tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21468147927367940842024-03-18T14:15:36.850-07:00Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden BlogRSABG is the largest botanic garden dedicated to California native plants.
RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-59866234945444625582016-04-12T14:14:00.002-07:002016-04-12T14:29:54.046-07:00A Wildflower Wonderland<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7rLxraW5r4/Vw1ksOCnumI/AAAAAAAACWc/7nbiQ-yRWDssF6opucE_c0Hct3hYSzVfA/s1600/rafinesquia-neomexicana_25488580475_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7rLxraW5r4/Vw1ksOCnumI/AAAAAAAACWc/7nbiQ-yRWDssF6opucE_c0Hct3hYSzVfA/s320/rafinesquia-neomexicana_25488580475_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rafinesquia neomexicana (desert chicory)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In my earliest years documenting plants as a botanist, I was fortunate enough to
experience several consecutive wet winters including the 2004-2005 El Niño
winter and the spectacular display of wildflowers that followed. I thought I
could look forward to California’s seasonal show every spring but, unfortunately,
I soon learned that spring in California is not an automatic wildflower
wonderland and that these displays are the exception rather than the rule.
However this past winter our region was forecast to experience one of the
strongest El Niño events on record following four years of severe drought. El
Niño alone doesn’t necessarily make for a stormy winter, but above average
rainfall is an exciting prospect for our state which has suffered from extreme
drought. It is also exciting for the staff at RSABG because of the exceptional
wildflower displays that follow and the important work that will be carried out
as a consequence.<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LRrQ6Lo4SAw/Vw1kuXXjJDI/AAAAAAAACWg/0IEz0xmFol4EBihtnQtM2PgfO1mtvq7OwCLcB/s1600/mohavea-breviflora_25370157742_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LRrQ6Lo4SAw/Vw1kuXXjJDI/AAAAAAAACWg/0IEz0xmFol4EBihtnQtM2PgfO1mtvq7OwCLcB/s320/mohavea-breviflora_25370157742_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mohavea breviflora (golden desert snapdragon)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Showy spring wildflower displays in California are composed
mostly of annual plants. A large percentage of California native plant species
are annuals, meaning that they complete their life cycle from seed to seedling
to a reproductive flowering plant and back to seed in less than one year. Most
annuals require sufficient rainfall to germinate and in years of drought they
are sparse or can be totally absent. A wet winter provides an opportunity to
document these drought evading plants and learn more about their natural
history, abundance, and distribution. Importantly, large shows of flowers of
many species also may mean abundant seed production, providing out staff with
the opportunity to collect seed for conservation and research.<br />
<br />
You may have learned about RSABG’s important seed conservation program and the ambitious collaborative project now under way. California Plant Rescue (CaPR), a collaborative effort
to save seeds of all California wild plant species for future generations. The
CaPR project is currently focused on securing seed of the rarest, most
threatened and endangered plants in California and is therefore critical to
long-term plant conservation. Seed banks ultimately store genetic diversity and
serve as a back system for natural populations in the event of catastrophic
loss. In addition these collections make important contributions to research to
expand knowledge of our native flora. As you can imagine, securing seed in a
time of drought can be challenging no matter how ambitious the project!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HbD-OyJjMkA/Vw1ma21yPRI/AAAAAAAACWw/sjZy_k02uEgBsfI_6I1LjoWbphS4LRUFgCLcB/s1600/sea-of-chylismia-brevipes_24858033114_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HbD-OyJjMkA/Vw1ma21yPRI/AAAAAAAACWw/sjZy_k02uEgBsfI_6I1LjoWbphS4LRUFgCLcB/s320/sea-of-chylismia-brevipes_24858033114_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chylismia brevipes (yellow cups)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
You can
be assured that RSABG botanists have been watching the weather reports to
identify the best locations for collecting seeds. One of our target areas is the Death Valley region which has experienced a "super bloom" this past spring due to a large storm event in October. We hope the rain will also
trigger germination of annual plant species that are rare and seldom seen;
these are in special need of seed banking to further conservation.
A floriferous spring is not only important to ongoing seed banking efforts, but
would also be valuable for other Garden collections such as our herbarium.
Following the last El Niño event in 2005, RSABG staff set out on several
botanical forays to document the flora and add important collections to our
herbarium. We conducted forays in some of the areas that showed the best and
most diverse blooms, especially in the Mojave Desert. Research and conservation
staff traveled to the northern Mojave Desert in Inyo County, on the outskirts
of Death Valley National Park to places like the Ibex Hills, Amargosa River,
Avawatz Mountains and Chicago Valley. We also took several trips to Riverside
County in the Palen Mountains, and to San Bernardino County to investigate the
Marble and Rodman Mountains. That year (2005) RSABG staff brought home more
than 2000 botanical specimens to add to our herbarium and to further
documentation of California’s flora. This spring we hope to do the same, or
even more!<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EaLQG1eMKZQ/Vw1kpBINC9I/AAAAAAAACWY/nqOGHgALc7I_VCywT2qBtvG1agTnOM8HQ/s1600/diplacus-fremontii_26071166572_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EaLQG1eMKZQ/Vw1kpBINC9I/AAAAAAAACWY/nqOGHgALc7I_VCywT2qBtvG1agTnOM8HQ/s320/diplacus-fremontii_26071166572_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Diplacus fremontii (Fremont's monkeyflower)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Many of the botanists at RSABG watch the weather as avidly as we
examine plants under a dissecting scope. Climate and weather events are
intimately tied to the time at which plants bloom and their abundance on the
landscape. Knowing that these weather events can be few and far between, we
need to make the most of our resources to do the important work that is needed to
advance understanding and conservation of California’s native plants. The
spring season is short and fleeting so we prepare well in advance to ensure
that we are able to make the most of our time. Our work is carried out in a
coordinated effort between multiple departments at the Garden and staff will
travel far and wide to make collections for the herbarium, seed bank and living
collection. Once back home these collections will continue to serve our mission
to promote research, horticulture, education, and conservation of California’s
native plants long into the future.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com541tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-60328884789539518792015-12-16T15:05:00.000-08:002015-12-18T13:09:24.308-08:00Field Work in the Mojave Sky Islands<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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As the holidays approach, some of us will be decorating our
homes with a tree native to mountains of western North America, the White
fir (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Abies concolor</i>). This species is
fairly common throughout the Rockies, Cascades and Sierra Nevada Mountain
Ranges. It can also be found in much more unusual locations, including the mountains
of the eastern Mojave Desert.</div>
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If you’ve been to Hawaii and have seen the unique native
plants that grow there, you probably know that isolated islands in the middle
of the ocean often harbor unique species and ecosystems. A similar effect
happens in the mainland southwestern US, with high mountains ‘islands’
surrounded by an ‘ocean’ of desert. These places have been dubbed <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">sky islands</b>, and harbor unique ecosystems.
These ecosystems often contain <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">endemic</b>
species, meaning that they can only be found in these isolated areas. Equally
interesting, sky islands also often contain <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">disjunct populations</b> and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">relict
species</b>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disjunct population is a
term used to describe populations of species that occur far outside of their
normal range.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A relict species was more
common on the landscape in the past, but due to a changing climate it is now
restricted to a very small area. </div>
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Three mountain ranges in the eastern Mojave Desert within
California are considered sky islands; the Kingston Mountains, The Clark
Mountains, and The New York Mountains. These ranges all rise above 7000 ft. and
contain ecosystems that exist nowhere else in the surrounding lower elevation
desert.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This fall we took a trip to
visit these sky islands and assess the disjunct, relict populations of white
fir which occur in the mountains. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HFG1LlAOO_U/VnHrqsMWIVI/AAAAAAAAAfA/Lvmfoz8i4BQ/s1600/IMG_7663.JPG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HFG1LlAOO_U/VnHrqsMWIVI/AAAAAAAAAfA/Lvmfoz8i4BQ/s400/IMG_7663.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Kingston Mountains, a Mojave Desert sky island</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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The populations of white fir in the high elevation mountains
of Mojave Desert are part of relict ecosystems which supports patches of
coastal vegetation, remaining from a wetter past in the west. A number of plants
which are more commonly found in the areas of California west of the mountains
also have disjunct populations here. These include coffee berry (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Rhamnus californica</i>) and Mexican
manzanita (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Arctostaphylos pungens)</i>.
These plants and other’s such as narrow leaved yerba santa (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Eriodicyton angustifolium)</i> harken back
to an era when much larger areas of the southwest looked more similar to the
coastal charparral vegetation that we see in California today. </div>
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The main focus of our trip was to scout the white fir
populations in the hopes that we can collect seeds next season and to record detailed
information on their health. Occurring in these extreme conditions, and living
a relatively long life, these trees can provide a great study system to see how
climate change is affecting the mountains. A major concern is that climate
change will increase the temperature of these areas and literally push the
white fir, and the many other unique species that are adapted to this cooler
habitat off of the top of the mountain and into oblivion. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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During our trip, we visited all three of these ranges, but
due to time constraints were only able to hike to the population in the New
York Mountains. Part of the challenge of working in these areas is their remoteness.
They occur at the tops of rugged mountains far from any trails or roads.
