Natural History Wanderings

Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association has two new reports

March 26 Rockhouse Canyon – View Hike Details Here
We set out to find a couple of plants we’ve seen years ago, Prince’s plume, Stanleya pinnata, and  Desert sage, Salvia eremostachya.  I knew the road would be much worse than a couple of years ago, but it was even worse than expected , so we had to hike even further. It took us 7 1/2 hour return. This is the place for Sweetbush, Bebbia juncea aspera, can’t remember a place with so many huge plants. This may be the first time we where overwhelmed by a sweet smell and it took some time to realize, sweetbush. Good flowering on the bank of the canyon, the canyon wall all yellow, wow. At the springs Fountain grass, Pennisetum setaceum, lots of them. The Southern cattail, Typha domingensis seem to have died off. We where so early that a lot of plants where still closed up. Carla was pleased to see the Desert sage, Salvia eremostachya in bloom and later on a couple of much better plants. Later on Prince’s plume, Stanleya pinnata, on our way back, recognizing the leaves, we found one plant inside San Diego county.  

March 26 update:  Annual flowers in the Borrego Valley are now pretty much gone now but higher elevaton areas should see trees, aloes, cacti, and shrubs in bloom for the next couple of weeks.  There are also a lot of flowers in bloom in town, palo verde, ocotillo, and many different species of cactus.

See photos at Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers Update