Natural History Wanderings

Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers has the following new reports

04/21 A return to the PCT, now between Angelina spring and the water stop.
One of the goals was to check out the Nemacladus ramosissimus we found on our last trip along the PCT, at that time not in bloom.
Most prominent bloomers along the PCT: Desert globemallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua rugosa and Yellow tackstem, Calycoseris parryi
We found Nemacladus ramosissimus way earlier and in good numbers along our trail.
So far we are finding only Long flowered threadplant, Nemacladus longiflorus var. longiflorus in the Anza-Borrego Desert, but no breviflorus.
The bloom is visibly going downhill, but surprisingly the bloom count doesn’t show this feeling.
Species in bloom below 3000 feet: 52.
Species in bloom above 3000 feet: 106+2 along the road.
04/19 A visit to Culp Valley up Culp Valley Road and a short hike.
Species in bloom above 3000 feet: 71.

04/18The goal was to check out the Nemacladus longiflorus var. breviflorus we found last year. We noticed germination earlier this year, the big surprise it turned out something else: N. longiflorus longiflorus.
Did the N. longiflorus var. breviflorus turned N. longiflorus longiflorus?
Our next goal was to check out the probable skeleton location of Golden bowl mariposa lily, Calochortus concolor. Strange enough we found nothing, not even the leaves we found a couple of months ago, weird.
At a small seep, a huge surprise: Common monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus, that’s an unusual place for them.
Two years ago Giant four o’clock, Mirabilis multiflora pubescens were rare in the area, now they are present in good numbers and big.
Odora, Porophyllum gracile is one of the strong smelling plants on this hike. They seem to be smelling the strongest just before bloom.
Like in a lot of other locations, Chinese houses, Collinsia concolor is present in abundance and rather big.
Species in bloom above 3000 feet: 92.
Pictures: Pena Spring – California Loop
04/17 A must go hike, to a wonderful area that is at it’s peak right now.
We checked almost every Gilia, for any signs of an unusual one.
Very unusual: Giant fields of Fremont’s pincushion, Chaenactis fremontii everywhere and fields of White tidy tips, Layia glandulosa.
On this trip we found a couple of rare plants:
Stebbins’s desert dandelion, Malacothrix stebbinsii our second find in the park this year.
Cleveland’s desert dandelion, Malacothrix clevelandii our first find ever.
In fairly high numbers Three lobed oxytheca, Sidotheca trilobata (100+)
This is the year of unusually colored plants like one very light colored Parish’s goldeneye, Bahiopsis parishii.
Species in bloom above 3000 feet: 97+5 along the dirt road.
Pictures: Whale squeeze loop

04/16
A loop in the San Felipe Wildlive preserve, in San Felipe Valley.
Certainly an place to revisit next season.
Species in bloom below 3000 feet: 52.
04/14 Our goal for today, determine what kind of mallow, Sphaeralcea we found last time.
The bloom was still good for such a bleak area. Best of all we added two new species to our list Gravel milkvetch, Astragalus sabulonum and Common sunflower, Helianthus annuus.
We skipped part of the hike, so we wanted to check out Blowsand canyon and to find Ironwood, Olneya tesota in bloom.
Along the Goat trail everything was still surprisingly good and in the Butte Pass road no Ironwood in bloom.
Species in bloom below 3000 feet: 34+23.
Pictures: Tarantula wash San Felipe creek loop