On our day in the New York Mountains we were joined on in the field on that day
by Andrew Kaiser of the Mojave National Preserve. After a challenging hike up
the steep southern face, we made it to the main ridge. The views were
incredible, but as we arrived and spent some time looking, but did not see any
of the large and obvious trees. </div>
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After about an hour of searching among the treacherously
steep slopes, we finally saw a large white fir crown rising above the granite
boulders. We spent the next several hours taking detailed notes, GPS data and
photos. In total, we counted 31 trees, the exact number that was recorded by a
team who visited the population in the late 70s, which included the late RSABG
herbarium curator emeritus Robert Thorne.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This, plus the fact that found plants ranging from a foot tall to 60
feet was an encouraging sign that the population is not in obvious decline. In
2016, we hope to return to this population, along with the populations in the
Kingston and Clark mountains, to do more monitoring, and hopefully make a
collection of seeds for the RSABG seed bank. </div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y60md25s1Zo/VnHsRbQ0OdI/AAAAAAAAAfM/BOMRXnDWlFQ/s1600/IMG_7622.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y60md25s1Zo/VnHsRbQ0OdI/AAAAAAAAAfM/BOMRXnDWlFQ/s400/IMG_7622.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A young white fir specimen in the New York Mountains is an encouraging sign that the population will persist into the future</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Looking up the steep northern face of the New York Mountains at a stand of white fir </td></tr>
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The sky islands of the Mojave are one of the hidden
treasures that exist in the California desert. With nowhere to migrate to if
conditions change, a warming climate is especially threatening to the plants
and animals of these isolated areas. We hope that in the coming field season,
we can gather more data on these special places to help to develop a better
sense of how climate change will affect the Mojave Desert Mountains. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com352tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-59239430311161178082015-04-24T15:03:00.001-07:002015-04-24T15:09:42.977-07:00Cooking with California Native SageIt is hard to believe that the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/849705315079886/" target="_blank">California Native Sage Festival</a> took place nearly a month ago. How time flies by! This was our second year celebrating the greatness of sage including having booths that featured sage related products, native food tastings and demonstrations, and sage advice for your garden. This year (same as last) I was helping to hand out samples of food that incorporates our native sages (<i>Salvia</i>). I always enjoy sharing information about the wonderful native plants of California but when I can share information about food made with native plants, I am doubly happy. Today I would like to share with you a recipe for the Lemon Sage Shortbread that I prepared for the California Native Sage Festival March 28, 2015. If you enjoy this recipes and want to learn more about preparing food with California Native Plants please register for the upcoming <a href="http://rsabg.org/garden-events/1055-native-food-symposium" target="_blank">California Native Food Symposium</a> (November 14 and 15, 2015). I am very excited to be a part of this event. Antonio Sanchez (Nursery Production Manager) my collaborator and fellow enthusiast in native food is playing a key role in the symposium and will be giving a presentation on <i>California Chia, Beans and Berries: How Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and friends can help develop low-water foods for the future</i>. Antonio frequently teaches a native food workshop at the RSABG and some of his recipes have been posted <a href="http://yoursocaltapwater.org/2014/02/24/drought-busting-edible-garden-the-real-california-cuisine/" target="_blank">here</a>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Lemon Sage Short Bread</b><br />
<br />
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XsFRARvAOMA/VTq1bW9cHNI/AAAAAAAACh0/VN8Q_LgPMLs/s1600/IMG_0451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XsFRARvAOMA/VTq1bW9cHNI/AAAAAAAACh0/VN8Q_LgPMLs/s1600/IMG_0451.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a>Author: Naomi Fraga adapted from <a href="http://cookieandkate.com/2013/lemon-rosemary-olive-oil-shortbread/" target="_blank">Cookie and Kate</a><br />
Serves: 32<br />
<br />
<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>3 cups white whole wheat flour </li>
<li>1 cup powdered sugar</li>
<li>1 teaspoon sea salt salt </li>
<li>2 tablespoona chopped fresh sage (I used Salvia clevelandii ‘Winifred Gilman’)</li>
<li>2 lemons zested </li>
<li>1 cup extra virgin olive oil </li>
</ul>
<br />
<b>Instructions:</b><br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. </li>
<li>In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the flour, powdered sugar, salt, sage and lemon zest. Pour in the olive oil and stir until it is incorporated. </li>
<li>Transfer the dough to a 9 X 9 inch baking dish (I sprayed mine with vegetable oil). Use your fingers to squish the dough into an even layer. Prick the surface of the dough all over with a fork. Bake for about 45 min until the surface feels firm to the touch and is lightly golden around the edges. </li>
<li>Remove from the oven and let the pan cool for 20 minutes (no sooner and no later, 20 min is the right stage, or else it will be too soft or too hard). Then, using a very sharp knife, slice the shortbread into 8 even columns and 4 even rows. Let the cookies cool before removing them from the pan using a small spatula. </li>
<li>Enjoy!</li>
</ol>
RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com351Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-35343644232898320872015-03-09T15:22:00.000-07:002015-03-22T19:31:11.342-07:00For Love of Linanthus<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n0s092HP73g/VP3_y7AD7jI/AAAAAAAAALs/-2n2tdzTl50/s1600/P5040160.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n0s092HP73g/VP3_y7AD7jI/AAAAAAAAALs/-2n2tdzTl50/s1600/P5040160.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Linanthus killipii</i></td></tr>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Botanists should really love all groups of plants, but
sometimes, like many things in life, you cant help but love certain groups more
than others. For me, <i>Linanthus</i> has
always been a plant group that I have loved. The majority of <i>Linanthus</i> species are small annuals,
sometimes referred to as “belly plants” because you have to lay down flat on
your belly to observe them as they are so small. I’ve also always loved the genus
<i>Linanthus</i> because many of them are
very ephemeral, meaning they are only around and in flower for a very short
time per year, sometime just a few weeks, and the conditions have to be just
right or they may not appear at all, so when you do come across them in the
wild the experience can be very special. </span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bTX5pG_SUhA/VP4AUghzloI/AAAAAAAAAL0/XInxzlz9l_I/s1600/P5040166%2B(2).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bTX5pG_SUhA/VP4AUghzloI/AAAAAAAAAL0/XInxzlz9l_I/s1600/P5040166%2B(2).JPG" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Linanthus killipii</i>, the magenta colored variety.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first <i>Linanthus</i>
species I was introduced to was <i>Linanthus
killipii</i>. I was a <st1:placename w:st="on">Rancho</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Santa Ana</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Botanic Garden</st1:placetype>
intern at the time and I was out with Naomi Fraga doing plant surveys along the
Pacific Crest Trail in the <st1:place w:st="on">San Bernardino Mountains</st1:place>
when we came across this species. It was so small that it took me a few moments
to see what Naomi had found. Standing at only a few centimeters tall they can
be quite easy to miss! <i>Linanthus killipii</i>
is commonly known as the “<st1:placename w:st="on">Baldwin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype> linanthus” as the majority of populations are
found around <st1:placename w:st="on">Baldwin</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype> in the <st1:place w:st="on">San Bernardino
Mountains</st1:place>. While the flowers are almost always white, there have
been a few populations found that are rose/magenta color, which we are still
unsure of what is happening there. A common garden study will hopefully be done
here at RSABG in the future to try and determine why they sometimes appear as a
different color. This was the first <i>Linanthus</i>
species I saw in the field and to date is still one of my favorites. In fact if
I had to give a top five favorites list of all plant species <i>Linanthus killipii</i> would be on the list.
It still brings a large smile to my face everytime I come across this species
in the field.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ptelZnd6MhQ/VP4AkHXomsI/AAAAAAAAAL8/OUXpGoDojzA/s1600/Linanthus%2Bedit2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ptelZnd6MhQ/VP4AkHXomsI/AAAAAAAAAL8/OUXpGoDojzA/s1600/Linanthus%2Bedit2.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Linanthus bernardinus</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the Spring of 2010 I was given permission by the
Wildlands Conservancy to enter and document plants in the Sawtooth Mountains
just outside of Pioneertown, a mountain range I had wanted to explore for some
time because it looked so rugged and unique, but had been closed to the public
for many years for restoration purposes due to a large fire that had occurred
across the area. On my first trip into the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sawtooth</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountains</st1:placetype></st1:place>
I came across a curious little <i>Linanthus</i>
species that I did not recognize. Later that day while wraching my brain on which one it could be I
would remember that Naomi Fraga had mentioned that there was a potentially
undescribed <i>Linanthus</i> species on the
east side of the San Bernardino Mountains, but I had assumed she had meant
somewhere higher up in elevation, but sure enough, after I sent Naomi a few
photos, she confirmed that I had found the undescribed <i>Linanthus</i> that she had found in the herbarium under an incorrect
identification. Over the next few years I explored the entire area and assisted
in the <a href="http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1109&context=aliso">description</a> of this <i>Linanthus</i>
species which we named <i>Linanthus
bernardinus</i>, common name Pioneertown linanthus as it is only found around
Pioneertown. <i>Linanthus bernardinus</i> is
actually a very narrow endemic, meaning that it is only found geographically
over a very small area, in this case only in the Sawtooth Mountains which are
only around 10 square miles in area. I always make sure to do at least one hike
in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Sawtooth</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountains</st1:placetype></st1:place> every spring just to visit
this little guy.</span><o:p></o:p><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y3_MHO6Gmao/VP4AyF_AYhI/AAAAAAAAAME/4_i_JY7Pf9U/s1600/IMG_5660.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y3_MHO6Gmao/VP4AyF_AYhI/AAAAAAAAAME/4_i_JY7Pf9U/s1600/IMG_5660.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Linanthus bellus</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In southeastern <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">San
Diego</st1:place></st1:city> county there is a cute little <i>Linanthus</i> species appropriately named
“desert beauty”, or <i>Linanthus bellus</i>
that I got to work with one season while doing a CNPS project. Its stems are
narrow and wiry so the flowers often look like brightly colored little floating
cups. When found, it usually grows in small localized population in open flat
areas among the desert chaparral in the greater <st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">McCain</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>
area. Unfortunately the majority of habitat where it occurs in <st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">McCain</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>
is being developed into a large scale wind farm so if you would like to see
this showy little belly plant you should do so soon.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-icyMr_Q8288/VP4BOE6BKkI/AAAAAAAAAMM/82dVjwQg7Bg/s1600/Linanthus%2Bmac%2Bwith%2Bquarter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-icyMr_Q8288/VP4BOE6BKkI/AAAAAAAAAMM/82dVjwQg7Bg/s1600/Linanthus%2Bmac%2Bwith%2Bquarter.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Linanthus maculatus</i> subsp. "<i>emaculatus"</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 115%;">One of the most recent <i>Linanthus</i> species I’ve had a chance to make an acquaintance with is
an undescibed, or soon to be described, <i>Linanthus</i>
that will be called <i>Linanthus maculatus</i>
subsp. “<i>emaculatus</i>”, its common name
will be the </span><span style="line-height: 115%;">"immaculate linanthus" as it is spotless, and also may
possibly be known as the Dos Cabezas linanthus as it is only found in a single wash
beside a geographic location called Dos Cabezas. Doing field work on this plant
was rather hard as it is so small and difficult to find. During most field
surveys one can look around and take in the scenery, but this plant is very
tiny and blends in with its environment so when I did field work on this one I
had to walk around for days staring straight at the ground in front of me so I
would not walk past them. Literally a pain in the neck, but well worth it to
find such an amazing little plant. This is another narrow endemic, only found
in a single wash on the east side of the <st1:placetype w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Jacumba</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountains</st1:placetype></st1:placetype>,
its entire habitat occurrence area is just 1 or 2 square miles. That’s a narrow
endemic! At first we were worried as the only known occurrence was from a
section of this wash that was being developed into a large scale wind farm, but
after I conducted field surveys I found that they occurred across the county
line as well in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which conservation wise is
a relief, as they will have at least some form of protection within the State
Park. Being such a narrow endemic we will have to keep our eyes on this one in
the coming years to make sure that its habitat is not heavily altered, because
it would be sad to see such a tiny unique plant erased from the world.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">At the beginning of every field season I look forward
to my first encounters with species in the Genus <i>Linanthus</i> in the wild as I never know if it will be a species I
have not seen before, an old friend, or potentially one that could be new to
science. They are a unique and special group, and one most enjoyed by laying
out flat on your belly while exploring their tiny little world.</span><span style="font-family: Times New Roman, serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458908958595866590noreply@blogger.com274tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-77789333607851962032014-09-08T15:25:00.000-07:002014-09-08T15:30:46.259-07:00Orcutt's spineflower: an update <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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</xml><![endif]-->Last year <a href="http://blog.rsabg.org/2013/07/orcutts-spineflower-chorizanthe.html">I wrote</a>
about Orcutt’s spineflower (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Chorizanthe
orcuttiana</i>), a diminutive, highly endangered plant from the coastal bluffs
of San Diego County. We collected 1500 seeds of this plant
for our seed bank. This was part of a larger project with the <span class="msoIns"><ins cite="mailto:emeyer" datetime="2014-09-08T11:41"><a href="http://chaparralconservancy.org/">Chaparral Lands Conservancy</a></ins></span>
to enhance existing populations of Orcutt’s spineflower in their native range.
