Bush-mallow Challenge 2 - horehound bush-mallow

The second challenge is to find some living plants near the type locality of horehound bush-mallow (Malacothamnus marrubioides). If you live in the Friant area or want to go on an adventure, here is some information to help you possibly find this species. Any observations of any bush-mallows from this area would be very useful information as the nearest other bush-mallow observations are over 30 miles away. All other specimens that are currently called horehound bush-mallow are over 100 miles away. Being that disjunct makes me wonder if they actually are the same taxon.

The type locality of horehound bush-mallow is supposedly from Fort Miller which is now under Lake Millerton. It appears that a single specimen was collected and a few other specimens have been made of fragments of this specimen. The expedition this was collected on stopped at Fort Miller for a week at the end of July in 1853. I could find little detail about that week, but I suspect the specimen may just be from the general area of the fort and that they likely went exploring. The elevation of the fort is a bit low for at least one of the species that was attributed to there. Here is the exploration record if interested. It’s pretty cool.

Below is a map (larger version here) which shows the presumed locality as a star. The red areas are recent burns and the best likely locations to search for the plants. Follow this link for an interactive fire map.