyon consisted of three surveys that covered a total 4.0 miles, beginning 0.4 miles above the junction of Butler and Rockhouse Canyon Roads. The surveys were done by Tom Chester and Michael Crouse on 15 and 28 January 2009, and by Tom Chester and Anne Kelly on 1 February 2009.

All surveys were done before most annual plants were in bloom, and thus many identifications were based on immature plants, or on dead remnants from previous years. Many species are distinctive enough in those forms to result in highly-reliable determinations. Such species are present in the checklist below, but the reader should be aware that even a few of those might turn out to be misidentified. A small number of plants could not be determined to species, or even genus, with 100% confidence, and are not present below.

In the list below, some observed indeterminate species were assigned to the vouchered species, which may not always be correct. For example, dead plants of Loeseliastrum from a year earlier were found in the surveys, that cannot be identified to species without flowers. These were assigned to Loeseliastrum schottii, the only one of the two species that is vouchered here. If both species are present here, some of the observed dead plants may have been L. matthewsii.

All surveys found ubiquitous rosettes of Chaenactis fremontii and / or Malacothrix glabrata. Because those rosettes could not be confidently assigned to either species, no abundance estimates are given of those two species in the checklist below. Future surveys during bloom time will enable abundance estimates to be made of each of these two species.

Future surveys during bloom time will undoubtedly find additional species not present in the list below, so this should be considered only a preliminary list that is incomplete.

The Butler Canyon survey found 68 taxa present in the checklist below, plus the Chaenactis fremontii / Malacothrix glabrata rosettes, and what is probably a Nemacladus species.

The three Rockhouse Canyon surveys found 113 taxa present in the checklist below, plus the Chaenactis fremontii / Malacothrix glabrata rosettes and a second Gilia species.

There are 120 taxa in the checklist below from combining the lists for these two canyons.

A search of the Consortium of California Herbaria on 3 February 2009 yielded 70 vouchers that could be confidently placed in these two canyons, 58 from Butler Canyon and 12 from Rockhouse Canyon. The vast majority of those vouchers, 63 of the 70, were from a single trip by R. Mitchel Beauchamp and R. Pierce on 26 March 1971. The 70 vouchers are of 58 separate taxa.

The checklist contains a total of 147 taxa from the combination of the 120 taxa found in the surveys and the 58 vouchered taxa.

The Checklist is sorted first by category - dicots, monocots, and ferns - and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the Jepson Manual, with the Family being given by the first three letters. See Plant Family Abbreviations to decode the abbreviations. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native species.

Rough estimates of the number of plants and number of locations are given for each species observed in the two canyons. The first number is the number of plants, maxing out at 99; the second number is the number of separate locations, maxing out at 9.

The last columns give the number of vouchers, from Butler Canyon (Bu); Rockhouse Canyon (Rh), and from the entire Clark Valley Floristic Area (CV), which includes the vouchers from Butler and Rockhouse. See Flora of the Clark Valley Area for a plot of many of those voucher locations. My own voucher collections will not appear in the list of vouchers until they have been placed in a herbarium.