RSABG was also involved with the second phase of this project, which was to
regenerate seeds of this plant to reintroduce into the wild.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This type of work is called ex situ conservation. In a
nutshell, biodiversity is taken off site where it can be regenerated or stored
for long term genetic backup. This type of strategy differs from in situ
conservation, in which native habitat and all of the biodiversity contained
within is conserved. Establishment of wilderness areas, national parks and
other wildlands are examples of in situ conservation methods. These strategies
go hand in hand. As land is protected through in situ conservation, rare
biodiversity can be recovered and reintroduced through ex situ conservation.</div>
<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3C5rm4Je0bE/VA4I61ZzggI/AAAAAAAAALU/UUX5RW3t2GQ/s1600/seed%2Bphoto%2B2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3C5rm4Je0bE/VA4I61ZzggI/AAAAAAAAALU/UUX5RW3t2GQ/s1600/seed%2Bphoto%2B2.jpg" height="225" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Regenerated seeds of Orcutt's spineflower</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A classic example of
ex situ conservation, and one of the great successes of endangered species
recovery in recent years comes from a large vulture of the west coast. In the
1980s, the population of California condor was so low that extinction seemed
imminent. A seemingly audacious plan was launched, and all 22 remaining birds
were taken from the wild and put into a captive breeding program. Chicks were
carefully raised in an ex situ facility, and when the time was right, were
introduced back into the wild. Since then, multiple reintroduction sites have
been established, and the wild population is now over ten times larger than it
was in the 1980s, with hundreds of additional birds still being reared in ex
situ facilities.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0F5QTVaczf8/VA4I6sWMvRI/AAAAAAAAALQ/zxZ_n7HR8ik/s1600/IMG_20140616_094239_745.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-0F5QTVaczf8/VA4I6sWMvRI/AAAAAAAAALQ/zxZ_n7HR8ik/s1600/IMG_20140616_094239_745.jpg" height="112" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Plants were grown at the RSABG nursery</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
It is always interesting to take something from the wild and
observe its growth in a controlled setting. When we began our regeneration of
Orcutt’s spineflower we weren’t exactly sure what the best method would be.
After carefully reviewing all of the literature we could find on this species
and others from the spineflower genus we came up with a propagation plan and
began growing plants. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was amazing to
see the difference between these cultivated specimens and those that I saw in
the field last summer in Del
Mar. Our ex situ plants, which were receiving plenty of attention, water and
nutrients were absolute monsters compared to their wild parents. This is the
beauty of this process. You can take away all of natures variables and produce
hundreds of seeds from a plant that may have only produced a few seeds in the
wild. The seeds have been harvested and cleaned, and will be stored in our seed
bank until they are ready for reintroduction in their coastal habitat. I am
happy to say that we were successful in our first round of seed regeneration,
and turned a sample of approximately 250 seeds into over 30,000 seeds of this
very rare plant.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com222tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-81263778395136261552014-08-29T08:56:00.003-07:002014-08-29T08:57:24.926-07:00Intern Blog. Glen Morrison from Citrus College. At Citrus Community College this past spring, I had learned very last minute that I was eligible to apply for a summer research internship. Hastily, I filled out the application and wrote my personal statement. I turned it in all of ten minutes before the deadline. To my surprise I was soon called for an on-campus interview, which gave way to another interview at RSABG. I was overjoyed when I learned that I was selected for a Summer Research internship at RSABG. I had previously visited the garden, and had long thought, very specifically, that it would be an awesome place to work. All I knew for sure was that I would be working on a research project. I also hoped that I would have some opportunity to get into the field, as it is my goal to become a field biologist. The internship, in all ways, exceeded my expectations.<br />
<br />
More days than not we were working in the field. I was immediately introduced to cross-country hiking. Translating my years of trail-hiking experience to the scrubby, rocky, crumbly, pokey, spiny Pinyon-juniper Woodland of Bighorn Mountain Wilderness was a challenging and fun experience. I found that soon the boundaries between passable and impassable terrain soon faded in my mind. Never in these wilderness areas did we ever see another person hiking. One memorable event was discovering, by reading a log book, that we had been the first people to summit one of the Granite peaks since 2009. Seeing just how under-explored much of California is, inspires me to contribute to the biological understanding of this state. Every day in the field was another reminder that I made the right decision in pursuing a career in field biology.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u1ydXFoo8Y4/VACh5eTRWvI/AAAAAAAABUw/SEVgobyWWJU/s1600/glen.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u1ydXFoo8Y4/VACh5eTRWvI/AAAAAAAABUw/SEVgobyWWJU/s1600/glen.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Duncan Bell and Glen Morrison in the Monarch Wilderness</td></tr>
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This field work was my first true trespass into the discipline of field botany. I discovered how much I like this discipline of biology. There is such great botanical diversity and so much room for study. Great gaps exist in our botanical understanding and this intrigues me. It is an added bonus that plants stay put. There is no need to trap, or track plants. The botanist needs not wake at strange hours to catch the plants in the open. Plants can be collected, usually, with general ease and stored as a record of specific research and tool for future research. I really came to appreciate the details and process of field botany.<br />
<br />
Many days spent on the garden were spent in horticulture. This was the field about which I knew the least. I soon became aware of relationship between horticulture and conservation. Horticulture makes places like RSABG possible, places like RSABG generate interest in native plants, interest propels protection. RSABG horticulturists also play a direct role in growing plants for conservation projects. Discovering the work that is done with cultivars (cultivated varieties) of native plants was fascinating to me, as well. It is a win-win situation when people plant these attractive native plants that please the home gardener and function within the flora. My experiences in horticulture were hugely enlightening.<br />
<br />
Above all else my research project had to have been the most educational part of this internship. The RACE-to-STEM internship grant that had made my internship possible required a student research project. The researchers at the garden had put aside for me an AWESOME project. I was assigned to research <i>Allium marvinii</i>, an onion that has generated some taxonomic and conservation concern. Over the course of the eight week internship I had to understand the question in need of address, figure out how to investigate that question, and interpret the results of that investigation. Working with seasoned researchers was exciting and invaluable. Having to communicate and defend my work showed me the rigor involved in making a claim from research. This was an incredibly educational experience. In those eight weeks I learned a lot about how research plays out and how to better conduct research going forward. For more background information on this onion, botanist Fred Roberts wrote a very informative piece in the San Diego CNPS <a href="http://www.cnpssd.org/newsletters.html">March 2014 newsletter</a>. My research poster is <a href="https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BwConOe80ihqSTdqNjMtOVpSeFE/edit">available here</a>.<br />
<br />
I have never learned so much in two months as I did this summer. My experiences at the garden have affected my academic and career goals. Every person I worked with at RSABG taught me something that changed my perspective. To see the kind of community that exists at RSABG is very encouraging and makes me feel very optimistic about my future career. I made friends, found resources, and gained so much. In my experiences so far at Cal Poly Pomona, where I start this fall, I can already see how this experience affects how I am perceived. The importance of a quality internship, like the one I had at RSABG, cannot be overstated.RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com271Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-46520599818484843362014-07-30T19:43:00.000-07:002014-07-30T19:53:11.259-07:00Intern Blog. Katie Roland from Centre College, KY<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">Being from Nashville, TN, I have the honor of being the intern who traveled from farthest away, whilst still being from this country. This obviously excludes Perrine, an intern from France who was also at the garden this year. Being not only from the eastern half of the country, but also from the South, I grew up in an area of constant green and high humidity. There is always water, if only in the air, and I am surrounded by deciduous trees. Needless to say, everywhere I went during the course of my internship was different and exciting. I did a lot during my two month stay at RSABG, too much to even begin to describe here, and I had the privilege of getting to meet so many wonderful people. I was able to work in the herbarium, the seed house, and the nursery. The best part was the fieldwork. We took numerous day trips, mostly to Bighorn Mountain Wilderness. I also had the opportunity to go on several overnight trips.</span></div>
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNjSNdyv608/U9msBOGNjKI/AAAAAAAACf0/0j9NPUzI3KI/s1600/Roland_6.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-oNjSNdyv608/U9msBOGNjKI/AAAAAAAACf0/0j9NPUzI3KI/s1600/Roland_6.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Erika's Study Site. Kiavah Wilderness, Kern County, CA</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span></span><span style="line-height: 1;">My first overnight collecting trip was with Erika Gardner, a Masters student at the garden. The Masters students at RSABG often do a flora of an understudied area, which means that they document and collect every species of plant that grows in that area. This generally requires two or three seasons of field work, and Erika is just finishing her second. Her study site includes parts of the Kiavah Wilderness and the surrounding area, and it is a gorgeous section of desert. At the end of the second week of my internship, I went with her on a two-day camping trip to document whatever of interest we found.</span><br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"> The first day, we had driven the perhaps three hours from the garden to her site, hiked part way along the Pacific Crest Trail, and set up camp. Possibly my favorite moment from this first day occurred just outside a trailhead where we parked and ate lunch. Erika noticed a piece of paper under a rock sitting under a tree near the trailhead. After staring at it for several minutes from afar, she decided to go investigate. It turns out that it was a warning, presumably left by some industrious hiker, about a snake that had been seen under the tree from several weeks ago. Whether the note-writer meant this as a general warning about the existence of snakes, or they thought that the snake was a permanent resident under that particular tree, I cannot say. I can say, however, that there was not a snake in sight. We left the note, just in case the snake came back.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"> The section of the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) we hiked was fairly high elevation, although I could not tell you the number exactly. It was definitely desert, and very dry, but we did find some things flowering, and we made a collection of wonderfully mature mustard seeds, because they looked good. There was very little in the way of trees, or even large shrubs, in this particular area. This meant that there was almost nothing to shield us from the wind, perched on the side of an exposed slope. And there sure was wind. I do not know whether it was just the lack of shielding that caused the impressive wind, or if the location of her site in the desert or if the aspect of the slope influenced it as well, but it was magnificent.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DwY5dyYNbIE/U9mrnRr--2I/AAAAAAAACfs/S3_Fbq2LWaQ/s1600/Roland_2.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-DwY5dyYNbIE/U9mrnRr--2I/AAAAAAAACfs/S3_Fbq2LWaQ/s1600/Roland_2.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The PCT, Erika said it looked like we were about to hike off the edge of the world</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span></span>
