2019-01-07_Sandy Areas N of San Felipe Wash (SFW), just W of Buttes Pass Rd x SFW_Anza-Borrego Desert State Park_San Diego County_California_US
We continued GPS’ing Astragalus aridus in order to be able to map the population of this rare plant. This is the first year I've seen it. I had 42 GPS points of it today. Tom Chester and Walt Fidler were also GPS'ing locations (we spread out).
Overall, less diversity than the previous two surveys immediately E of here.
Highlight of the day for me was finding 6 Cleomella obtusifolia (4 in flower--yellow). I GPS'd the locations. I now have anchored my search image for this plant. Before today, we had seen just 1 on our surveys in this area.
Curiously, unlike our last survey E of here on 2 Jan 2019, we saw no ~Eriastrum harwoodii today. Last survey, there were many. I was ready to GPS the new locations today, but nothing. The semi-stable dunes here likely have a slightly different suite of characteristics that are no longer favorable for ~E. harwoodii. I'm looking forward to returning E of here later in the season to confirm the E. harwoodii ID when the plant flowers. I haven't seen E. harwoodii before, but vegetatively this plant is easily recognizable as an Eriastrum.
I only saw one Astragalus crotalariae (in flower--I posted it) right at the beginning of the survey, then none. I did find Astragalus lentiginosus var. borreganus sparsely scattered (2 in flower I posted). I saw 5 Astragalus didymocarpus var. dispermus--more than on the surveys E of here.
FUN FACT: I shared with the group that Chylismia claviformis has the fastest photosynthetic rate of any plant in the world (that has been measured).
At the beginning of the survey, I revisited the Atriplex elegans var. fasciculata from 2 surveys ago. It was in flower. I posted an observation of it.
***On 10 Jan 2019, Tom Chester sent out an email report of this research survey. His email follows:
Nancy Accola, Walt Fidler, Kate Harper, Jim Roberts, Joe Woods and I had
the usual delightful time botanizing this floriferous area. And the
weather was perfect, too.
Pix from our wonderful iNat observers from this trip:
Kate Harper, 65 observations of 55 taxa:
https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/botanywoman/2019/1/7
Jim Roberts, 55 Observations of 53 taxa:
https://www.inaturalist.org/calendar/jimirob1/2019/1/7
Highlights:
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The absolute highlight of this trip came on the drive home, when Nancy
Accola and I saw a female MOUNTAIN LION crossing the road in front of us on
the drive home. -
Seeing a Langloisia setosissima in bloom, found by Jim Roberts. I love
that plant!
Jim's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19538381
Kate's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19528160
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Continuing our census of the Astragalus aridus population. We're now up
to seeing a minimum of 500 plants, at 443 GPS points! My best estimate now
of the population here is probably a minimum of 1,000 plants, and maybe
2,000 plants. -
Using my numbers, I saw 1,118 plants of 54 species in bloom, almost
exactly what I recorded on the previous trip. Walt had an even better trip
than he did on 1/2/19; including his observations earlier in the day before
we got there, he found 3,040 plants of 77 species in bloom! (;-)
It again was wonderful to see Borrego milkvetch in bloom, now joined by
Astragalus crotalariae:
Jim's pix of the two species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19535984
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19534077
Kate's pix of the two species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19498399
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19495303
Nancy was particularly excited to see the first bloom on the Aliciella:
Jim's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19560583
Kate's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19535268
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Frost damage to the plants was minimal. One Dicoria canescens was quite
unhappy; some Palafoxia had drooping upper branches; and some Eriogonum
thomasii had frost-bitten ends of its inflorescence. But 99.9% of the
plants were unscathed. In particular, the Geraea looked like they had
completely recovered; yay! -
We found some huge desert lily plants, one with 14 basal leaves, and
another with an estimated 140 buds, flowers and fruit! The number comes
from my counting the buds / flowers / fruit on two or three different
branches of the infl, which each had ~20, and then multiplying by the 7
total branches, after checking that each of branches had about the same
number of buds / flowers / fruit.
As far as I know, this is a record number of buds / flowers / fruit from a
single flowering stalk.
Kate's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/19533079
Jim's pix (look at the shadow in his pix to see the huge number of buds,
flowers and fruits most clearly):
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