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#	FAM	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	Butler # Plants	Rockhouse # Plants	# Vouchers
						Bu	Rh	CV
1	PTE	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	2/1	5/2
2	SEL	Selaginella eremophila	desert spike-moss		5/1
3	EPH	Ephedra ~aspera	Mormon tea	30/9	2/2
4	EPH	Ephedra californica	desert tea	30/9	50/9
5	ACA	Justicia californica	chuparosa	40/4				1
6	ASC	Sarcostemma hirtellum	rambling milkweed	30/9	30/5	1		1
7	AST	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	50/9	50/9
8	AST	Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. albula	white mugwort		5/2
9	AST	Baccharis brachyphylla	short-leaved baccharis		1/1
10	AST	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	99/9	99/9		1	3
11	AST	Brickellia desertorum	desert brickellia		20/5
12	AST	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	pebble pincushion			1		2
13	AST	Chaenactis fremontii	Fremont pincushion			1		3
14	AST	Chrysothamnus paniculatus	punctate rabbitbrush		99/9		1	1
15	AST	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	99/9	99/9
16	AST	Filago californica	California filago		30/3
17	AST	Geraea canescens	hairy desert-sunflower			1		3
18	AST	Gutierrezia sarothrae	matchweed		20/5
19	AST	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola	cheesebush	99/9	99/9			1
20	AST	Lepidospartum squamatum	scale-broom		30/5			1
21	AST	Malacothrix glabrata	desert dandelion			1		2
22	AST	Palafoxia arida var. arida	desert needle	1/1	4/3			4
23	AST	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy	20/9	20/3	1		2
24	AST	Pleurocoronis pluriseta	arrow-leaf	50/9	50/9	2	1	3
25	AST	Rafinesquia neomexicana	desert chicory	50/9	99/9
26	AST	Senecio mohavensis	Mojave ragwort	20/9	20/2
27	AST	Stephanomeria exigua ssp. exigua	slender wreathplant			1		1
28	AST	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	wire-lettuce	50/9	99/9
29	AST	Stylocline gnaphaloides	everlasting nest-straw		5/1
30	AST	Trixis californica var. californica	California trixis	2/1	4/3			1
31	AST	Viguiera parishii	Parish's viguiera	20/4	30/7
32	BIG	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata	desert-willow		50/9
33	BOR	Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia	common fiddleneck		5/2	1		1
34	BOR	Cryptantha angustifolia	narrow-leaved cryptantha	?/?	?/?	1		4
35	BOR	Cryptantha barbigera	bearded cryptantha		?/?	1		1
36	BOR	Cryptantha maritima	Guadalupe cryptantha		3/2
37	BOR	Cryptantha micrantha	purple-root cryptantha		?/?	1		3
38	BOR	Cryptantha racemosa	bushy cryptantha		5/1
39	BOR	Pectocarya recurvata	curvenut combseed	1/1				1
40	BOR	Tiquilia palmeri	Palmer's coldenia	3/1				1
41	BRA	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	99/9	99/9			1
42	BRA	Caulanthus hallii	Hall's caulanthus			1	1	2
43	BRA	Descurainia pinnata ssp. glabra	smooth western tansy-mustard	5/1	30/2	1		1
44	BRA	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod			1		2
45	BRA	Guillenia lasiophylla	California mustard				1	1
46	BRA	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass	5/1	20/4	1		2
47	BRA	Stanleya pinnata var. pinnata	prince's plume		1/1		1	1
48	CAC	Echinocereus engelmannii	Engelmann's hedgehog cactus		2/1			1
49	CAC	Ferocactus cylindraceus	California barrel cactus	5/3	50/9
50	CAC	Mammillaria dioica	California fish-hook cactus	1/1	3/3			1
51	CAC	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	3/2	7/5			2
52	CAC	Opuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla	2/1	99/7
53	CAC	Opuntia ganderi	Gander's cholla	10/3	50/9			2
54	CAP	Isomeris arborea	bladderpod		99/9			1
55	CHE	Atriplex polycarpa	cattle saltbush		40/4
56	CRA	Dudleya pulverulenta ssp. pulverulenta	California chalk lettuce		5/1
57	CUC	Cucurbita palmata	coyote melon	1/1		1		1
58	CUS	Cuscuta californica var. papillosa	papillate dodder			1		1
59	EUP	Chamaesyce arizonica	Arizona spurge			1		1
60	EUP	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	2/2	30/9			1
61	EUP	Croton californicus	California croton			1		2
62	EUP	Ditaxis lanceolata	narrowleaf ditaxis	5/5	5/2			1
63	EUP	Stillingia linearifolia	linear-leaved stillingia			1		1
64	FAB	Acacia greggii	catclaw	50/9	50/9			1
65	FAB	Astragalus didymocarpus var. didymocarpus	white dwarf locoweed			1		1
66	FAB	Astragalus palmeri	Palmer's milk-vetch				1	1
67	FAB	Cercidium floridum ssp. floridum	blue palo verde		7/1
68	FAB	Lotus rigidus	desert lotus		6/3
69	FAB	Lotus scoparius var. brevialatus	short-winged deerweed		1/1		1	1
70	FAB	Lotus strigosus	strigose lotus			1		1
71	FAB	Lupinus arizonicus	Arizona lupine	10/9	20/9	1	1	3
72	FAB	Lupinus concinnus	bajada lupine		1/1
73	FAB	Marina parryi	Parry's marina		2/2
74	FAB	Melilotus sp.	*clover		30/1
75	FAB	Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana	honey mesquite		99/4
76	FAB	Psorothamnus emoryi	Emory's indigo-bush	10/5	4/2			4