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<div class="p1">
<span style="line-height: 1;">The wind continued to be strong throughout our two days, and in the evening of the first day found us hunched over in the covered back of the truck, trying to press the days collections without having plants and newspaper flying away in the breeze. Nearly everyone I accompanied into the field collected specimen in the same way, excluding only Joy England, another graduate student working in the Rock Creek area in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, who presses her specimen in the field. The collections were made for preservation in herbaria, primarily the herbarium at RSABG. They must be collected, pressed, and later attached to herbarium sheets. For most smaller herbaceous plants, this meant collecting the entire plant, roots and all. For people doing floristic surveys, this generally means collecting a large number of plants in a day. Trying to press plants in the field is time consuming, and in windy areas like Erika’s site nearly impossible.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">To avoid these problems, at Rancho they place them into Ziploc bags and press them all together at the end of the day, usually back at the garden. For someone who still struggles with plant identification, this process seemed very intimidating. You have to be able to identify everything well enough the first time so that, when you go back through the plants, you can tell them apart and label them correctly. Of course everyone working at the garden was quite skilled at this, and I could just write down what they told me and try to remember as many plant names as possible. I also got very good at dismantling newspaper, as each specimen had to be pressed in an individual sheet. </span></div>
<br />
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The next morning, we got up early to try to beat the heat. Our mission was to hike back into a nearby canyon to look for water. Erika had found water in this canyon at different times of year, and we were trying to figure out whether it was permanent or ephemeral. The hike started off across another steep slope, but unlike the day before there was no easy trail, and the slope was covered with little ankle-height plants that felt like they were growing tiny razorblades. By the time we finally got to what I would describe as the mouth of the canyon, we had nearly turned back and had come up with an alternate route back that would require us to climb up a pile of large boulders, but could not be nearly as painful.</span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
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<div dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-indent: 36pt;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Cambria; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMIWMlyD-7E/U9mtwJM3RDI/AAAAAAAACgA/ImOWe3jwgWw/s1600/Roland_3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PMIWMlyD-7E/U9mtwJM3RDI/AAAAAAAACgA/ImOWe3jwgWw/s1600/Roland_3.jpg" height="320" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Evening at our campsite.</td></tr>
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</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">The obvious path to follow back into a canyon would be along the bottom, but that was absolutely impossible in this case. The floor was alternately covered with impassible brush, usually willow shrubs that reached well over our heads, and boulders that did the same. Our only other option was to hike up one of the sides and back at a higher elevation. The slopes themselves were steep, to say the least. In fact, at some points it ascended at a 90-degree angle. This was made even more exciting because the slope itself was only occasionally made up of stable soil. The rest of the time, we were climbing up deep sand, loose rock fragments, and sometimes large boulders. If all of this were not enough, fairly frequently there would be no way to continue along a side at any height. Something would block our path, and we would have to descend once again to the bottom of the canyon and climb up the other side.</span></div>
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<div class="p1">
<span class="s1"><br /></span></div>
<div class="p1">
<span class="s1">By the time we heard the drip of water, neither of us was sure what it was. In fact, for a while we thought it was some wild animal in the brush. We followed the drip until we found several clear pools of water, still present in the heat of summer. By one, we even found what had once probably been a coyote, but now was a ragged pelt floating at the edge of the water. The water there is likely a year-round source of drinking water for the surrounding fauna, as well as a haven for water-loving desert plants. It was a gorgeous area, and I do not think I will ever forget it. It was also some of the most exciting, and possibly death-defying, hiking I have ever done. This is just one of the many fond memories of the desert I have taken with me, and Erika is one of the many people I will never forget.</span></div>
</div>
<span id="docs-internal-guid-8acf12a5-8a3f-a534-8fff-6ead5912b380"><br /></span>RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com201Kiavah Wilderness, Sequoia National Forest, Lake Isabella, CA 93255, USA35.622176 -118.112852610.100141500000003 -159.4214466 61.1442105 -76.8042586tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-91869387535207555042014-07-21T09:16:00.001-07:002014-07-25T18:29:30.631-07:00Internships at RSABG<div class="MsoNormal">
Once upon a time I was an intern here at RSABG. I look back
on my internship with great fondness. It was not only a time for new
experiences, learning, and growth, but it was also a summer full of camaraderie
with the other summer interns. For as long as I can remember (which is when I
was an intern about 13 years ago!) the Garden has had a fruitful summer
internship program. Each year we work with three to ten interns usually during
the summer months. We provide them with training in various garden programs and
they gain skills in several areas including herbarium curation, field botany,
seed collecting, plant propagation, and horticulture. It has been a highly
successful program with many interns going on to become professionals in related
fields. In fact several staff at RSABG got their start as RSABG interns! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtOwYM_oV8A/U8074Il-08I/AAAAAAAABQc/mRyP8QNuzww/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtOwYM_oV8A/U8074Il-08I/AAAAAAAABQc/mRyP8QNuzww/s1600/photo.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Class of 2014 Interns; in the field monitoring <i>Berberis nevinii. </i></td></tr>
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Our summer internship program is growing, and this year we
have more than ten interns! I am excited to see the internship program flourish;
it is a program that is near and dear to my heart since I benefited from it
greatly. When I started my internship I didn’t know that I wanted to be a
botanist. I wasn’t even sure what kind of career I was wanted, but my mentors
at the Garden had such an infectious enthusiasm that I figured this had to be
the way to go. So here I am working as a botanist in the institution where I
grew up as a botanist and I’ve never looked back.</div>
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My mentors inspired me, not only to become a botanist but
also to seek my passion and find what drives me. It is now my duty to serve as
a mentor and it’s a great challenge but I find it endlessly satisfying and
rewarding. I am thrilled to work with eager and talented students and this year
is no exception. Internship training is unique because its all hands on. We’ve
trekked in the field together to document the flora of understudied mountains,
we’ve recovered old monitoring plots to track endangered plants, we’ve
collected seeds for preservation, and the interns have propagated plants that I
wish I knew how to propagate (I secretly want a second internship in the
nursery!). This is all in a day’s work at RSABG but its meaning is further
compounded when we are able to share the importance of our work with these
young colleagues. </div>
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In the next few weeks, I hope to have our interns share stories
of their summer with you. Stay tuned for their posts</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com138Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-57204431083803490692014-04-18T15:01:00.001-07:002014-04-20T18:23:25.572-07:00Listen to the Desert Tortoise<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3l1kH4r1Ib0/U1GEOzEai6I/AAAAAAAAS6g/hHvgaKsVKH4/s1600/140417_5081_FB_1200px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3l1kH4r1Ib0/U1GEOzEai6I/AAAAAAAAS6g/hHvgaKsVKH4/s1600/140417_5081_FB_1200px.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Photo by: B. Eisenstein (4/17/2104)</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The truck was parked on the side of a dirt road at the base of a slope in the middle of nowhere. Four of us - two botanists and two horticulturists - were walking back to the truck, eyes fixed on ground looking for some new flower we had missed on our way out. Just then I saw her. She looked like another dark gray rock, but right away I knew what it was. The desert tortoise was thoroughly unimpressed as the four of us gathered nearby - not too close - to admire her. A piece of vegetation dangled from her mouth as she took us in. Cameras snapped at the nonchalant, seemingly ageless sage (in the zoological sense). </div>
<br />
This was but one high point to a full day of desert exploration. Yesterday I was fortunate to be included in one of several teams of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden scientists, educators, and horticulturists who scour the surrounding wildlands in search of wildflowers for the annual <a href="http://rsabg.org/garden-events/859-wildflower-festival" target="_blank">Spring Wildflower Show</a>. The Wildflower Show brings some of the discoveries made by researchers to the public. As noted on the Rancho website:<br />
<blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MNFonLtwnMw/U1GD5BYzjGI/AAAAAAAAS6g/jPkwgcSeyS0/s1600/140417_5005_FB_1200px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MNFonLtwnMw/U1GD5BYzjGI/AAAAAAAAS6g/jPkwgcSeyS0/s1600/140417_5005_FB_1200px.jpg" height="200" width="161" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loeseliastrum matthewsii <br />
(Desert Calico)<br />
Photo by: B. Eisenstein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i>A tradition since the early 1930s, the Wildflower Festival is Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden's longest-running seasonal event and coincides with our state-recognized California Native Plant Week, (the third week of April each year). </i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>Over the years, the show has offered an opportunity for visitors to view flowers of species that they may not have otherwise been able to see. Flowers are gently prepared, carefully identified and exhibited indoors.</i></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<i>The week proceeding the show, teams of RSABG staff, volunteers and research associates undertake spring collecting trips to sites where studies to document the flora are underway, adding to scientific knowledge of these poorly known places and sharing the beauty of California wildflowers with Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden visitors. The geographically-diverse approach offers a diverse variety of species gathered and creates a beautiful and educational display.</i></blockquote>
In true Rancho style, this event brings together scientists, environmentalists, and all of those who appreciate the beauty and significance of Nature, so we can share our knowledge and wisdom, most of which we gain from stopping to watch the tortoise.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-EvwtIdvFNqU/U1GEDp91mOI/AAAAAAAAS6g/Fvp-RNISEBE/s1600/140417_5047_FB_1200px.jpg" height="262" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="400" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Desert tortoise in collection site. Photo by: B. Eisenstein</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>
Barbara Ehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08811672524227472795noreply@blogger.com155tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-58978945460185542902014-04-02T17:03:00.000-07:002014-04-25T01:12:52.206-07:00In the rainshadow: A flora in the Southern Sierra Nevada Mountains<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EtZ7xWZvU8A/UzyLD_qnMWI/AAAAAAAABIA/e7mB6uioOzw/s1600/DSCF0395.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EtZ7xWZvU8A/UzyLD_qnMWI/AAAAAAAABIA/e7mB6uioOzw/s1600/DSCF0395.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A desert wash in my study site. <br />
March 2014.<span style="text-align: right;"> Photo by Erika Gardner</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I've
known since the second grade that I was to be a botanist. Actually, the first
time I visited Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (<a href="http://rsabg.org/"><span style="color: blue;">RSABG</span></a>) was in the second grade
for a class field trip. Ever since, I have been obsessed with the garden. It's
where I wanted to go on weekends, summer breaks, and any opportunity I could get.
It was the closest place to my home that resembled a wilderness and it was where I wanted to be. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now that I think about it, I had no clue what a
botanist was in the second grade.</span></div>
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<!--StartFragment--><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I
have always enjoyed learning about living organisms, learning about how they
function, and observing them in nature. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Cal
Poly Pomona afforded me my long awaited opportunity to study plants. During my
sophomore year I landed an internship at RSABG - a 10-week Herbarium Curatorial
Assistant position supported by the Getty Multicultural Undergraduate
Internship program. I couldn’t believe my luck. At the time, I had no idea as
to what a <a href="http://rsabg.org/herbarium"><span style="color: blue;">herbarium</span></a> was but I knew it had something to do with botany and it was at the botanic
garden!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One
thing led to another as the stars lined up perfectly. I was hired to work
part-time in the herbarium while I finished my biology degree at Cal Poly and
then moved to full-time work, gaining greater and greater responsibility in the
herbarium. Then in 2012, I decided to pursue a Master’s degree in Botany at
RSABG. Working in the herbarium had made me realize that there is so much to
learn about the floristic diversity of California and I wanted to learn as much
as I could by conducting a floristic project.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M-vnPfGb2_Y/UzySiiG02NI/AAAAAAAABIo/QvrNekIm3Mc/s1600/IMG_3851.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-M-vnPfGb2_Y/UzySiiG02NI/AAAAAAAABIo/QvrNekIm3Mc/s1600/IMG_3851.JPG" height="281" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the hunt for plants. Documenting diversity.<br />
April 2013. Photo by Phillip Alba</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The
RSABG Master’s Program allows students to work on and publish a flora of an area
in California. Students get to choose the area, collect and identify the
plants in that area and synthesize the data. A published flora is then a useful
tool to further scientific and public knowledge about plant geography in California
via GIS analysis and collections data. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now
in my second year, I'm working on my Master's thesis project: a botanical survey and inventory of the Kiavah Wilderness in the Scodie Mountains of the Southern Sierra Nevada, Kern County, California. I chose
the Scodie Mountains because of my deep admiration and affection for the
Sierra Nevada Mountains and the Mojave Desert.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The </span><a href="http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/bakersfield/Programs/wilderness/kiavah.html" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;">Kiavah Wilderness</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is a total of 139 sq. miles and lies in a transition zone between the Mojave Desert and the Sierra Nevada floristic regions. Its plant communities include Joshua Tree Woodland, Riparian Scrub and Mixed Coniferous Forest (juniper, pinyon, oak and pine). Interestingly, the last botanists to make significant collections in this area were Jim Shevock and Barbara Ertter in the 1980s. Many portions of the wilderness have not yet been explored. I'll reach these high-priority "botanical black-holes" via cross-country hiking, exploring and documenting as much of the flora as possible. Using GIS software, my collection localities will be mapped and the data will be served to the<span style="color: blue;"> </span><a href="http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/"><span style="color: blue;">Consortium of California Herbaria</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="color: blue;"> </span>website.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3gvE1qc2-ZI/UzyN1t2JFHI/AAAAAAAABIQ/euQdCCXf5vc/s1600/P4050993.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-3gvE1qc2-ZI/UzyN1t2JFHI/AAAAAAAABIQ/euQdCCXf5vc/s1600/P4050993.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Driving into the Kiavah Wilderness. Sage Canyon. April 2013<br />
Photo by Erika Gardner</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last
year was a challenging time to begin a floristic project. It was an extremely
dry year - bone dry. It was frightening to see how the drought could wreak so
much havoc on the vegetation and wildlife. While the Scodie Mountains are
prime hunting grounds for nesting eagles, I didn't see a single golden eagle.
Not a single jackrabbit bolted from under the shrubs. I took as much data as I
could - about 367 specimens.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp4-SM4D0RQ/UzyeHvbqd4I/AAAAAAAABI0/Ua-nXspMKLw/s1600/DSCF0579.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Bp4-SM4D0RQ/UzyeHvbqd4I/AAAAAAAABI0/Ua-nXspMKLw/s1600/DSCF0579.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sage Canyon carpeted with <i>Phacelia fremontii.</i><br />
March 2014. Photo by Erika Gardner</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This
year things are looking a lot better in the Kiavah Wilderness for both the
plants and animals. After a winter without any significant precipitation,
California Governor Jerry Brown declared a drought emergency -
something a floristic student does not want to hear. However, things took a
slight turn for the better by the end of February when a large storm system swept
through the state. The Scodie Mountains received over 2 inches of rain in less
than two days! This was a remarkable amount of moisture. On average the Scodies
receive about 8 inches annually. I returned to the Wilderness in March and to
my surprise many annuals had germinated and were in full flower. It was such an
amazing experience to see my project area in all of its glory. It was a
breathtaking sight. It was hard to return home - I just wanted to explore every
canyon and rock outcrop in the Wilderness. In March I spent 8 full days in the
field and collected over 250 specimens. The wildflowers were growing in large
swaths of color - blue <i>Gilia</i>, yellow <i>Leptosyne</i> and orange
poppies. Even the wildlife appeared to be doing well. I saw many pollinators
swarming the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gilia</i> fields, flocks of
sage sparrows and pinyon jays, a fair number of jackrabbits and cotton tails
and even soaring golden eagles.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Joy England, a fellow Master's student, basking in the poppies<br />
March 2014. Photo by Erika Gardner</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Every
time I venture into the wilderness I discover plants that I did not see last
year or on the previous visit.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It is a very
exciting feeling. I'm looking forward to compiling and analyzing my data, but
first I have a full field season of collecting ahead of me. In fact I will be
featuring specimens that I collect from the Kiavah Wilderness in the upcoming
<a href="http://rsabg.org/garden-events/859-wildflower-festival"><span style="color: blue;">Wildflower Show, April 19th</span></a>. If you would like to see the plant diversity
from my study site please come to the Wildflower Show! I would be delighted to
talk with you about the Kiavah Wilderness.</span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="text-align: center;">Want to see more of the Kiavah Wilderness? Follow my blog at </span></span><span style="color: blue;"><a href="http://scodies.blogspot.com/"><span style="color: blue;">http://scodies.blogspot.com</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; text-align: center;"> </span></span><br />
<br />Erika Gardnerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11045145401561543954noreply@blogger.com209tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-50836243050197244962014-03-10T21:00:00.000-07:002014-03-11T09:18:35.670-07:00The first thousand of many: digitizing the M.E. Jones collection<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc_7CxUUZm8/Ux6DZQ4RtAI/AAAAAAAAABk/IT9BJkubtA8/s1600/RSA0009235.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Gc_7CxUUZm8/Ux6DZQ4RtAI/AAAAAAAAABk/IT9BJkubtA8/s1600/RSA0009235.jpg" height="400" width="272" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Acacia hindsii</i>, collected in Mexico, 1892</td></tr>
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Herbarium specimens (pressed plants mounted to paper) are
beautiful works of art, but also serve importantly to document the natural
world, to aid in plant identification, to further our understanding of plants
and plant diversity and to facilitate new discoveries in botany. In my mind,
and quite likely for many others, botanical specimens are where science,
history, and art intersect. As I sort through specimens of Marcus E. Jones,
truly exquisite collections of both botanical and historic significance, I am
reminded of this important connection among disciplines.<br />
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Marcus E. Jones (1852–1934) was one of the most prominent
botanists of the American West. Jones collected thousands of plants, and
photographed and recorded detailed notes of the regions he traveled in. Jones’
plant collecting at the turn of the century provided an early
comprehensive characterization of the flora of the West; he collected in
areas that were poorly known, some of which have since been
developed. Jones was also a skilled plant taxonomist who described hundreds of
new species, many of which are represented as type specimens (a specimen
selected to serve as a reference point when a plant specimen is first named)
and are housed in our herbarium at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG).</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jessica Chairez, entering specimen records into database</td></tr>
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In 1882, outlaw Jesse James was killed by Robert Ford,
Thomas Edison created the first string of Christmas tree lights, Robert
Koch discovered the germ that causes tuberculosis, and <st1:state w:st="on">Arizona</st1:state>,
<st1:state w:st="on">Colorado</st1:state>, <st1:state w:st="on">Utah</st1:state>,
<st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state>, <st1:state w:st="on">Montana</st1:state>,
and <st1:state w:st="on">Idaho</st1:state>,
among others, had yet to achieve statehood. 1882 is also the year that Marcus
E. Jones took the first of several botanical trips to <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Baja</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>.</div>
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The plant collections and archives from Jones’ trips to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region> (one in
1882, a second in 1892, and four trips during 1926–1930) are the focus of an
ongoing project in the herbarium and library at RSABG: to research and digitize
the most important portions of the Jones specimens and archival collections.
The herbarium houses an estimated 100,000 specimens collected by M. E. Jones
(originally purchased by <st1:placename w:st="on">Pomona</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">College</st1:placetype> in 1923 and later transferred to RSABG),
representing plants from western <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>,
<st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>, and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Baja</st1:city> <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Mexico</st1:country-region></st1:place>. In addition to the plant
collections, the library houses the M. E. Jones archives, which contain his
photographs, field notes, diaries, manuscripts, and correspondence with other
important botanists, including Alice Eastwood, Katherine Brandegee, and Philip
A. Munz, among others.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p2596jBSBsA/Ux6DMpgn9RI/AAAAAAAAABY/tSKnzuTrxuE/s1600/RSA0017366.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-p2596jBSBsA/Ux6DMpgn9RI/AAAAAAAAABY/tSKnzuTrxuE/s1600/RSA0017366.jpg" height="400" width="273" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Solanum torreanum</i>, collected in Mexico, 1892</td></tr>
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Digitizing Jones’ specimens involves a series of steps:
specimens are located and pulled from the main collection in the herbarium;
each specimen is barcoded and databased (in which information on the collection
label is recorded in our herbarium database); the specimen is then imaged using
an inverted scanner (to prevent from having to turn a specimen over). It takes
approximately four minutes to produce a high-resolution image of the specimen.
To date, we have databased and imaged more than 1000 specimens in the
herbarium. The images and data associated with these specimens (metadata) are
now available through the Global Plants Initiative through JSTOR, a shared
digital online library (<a href="http://plants.jstor.org/">http://plants.jstor.org</a>).</div>
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In the library, preservation of the Jones collection
involves cleaning, labeling, and accessioning the contents of the Jones
archives. Glass slides, negatives, and photographs are stored in protective
sleeves, and the pages of photo albums are protected with sheets of archival
tissue sandwiched between. Each item is accessioned and organized in archival
quality boxes. Descriptions and metadata of all archived items are captured in
an electronic database. In addition, we have imaged archived objects (such as glass
slides and negatives, photographic prints, correspondences, diaries, and
notebooks) using similar methods for herbarium specimen imaging.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NxDmgDRxCkw/Ux6Di1Tk6rI/AAAAAAAAABw/ar2lFAoe0Ko/s1600/3242.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NxDmgDRxCkw/Ux6Di1Tk6rI/AAAAAAAAABw/ar2lFAoe0Ko/s1600/3242.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rachel Poutasse, preparing a specimen for scanning</td></tr>
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Many of our herbarium staff, graduate students, and
volunteers at the Garden have been involved in various aspects of the Marcus E.
Jones project. Curatorial Assistant Jessica Chairez has largely led the charge,
overseeing nearly all aspects of the project, including data entry, imaging
specimens, compiling metadata, processing the archives collection, and training
students and volunteers. Graduate students Diana Jolles, Forrest Freund, and
Manuel Lujan have participated in pulling specimens, databasing, and imaging.