77	FAB	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	50/9	40/9	1		2
78	FAB	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree		10/3
79	FOU	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	30/9	99/9			1
80	GER	Erodium cicutarium	*redstem filaree		99/9			1
81	HYD	Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora	whispering bells			1		1
82	HYD	Nama demissum var. demissum	purple mat			1	1	3
83	HYD	Phacelia crenulata	heliotrope phacelia	10/9	20/9
84	HYD	Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora	little-flowered heliotrope phacelia			4		4
85	HYD	Phacelia distans	common phacelia	99/9	99/9	1	1	4
86	KRA	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	3/2	3/2			1
87	LAM	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	99/9	99/9			2
88	LAM	Salvia apiana	white sage		2/2
89	LAM	Salvia columbariae	chia	20/5	50/9			1
90	LAM	Salvia eremostachya	desert sage		2/2		1	1
91	LAM	Salvia vaseyi	Vasey's sage	3/3	1/1
92	LOA	Mentzelia involucrata	bracted blazing star	1/1	1/1	1		1
93	LOA	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	Thurber's sandpaper-plant	25/3	10/4			1
94	MAL	Eremalche rotundifolia	desert five-spot	1/1				2
95	MAL	Sphaeralcea ambigua	apricot mallow		3/3			1
96	MAL	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rosacea	rosy apricot mallow			1		1
97	NYC	Abronia villosa var. villosa	hairy sand-verbena			2		4
98	NYC	Allionia incarnata	trailing four o'clock			1		1
99	NYC	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	wishbone plant	50/9	99/9			3
100	ONA	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata	Booth's evening primrose		1/1			2
101	ONA	Camissonia californica	California suncup	99/9	99/9			1
102	ONA	Camissonia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla	heartleaf sun-cup	2/1	20/5	1		1
103	ONA	Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii	brown-eyed primrose	99/9	99/9	1		3
104	ONA	Camissonia pallida ssp. pallida	pale sun-cup		5/1	1		1
105	PAP	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora	small-flowered poppy	99/9	99/9	1		3
106	PAP	Eschscholzia parishii	Parish's poppy			2		2
107	PLA	Plantago ovata	desert plantain	20/1				2
108	POL	Eriastrum eremicum ssp. eremicum	desert woolly-star		20/4
109	POL	Gilia ~australis	southern gilia		30/3
110	POL	Gilia latifolia	broad-leaf gilia			1		1
111	POL	Loeseliastrum schottii	Schott's calico	20/2	5/1			1
112	POL	Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	brittle spineflower	10/1	3/3	1		2
113	POL	Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium	California buckwheat	10/9	5/3	1		1
114	POL	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	20/9	20/9
115	POL	Eriogonum thomasii	Thomas' buckwheat	10/1	10/9	2		4
116	POL	Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum	Wright's buckwheat		50/9
117	POL	Pterostegia drymarioides	threadstem		10/1
118	POR	Calyptridium monandrum	sand cress		1/1	1		1
119	RAF	Pilostyles thurberi	Thurber's pilostyles		1/1
120	RUB	Galium stellatum var. eremicum	star-flowered bedstraw		5/3	1		1
121	RUT	Thamnosma montana	turpentine broom	1/1	2/1
122	SCR	Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's monkeyflower			1		3
123	SCR	Mohavea confertiflora	ghost flower			1		2
124	SCR	Penstemon clevelandii var. connatus?	San Jacinto beardtongue		1/1
125	SIM	Simmondsia chinensis	jojoba	3/1	2/2	1		5
126	SOL	Datura sp.	desert thornapple	1/1	10/2
127	SOL	Datura wrightii	sacred datura			1		1
128	SOL	Lycium andersonii	Anderson's desert-thorn	7/1
129	SOL	Nicotiana obtusifolia	desert tobacco	4/3	5/3			1
130	SOL	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry		1/1	1		1
131	VIS	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe	10/5	20/3
132	ZYG	Fagonia laevis	California fagonia	5/1	2/2	1		1
133	ZYG	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	50/9	99/9			3
134	ARE	Washingtonia filifera	California fan palm		1/1
135	JUN	Juncus mexicanus	Mexican rush		15/1
136	LIL	Agave deserti	desert agave	40/9	50/9
137	LIL	Hesperocallis undulata	desert lily			1		3
138	LIL	Yucca schidigera	Mohave yucca		2/1
139	POA	Aristida purpurea	purple three-awn	3/3	5/2
140	POA	Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens	*red brome		50/5
141	POA	Cynodon dactylon	*Bermuda grass		30/1
142	POA	Distichlis spicata	saltgrass		20/1
143	POA	Muhlenbergia asperifolia	scratchgrass		30/1
144	POA	Pennisetum setaceum	*fountain grass		5/2
145	POA	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	30/9	50/9			2
146	POA	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus	50/1	99/5			2
147	TYP	Typha domingensis	southern cattail		10/1

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Voucher Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria (ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/).

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