Volunteer Robert Swank has assisted with archiving the photographs and photo
books. A new addition to the project, volunteer Marilyn Irwin, has recently
been trained to image herbarium specimens. <a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2146814792736794084"></a>The dedicated efforts of staff, students,
and volunteers helped to make digitizing the first thousand specimens of Marcus
E. Jones collections possible. And we are already well underway of digitizing
our second thousand!</div>
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For more information about the life of Marcus E. Jones, see:</div>
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Ertter, B. 2001. Native <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> Roses. Discovery of <i><st1:place w:st="on">Rosa</st1:place> minutifolia</i> Engelm. “<st1:city w:st="on">Ensenada</st1:city> Rose.” Accessed at <a href="http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/ina/roses/minutifolia.html">http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/ina/roses/minutifolia.html</a></div>
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Lenz, L. W. 1986. Marcus E. Jones: Western Geologist,
Mining Engineer and Botanist. <st1:placename w:st="on">Rancho</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Santa Ana</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Botanic Garden</st1:placetype>,
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Claremont</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">CA</st1:state></st1:place>.</div>
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Rush, E. 2007. Marcus Jones: an outspoken maverick
(1852–1934). <i>Fremontia</i> 35: 9–13.</div>
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<a href="https://sites.google.com/a/rsabg.org/marcus-e-jones/">https://sites.google.com/a/rsabg.org/marcus-e-jones/ </a></div>
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<!--EndFragment-->Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14708215173622563376noreply@blogger.com623Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-50688853446621513262014-02-07T15:37:00.000-08:002014-03-11T09:19:50.632-07:00Sky's the limit: alpine plants on a Sierra Nevada sky island<div>
Botany is addictive. As a kid growing up near the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range, I took numerous summer camping trips to the forests where I loved trying to identify every kind of tree and wildflower I saw. I would religiously consult the plant pictures and descriptions in my copy of T. Storer’s Sierra Nevada Natural History, the classic guide for anyone exploring California's most glamorous mountain range. </div>
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Now as a graduate student in the <a href="http://www.rsabg.org/research">research department at RSABG</a> I am still fascinated with native plants. I am currently working on a floristic inventory of the Rock Creek drainage in Inyo National Forest on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada, about 50 air miles southeast of Yosemite National Park. On a topographic map the upper Rock Creek watershed appears as an eggplant-shaped hollow about 30 sq. miles in area, surrounded by steep granite ridges and peaks, many reaching 12000 feet and higher. In the course of my research I have found there is little documentation about the biodiversity of the high mountain summits around Rock Creek, which are physically challenging to reach.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6mlCpQ6_EU/UwT97ebpjvI/AAAAAAAABBg/Ww66K0KKij4/s1600/rock+creek.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6mlCpQ6_EU/UwT97ebpjvI/AAAAAAAABBg/Ww66K0KKij4/s1600/rock+creek.JPG" height="200" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rock Creek, Inyo NF</td></tr>
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I'm inspired by the work of botanists whose insatiable curiosity has led them on searches for plants in wild remote places. Long before before I was born, an accomplished botanist named<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Thomas_Howell"> John Thomas Howell</a> made a challenging climb up a high mountain in the Rock Creek drainage that had no record of previous botanical exploration. Howell—who earlier in his career had been the first botanist hired on staff at RSABG—described the flat-topped mountain as a “sky island” looming high above Rock Creek Lake. It had no geographic name, so he called it Mono Mesa. He originally saw it while on a botanical collecting trip through Mono Pass. Howell climbed to the top of Mono Mesa in July 1946, collected representative samples of as many different plants as he could find, and shortly thereafter published a list of species. He found 73 taxa, which he considered an impressive number for a high summit with ¼ sq. mile of land area. Howell recounted his fascination with the barren yet beautiful landscape he described as a “velvet-textured monotony.” He wrote that Mono Mesa was unusual, that unlike the surrounding jagged ridge tops it had never been glaciated, never changed by eroding effects of melting and moving ice.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B3Jx7C8oO4I/UwT-Klm201I/AAAAAAAABBo/s2BawRvtGdg/s1600/mesa.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-B3Jx7C8oO4I/UwT-Klm201I/AAAAAAAABBo/s2BawRvtGdg/s1600/mesa.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sky island: Mono Mesa's flat surface visible from the Mono Pass area</td></tr>
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Sixty seven years later in summer 2013 I stood at our base camp at Summit Lake near the top of Mono Pass, impressed by the monumental view of Mono Mesa rising into the sky two miles to the north. I contemplated my quest to resurvey the mesa, which had been many months in planning, preparation and no small measure of uncertainty. Local folks in the Rock Creek valley had assured me that a day hike to the summit (12260 ft.) was very doable but there seemed no clear consensus on which route was best and no established trail to follow. </div>
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We set out from camp the morning of July 12, a two-person team consisting of myself and RSABG colleague Travis Columbus. It took us several hours to make our way cautiously along a narrow knife ridge of piled boulders leading up to the mesa edge and after many heart-pounding moments negotiating our way around gigantic boulders and sheer drop-offs we arrived at the summit in early afternoon. I spent the remainder of the day collecting plant samples, recording GPS data and taking field notes as we surveyed the wide plateau.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r4LgHPyKRYU/UwT-VAoZq7I/AAAAAAAABBw/_9XRz9xl-bA/s1600/polemonium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-r4LgHPyKRYU/UwT-VAoZq7I/AAAAAAAABBw/_9XRz9xl-bA/s1600/polemonium.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sky pilot (<i>Polemonium eximium</i>) is endemic to the Sierra Nevada</td></tr>
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I was struck by the barren expanse of sandy rocky plain, practically devoid of trees and shrubs except for a few small, scraggly whitebark pines (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_albicaulis">Pinus albicaulis</a></i>) clinging to the south rim. A closer inspection revealed an assortment of small colorful plants with cushion- or mat-like growth forms, hugging the ground or sheltering under lichen-covered rocks as if to take refuge from the unforgiving alpine environment. Plants have to be tough survivors up here. Many species I happily observed still thriving on Mono Mesa decades after Howell documented them, including Davidson’s penstemon (<i>Penstemon davidsonii</i>), alpine gold (<i>Hulsea algida</i>), dwarf alpine Indian paintbrush (<i>Castilleja nana</i>) and sky pilot (<i>Polemonium eximium</i>): arguably the flashiest most charismatic alpine plant that only grows in the Sierra Nevada.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yhJamX8s5C8/UwT-fO7UZcI/AAAAAAAABB4/PNqYwwwWDdw/s1600/hulsea.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yhJamX8s5C8/UwT-fO7UZcI/AAAAAAAABB4/PNqYwwwWDdw/s1600/hulsea.jpg" height="162" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alpine gold (<i>Hulsea algida</i>)</td></tr>
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My curiosity to resurvey the mesa was especially keen because of the potential impacts of climate change. Warming temperatures are a significant threat to alpine plant communities especially on the highest summits where plants cannot disperse any higher to find cooler microclimates. Perhaps there are species still unknown to science persisting on Mono Mesa and atop other Sierra <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yneADYBWRvs">sky islands</a> where the chance of discovering them is getting slimmer as the climate warms. It was an unforgettable experience seeing the wonderful flora of Mono Mesa; hopefully my ongoing work to identify the plants I collected there will contribute to understanding life on these magnificent islands in the sky.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05887494419292575815noreply@blogger.com1445Rock Creek, Inyo National Forest, California, USA37.443992300000012 -118.7414408000000237.437688800000011 -118.75152580000002 37.450295800000013 -118.73135580000002tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-54528319027456365872014-01-10T10:42:00.000-08:002016-04-12T13:58:31.492-07:00Upcoming field expedition for triple ribbed milkvetch<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2UNCvAFXUDg/UtA-ogUQhEI/AAAAAAAAA84/VZWlrUmde1E/s1600/Astragalus+tricarinatus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2UNCvAFXUDg/UtA-ogUQhEI/AAAAAAAAA84/VZWlrUmde1E/s1600/Astragalus+tricarinatus.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Astragalus tricarinatus on a cliff face near Mission Creek </td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">This coming spring the <a href="http://rsabg.org/california-native-plant-conservation">Conservation Program</a> has an exciting new project that will be undertaken in some remote and underexplored sections of our California deserts to look for a federally endangered plant called <i><a href="http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=Q2ZO">Astragalus tricarinatus</a></i>, or triple ribbed milkvetch as its known by its common name. This plant grows on an unusual geological substrate called “distressed granite” that is formed along the San Andreas Fault line where it bends and twists from its north/south trending direction to a more east to west trending direction in the Coachella Valley area. This <i>Astragalu</i>s is a California endemic which means it is found nowhere else and is also considered a narrow endemic as its found in a relatively small area.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TPT7QDLGVIY/UtA8pBSCqyI/AAAAAAAAA8k/e5VpheqP5x0/s1600/Astragalus+habitat2+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TPT7QDLGVIY/UtA8pBSCqyI/AAAAAAAAA8k/e5VpheqP5x0/s1600/Astragalus+habitat2+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"distressed granite" outcroppings along the Pacific Coast Trail</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">The Conservation program had the great opportunity in the spring of 2011 to do surveys for <i>Astragalus tricarinatus</i> in the Whitewater and Mission Creek area where we visited many historic locations, found new undocumented populations, and collected a great deal of habitat information for this unusual plant, however a number of questions where left unanswered concerning some very old collections and literary references to this species being in other areas much more to the east. One of these curios historic records was left by a plant taxonomist named <a href="http://www.nybg.org/library/finding_guide/archv/barneby_rg4b.html">R. C. Barneby</a> who was the leading expert on this genus in the 20th century. In his notes on <i>Astragalus tricarinatu</i>s he wrote that it occurs in the Orocopia Mountains in Riverside County. While the Orocopia Mountains are geologically quite diverse, and in the path of the San Andreas Fault, they are still around 40 miles further east than the general area where <i>Astragalus tricarinatus</i> is found. There was no physical specimen of <i>A</i>. <i>tricarinatus</i> that we could locate from this range so all we have is Barnaby’s word that it grows there. While Barneby’s expert knowledge holds a lot of weight it is also important to have a physical specimen in a herbarium that can be visited and studied and this is one of the main goals for this project we will be undertaking, to locate <i>A</i>. <i>tricarinatus</i> in the Orocopias, asses population status and population numbers and collect as much information on this endangered plant that we possibly can.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFPbc64j_Ws/UtA8x_77l1I/AAAAAAAAA8s/5OOdw6tCw2U/s1600/Spencer.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-iFPbc64j_Ws/UtA8x_77l1I/AAAAAAAAA8s/5OOdw6tCw2U/s1600/Spencer.png" width="220" /></a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">Spencer's voucher from Chuckwalla Mtns (Harvard image)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">One herbarium specimen we do have to go on, that has also been one of question, is a collection from 1921 from Mary Spencer that was apparently collected even further east in the Chuckwalla Mountains. The Chuckwalla Mountains are pretty far from the San Andreas Fault, and while they are made up of granite they don’t appear to have the “distressed granite” that <i>Astragalus tricarinatu</i>s prefers. So this specimen brings up many more questions: can <i>A</i> . <i>tricarinatus</i> grow on other geological substrates besides “distressed granite”? There has been a good deal of visitation by botanists to this range in the past 100 years, so is it possible that at one time <i>A</i>. <i>tricarinatus</i> did occur here but no longer does? Was this perhaps a “waif” population? And while Mary Spencer wrote on her collection label “Chuckwalla Mountains” could she have been referring to a larger area that would also include the Orocopia Mountains? The only thing we know for sure right now is that the<a href="http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/new_detail.pl?GH366431&YF=0"> plant collected by Mary Spencer</a> is definitely <i>A</i>. <i>tricarinatus</i>, we have this very important herbarium record that we can visit and reference, but the big question is: where exactly did she collect it? Perhaps she found the same population that R. C. Barnaby writes of. These are all questions we are hoping to answer this coming spring.</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05458908958595866590noreply@blogger.com188Chuckwalla Mountains, California, USA33.591689900000013 -115.375815699999988.0696554000000127 -156.68440969999997 59.113724400000009 -74.067221699999976tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-56148795148787642552014-01-02T13:50:00.003-08:002014-03-11T09:20:40.336-07:00Regenerating a Rare Sunflower<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In my mind, the sunflower may be the most iconic American
plant. It’s a plant of summer, a plant of fall, a plant chewed on the ball
field (and a healthier one than the other plant commonly chewed on the diamond,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Nicotiana tabacum</i>). My earliest
gardening memories are of a sunflower; of planting a seed in a Dixie cup with my preschool class and watching it grow in
my parent’s garden till it towered over my head.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was fitting that one of the first plants
that I worked with at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) was a sunflower.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BZYRVHJLZTs/UsXeXWU_sfI/AAAAAAAAAAM/E8vhiCV2zeQ/s1600/Helianthus+inexpectatus.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BZYRVHJLZTs/UsXeXWU_sfI/AAAAAAAAAAM/E8vhiCV2zeQ/s400/Helianthus+inexpectatus.JPG" height="316" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Flowers of <i>Helianthus inexpectatus</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The seed bank at RSABG is always adding new seeds to its
collection. Each of these new seed collections must be tested to make sure that
the seeds are alive. There are several ways to test whether or not a seed is
alive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The method that we use for most
of our seed collections is germination testing. This process is fairly
straightforward. We take a small sample of seeds, and germinate them under very
specific and controlled conditions. By looking at the ratio of seeds which
sprout compared to the total amount of seeds which were sown and dissecting and
making observation about any ungerminated seeds we can get a good estimate of
the percentage of viable (living) seeds in a collection. On my first day at
RSA, an assortment of interesting seeds was ready and waiting to be tested. One
of these was a sunflower, and a rather unusual one…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Newhall Ranch Sunflower (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Helianthus inexpectatus</i>) wasn’t formally described until 2010, when
David Keil and Mark Elvin published a description in <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="http://scholarship.claremont.edu/aliso/vol28/iss1/5/">Aliso</a>, the scientific journal of RSABG.
Before the description, there was some confusion about what this plant actually
was. It was found at Newhall Ranch, an interesting and<a href="http://angeles2.sierraclub.org/news/blog/2013/03/newhall_ranch_unending_quest_develop_santa_clara_river">
controversial</a> piece of land just south of the grapevine along the I-5. <a href="http://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>When they were discovered, there was some confusion about the
taxonomic identity of these plants. Based on pollen size, chromosome counts
that differed from closely related species and other factors, the plants were
described as an entirely new sunflower. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Since the seeds came from such an unusual plant, we used a
very small sample to test their viability. 30 seeds were sown, 17 of which
germinated. This gave us our baseline of viability for the collection, and the
added bonus of 17 tiny plants. In some of our tests, the plants which are
produced inevitably end up being discarded, often in a spectacular display of
fungal attack, but with these unusual seeds we knew that we wanted to grow them
on. The plants were grown in small two inch pots for several weeks and were
tended to with care by our talented nursery staff. Once they were large enough,
we transferred them to raised beds, where we could grow them to maturity.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ale_c7b48Fg/UsXfF8IhNaI/AAAAAAAAAAU/Ae0r_C3VhEw/s1600/Helianthus+inexpectatus+seed.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Ale_c7b48Fg/UsXfF8IhNaI/AAAAAAAAAAU/Ae0r_C3VhEw/s400/Helianthus+inexpectatus+seed.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Seeds of <i>Helianthus inexpectatus</i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Seed regeneration, also known as seed bulking, is the
process of taking a small amount of seeds, growing plants from them, and
collecting and storing the seed that those plants produce. The 17 plants that
were produced during germination testing were used for this purpose. After a
long summer of frequent watering and the occasional threat of insect attack,
the plants flowered and began to set seed. We harvested seed over the course of
approximately one month, collecting mature flower heads and storing them in a
dry area in paper bags. Many of the seeds were found to be unfilled and non
viable, but some were healthy and normal. Altogether we were able to harvest more
than 2,500 viable and healthy seeds from the 30 seeds that we started with in
our germination test. The seeds that we produced will be stored at the RSABG
seed bank, and will be available to the botanical researchers and
conservationists. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Susanna Bixby Bryant, the founder of RSABG, envisioned an
organization that would “…replenish the depleted supply of some of the states
rarest plants.” Many years after she wrote those words, it is an honor to be
continuing this work, methodically collecting, storing, growing, and
regenerating our states rarest plants. </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com313Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-56887698869627635022013-12-16T14:16:00.000-08:002014-02-08T10:52:53.932-08:00Seed Collecting in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts<div style="text-align: right;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E4aaPpgH7uI/Uq-CdKtbJqI/AAAAAAAAA6k/znxhcpbTE44/s1600/diedre.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E4aaPpgH7uI/Uq-CdKtbJqI/AAAAAAAAA6k/znxhcpbTE44/s320/diedre.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Deidre collecting Joshua tree (<i>Yucca brevifolia</i>) seeds north of Barstow, August 2013</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hello, my name is Deidre and I started working at the Rancho
Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG) as a Seeds of Success Intern in August, 2013. I am
originally from the Twin Cities, <st1:state w:st="on">Minnesota</st1:state>,
and did my undergraduate work at the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Wisconsin- Madison</st1:placename></st1:place>.
While I have some field experience out west in <st1:state w:st="on">Montana</st1:state>
and <st1:state w:st="on">New Mexico</st1:state>, working on Seeds of Success in
<st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
has been a bounty of new plants, habitats and culture to experience. It is
amazing how much public land remains in <st1:place w:st="on">Southern
California</st1:place>, especially in the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. Though I
have moved to one of the most populated areas of the country, I find myself in
areas where I don’t see another soul for most of the day. I will give an
overview of the Seeds of Success project, a typical work day, and some of this
year’s highlights.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://www.nps.gov/plants/sos/">Seeds of Success</a> is a national program set forth by the
<a href="http://www.blm.gov/mt/st/en/prog/botany/sos.html">Bureau of Management (BLM)</a> that aims to collect, conserve, and develop native
plant materials for stabilizing, rehabilitating, and restoring lands in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">United States</st1:country-region>.
<a href="http://rsabg.org/">RSABG</a> receives funding from the BLM as a partner to combine seed collecting
efforts in <st1:place w:st="on">Southern California</st1:place>. For 2013, our
team made a total of 67 collections from 31 different species native to <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>. A
typical collection includes a minimum of 10,000 seeds, a voucher of the plant,
photos of the plant, seed, and site, and data describing the location, habitat,
soil, and associated species. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ISUOvQ_bH4/UquvZ8Cnh_I/AAAAAAAAABc/h9P4iDcRwkQ/s1600/PEPAP3_CA930A-312_A.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ISUOvQ_bH4/UquvZ8Cnh_I/AAAAAAAAABc/h9P4iDcRwkQ/s320/PEPAP3_CA930A-312_A.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Manybristle chinchweed (<i>Pectis papposa</i>) near Algodones Sand Dunes, October 2013</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So how do we find these native plant populations? First, we
do some research at the garden taking precipitation, herbarium records, and
bloom periods into account. We may plan a trip based on one or all of these
three factors; rain is often the key to finding blooming plants in the desert,
even outside of normal bloom periods. Since our collecting regime is so large,
we rarely run out of places to check for populations and many stops are added
on the fly if we spot the telltale sign of water in the desert: green creosote
bush (<i>Larrea tridentata</i>). Once we find a population that has at least 50
plants that are flowering and appear they will likely make at least 10,000
viable seeds, we take photos and voucher a few plants for herbarium records.
About a month after full flowering, we will return to collect seeds. We test
for ripeness with a cut test to split the seed and make sure the inside is
filled, firm, healthy.</span></div>
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<b><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some 2013 collecting highlights:</span></i></b></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MabZo49DK28/UquvtUMNK6I/AAAAAAAAABk/ntaigsrz5NQ/s1600/seedphotos12.9+040.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MabZo49DK28/UquvtUMNK6I/AAAAAAAAABk/ntaigsrz5NQ/s200/seedphotos12.9+040.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Acton’s brittlebrush (<i>Encelia actoni</i>)</td></tr>
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T<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">he first collection I made upon arriving to <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> was of the Joshua tree (<i>Yucca brevifolia</i>)
north of <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Barstow</st1:place></st1:city>.
It was like walking from one spiky desert piñata to another as we used sticks
and rocks to knock the fruits off the inflorescence and catch them or quickly
gather them off the floor.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Manybristle chinchweed <i>(Pectis papposa</i>) was the “yellow
carpet” of Mojave and Sonoran desert this fall. The late summer rains allowed
for the hot water needed to germinate generally thousands of chinchweed seeds
in an area. It has a very distinct smell that was very useful for identification
even before the bright yellow flowers were open.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc7g7oPDu2I/Uquv2mmx4xI/AAAAAAAAABs/TwHeCnz_NFw/s1600/seedphotos12.9+045.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Cc7g7oPDu2I/Uquv2mmx4xI/AAAAAAAAABs/TwHeCnz_NFw/s200/seedphotos12.9+045.jpg" height="150" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> Parish’s goldeneye (<i>Bahiopsis parishii</i>)</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Final collection of the season, (this December!), was in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Ruby</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Canyon</st1:placetype></st1:place>
of the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness area. <st1:city w:st="on">Acton</st1:city>’s
brittlebrush (<i>Encelia actoni</i>) and Parish’s goldeneye (<i>Bahiopsis parishii</i>) were
that last two species for 2013 in a part of the high Mojave that is still
surprisingly colorful for this time in the year.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This year, I have especially enjoyed working outside, making
seed collections at seemingly desolate sites upon first glance, and
appreciating parts of the desert that no one may have ever appreciated. I am
thankful for such a lovely field season and opportunity to conserve the
precious native plants of <st1:place w:st="on">Southern California</st1:place>.
Check back for more collecting news in the spring!</span></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com111Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-22012505274503505842013-12-15T11:44:00.000-08:002014-07-21T15:09:22.321-07:00Why plant names change<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">This article written by Lucinda McDade was originally posted in Oak Notes, the newsletter of the Volunteers of RSABG. Because it answers questions that come up frequently, we thought we'd share it here too.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Why do those annoying scientists keep changing </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the names of plants? In this month’s column, I </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">am going to attempt to convince you that name </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">changes reflect progress and should be embraced </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">with enthusiasm owing to the information that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">they convey. First, though, let me agree: names </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">changes are annoying. I rather like <i>Senegalia greggii</i> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">(formerly <i>Acacia greggii</i>), and I am warming up to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Erythranthe</i> (for the sweet little monkeyflowers that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">grad student/conservation botanist Naomi Fraga </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">studies), but <i>Acmispon</i> and <i>Hosackia</i> (both formerly </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Lotus</i>) just don’t roll off the tongue smoothly and </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">still leave me a little cold. Nonetheless, I too must </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">learn to say <i>Acmispon</i> and <i>Hosackia</i> with grace. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">So why <b><i>do</i></b> scientists keep changing plants’ names? </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The answer is actually pretty simple: <i>because we have </i></span><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">learned more about the “ family tree” (i.e., evolutionary </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">relationships) of the plants in question and seek to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">reflect that knowledge in our scientific naming of the </span></i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>plants</i>. We could of course keep knowledge about </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">relationships and names separate, but biologists </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">have almost unanimously agreed that we should </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">use the scientific names of organisms to convey </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">information about relationships. Interestingly, by </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">following a few simple rules in assigning scientific </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">names to organisms, we can do this quite readily. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here we have the culprit: because we are directed </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to depict patterns of evolutionary relationship </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">when naming organisms, names sometimes must </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">change as our knowledge of relationships grows. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Thus the fact that the names of our monkeyflowers </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">have changed to <i>Erythranthe</i> and <i>Diplacus </i>alerts us </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that modern work to understand the evolutionary </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">history of the genus <i>Mimulus</i> has revealed that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">all plants with monkeyflower-like flowers are not </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">each other’s closest relatives. The evolutionary tree </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">for Phrymaceae indicates that the plants that have </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">been referred to as <i>Mimulus</i> occur in three different </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">branches of the tree. More closely related to each of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">these evolutionarily independent monkeyflowers are </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">plants that have never been referred to as <i>Mimulus</i> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and that have flowers that are quite different from </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">what we expect monkeyflowers to look like.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">When advancing knowledge demands name </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">changes, in order to avoid total chaos, we follow </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the rule that the scientific name stays with the type </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">species. Think of the type species as providing a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">sign post for where the genus name belongs. In this </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">case, the type species, <i>M. ringens</i>, occurs in eastern </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">North America and species on that branch of the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">evolutionary tree retain the name <i>Mimulus</i>. The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">two branches where the western monkeyflowers </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">are placed are now referred to as <i>Diplacus</i> (the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">woody perennial subshrubs like <i>D. aurantiacus</i>) and </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Erythranthe</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">, which are the diminutive annuals that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><a href="http://anabaena.net/phrymaceae.php">Naomi studies</a>. It is notable that both of these genus </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">names far pre-date the phylogenetic results that are </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">now our basis for using them again: our predecessors </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">had an inkling that these groups existed! Knowledge </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">of the patterns of relationship among these plants </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">tells us that the suite of floral traits that makes a </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">monkeyflower look like a monkeyflower may well </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">have evolved multiple times rather than just once. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The story of California fuschia, formerly referred to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">as <i>Zauschneria</i>, is the converse of the monkeyflower </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">story. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Here, the results of modern evolutionary </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">studies show us that the handful of species that had </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">been called <i>Zauschneria</i> are just a small twig on the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">large phylogenetic tree that is the genus <i>Epilobium</i>. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Fixing this problem of mismatch between names </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and evolutionary patterns could involve breaking </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Epilobium (with as many as 200 species) into a large </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">number of genera, but it would be challenging to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">point to traits that would let us tell one from the 3 </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">other, which is almost as annoying for users of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">taxonomic names as is changing names! Also note </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that this path would create a lot of new genus names. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">The alternative path has been chosen: <i>Zauschneria </i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">has been moved into </span><i style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;">Epilobium</i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">. This change should </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">lead you to understand that the remarkable large </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">red, hummingbird-pollinated flowers of <i>Epilobium </i></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>canum</i> likely evolved from less charismatic flowers </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that mark most species of<i> Epilobium</i>. This is </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">interesting and makes us want to know more </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">about the evolutionary history of these plants.</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br />The take home message is that change </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is annoying, but learning is good (as </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I know that the many of you who </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">are teachers will agree!), and the fact </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that knowledge is advancing rapidly </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is great. I am convinced that it is well </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">worth our while to learn these new </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">names because they instruct us about </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">evolutionary relationships of the plants </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">we love. The other simple fact is that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">for people just starting to learn plant </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">names now and for all those who </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">come after them, new names are not </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">in fact “new” but are just names!</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">I am going to change gears now </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and fill in a bit of the background </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">on the science that is behind the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">discoveries that are behind these name changes. If </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">this is too much information for you, feel free to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">skim/skip. Also, let me know whether you like or do </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">not like this sort of information. That will help me </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">make these columns useful and interesting to you. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">These are very exciting times in the branch of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">biology—systematics—that has responsibility for </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">documenting and understanding biodiversity—the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">living organisms that share planet Earth with us. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Since the time of Darwin, it has been understood </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that our goal is to unravel evolutionary relationships. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Organisms are related to each other to different </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">degrees, owing to evolutionary patterns—to recency </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">of shared ancestry. Thus, just as you and your </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">siblings are more closely related to each other than </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to any other human beings owing to sharing the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">same parents (i.e., very recent common ancestors!), </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">so oaks are more closely related to other oaks than </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to ashes or alders because they stem from a common </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">ancestor that lived much more recently than did </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the ancestor shared by oaks, ashes and alders. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Despite this widespread agreement that we seek to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">unravel evolutionary relationships, until about 50 </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">years ago, it was not clear how to discover these </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">patterns of relatedness—how to organize our </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">observations of similarities and differences between </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">organisms to reveal degrees of common ancestry. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">A very clever German entomologist, Willi Hennig, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">figured it out in the 1960s and this sparked a burst </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">of energy in systematics. Next, during </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the late 1980s and into the 1990s </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">saw the development of methods </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">to gather DNA sequences (yes, the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">exact order of the Cs, Gs, Ts, and </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">As in genes—happy to show you </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">in our molecular lab how this </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">works!). This provided incredibly </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">powerful information for deducing </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">relationships. By the way, both the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">principle contributed by Hennig and </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the DNA methods are elegant to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the point of simplicity—the sort of </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">thing that, once you understand, you </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">feel that you could and should have </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">figured out on your own! A final </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">ingredient “stirred in” over the last </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">couple of decades has been advances in analytical </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">methods. The field has recruited many extremely </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">talented mathematicians who are devising analytical </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">methods that follow Hennig’s principle while taking </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">advantage of the huge amounts of data that can </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">now be amassed in the molecular lab. That fertile </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">mix has yielded a revolution in our understanding </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">of how organisms are related to each other. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Those of us contributing to the revolution undertake </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">research that yields tree-like, branching diagrams that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">depict patterns of relationships among the organisms </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that we study. As noted above, by following some </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">simple rules when we assign scientific names to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">organisms based on relatedness, we can convey </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">information about relatedness in our biological </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">classifications. The most important of these rules </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">is that any taxon (e.g., family, genus) must include </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">all of the descendants of a common ancestor. T</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">hese are very </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">exciting times in the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">branch of biology—</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">systematics—that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">has responsibility </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">for documenting </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and understanding </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">biodiversity—the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">living organisms </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that share planet </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Earth with us. </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">only the descendants of that common ancestor. The </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">knowledge that <i>Zauschneria </i>is a twig on the tree </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that is <i>Epilobium</i> can be restated more “formally” as: </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><i>Zauschneria</i> shares a common ancestor with some </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">species of <i>Epilobium</i> (those on the same branch </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">of the <i>Epilobium</i> tree) more recently than any </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">common ancestor that ALL <i>Epilobium</i> share. This </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">means that we cannot recognize both <i>Epilobium</i> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">and <i>Zauschneria </i>because this would break the “all </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">descendants” rule, and we will not be able to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">understand the relatedness of these plants from the </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">classification. I hope that makes sense – it is actually </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">easier to “get” from a diagram and I’d be happy to go </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">over that with any of you who might be interested. </span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> One more point before I leave this topic: because </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">the name changes that we are now experiencing </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">are based on the above described three major </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">advances in our field, there is every reason to </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">believe that they will achieve a level of stability </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">that we have not had in the past. Although we </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">can’t promise that this round of name changes </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">will be the last, there is every reason to believe that </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">they are a major step toward achieving stability</span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com112tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-87245228810791530012013-10-03T14:52:00.003-07:002014-02-08T10:53:29.511-08:00Summer showers bring fall flowers<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5S2MFMrxc54/Uk3lXWOhv9I/AAAAAAAAAx0/G6-M7hZrJ9E/s1600/bighorn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5S2MFMrxc54/Uk3lXWOhv9I/AAAAAAAAAx0/G6-M7hZrJ9E/s1600/bighorn.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bighorn Mountain Wilderness near Ruby Canyon</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Spring time is the season when I usually get reacquainted with
all my old flowering friends, go on wildflower walks, and spend lots of time
doing what I love best; looking for plants! Who would have thought that late
summer and fall could be just as amazing and floriferous as the spring season?
There are currently billowing fields of flowers in <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>’s desert that resulted
from several significant storms this past summer in August and September. This
year I have been able to take several field trips to view the spectacle of
desert flowers at a site called the <a href="http://www.wilderness.net/NWPS/wildView?WID=47">Bighorn Mountain Wilderness. </a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Bighorn Mountain Wilderness is the subject of an ongoing
<a href="http://rsabg.org/">RSABG</a> research project to inventory and create a checklist of all the plants
that occur in the area with special attention to documenting rare and
invasive plants. The Wilderness is 38,502 acres and set back against
the north side the San Bernardino Mountains in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">San Bernardino County</st1:city>, <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state></st1:place>.
Our partners on this project are the <a href="http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/cdd.html%E2%80%8E">Bureau of Land Management</a> and the <st1:place w:st="on"><a href="http://www.fs.usda.gov/sbnf/%E2%80%8E"><st1:placename w:st="on">San Bernardino</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">National Forest</st1:placetype></a></st1:place> who both manage portions
of the wilderness. </span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VOzSdKRF9d0/Uk3lS8yKRjI/AAAAAAAAAxg/QXem5_A6vwg/s1600/pectis.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VOzSdKRF9d0/Uk3lS8yKRjI/AAAAAAAAAxg/QXem5_A6vwg/s1600/pectis.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fields of brightly covered chinchweed blanket the floor</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Last week on 26 September 2013, 12 staff and students from RSABG set out to document
the spectacular fall bloom.The area is difficult to access without a four-wheel
drive vehicle; therefore few botanists have documented plants in the Wilderness prior to our
study. After traveling one hour via dirt road and one flat tire, we got to our survey sites and found an
abundance of summer annuals. We also found perennials that normally bloom in the spring,
but have perked up in response to the summer rain. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The summer annuals that predominate and form carpets in the
Bighorn Mountain Wilderness are: fringed amaranth (<i>Amaranthus fimbriatus</i>), needle
grama (<i>Bouteloua aristidoides</i>), six weeks grama (<i>Bouteloua barbata</i>), Sonoran
sandmat (<i>Euphorbia micromeria</i>), Yuma sandmat (<i>Euphorbia setiloba</i>), and chinchweed
(<i>Pectis papposa</i>). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Other less common annuals include windmills (<i>Allionia
incarnata</i>) and spinderling (<i>Boerhavia triquetra</i> var. <i>intermedia</i>). Shrubs in the sunflower family such as wedgelead
goldenbush (<i>Ericamerica cuneata</i>), rubber rabbitbrush (<i>Ericameria nauseosa</i>), round-leaf
rabbitbrush (<i>Ericameria teritifolia</i>), and scale broom (<i>Lepidospartum squamatum</i>)
are approaching full flower and create a haze of yellow across the landscape.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZOdkYEmY4AM/Uk3lUqX2c4I/AAAAAAAAAxs/zjKVMc6KS4k/s1600/Mirabilis.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZOdkYEmY4AM/Uk3lUqX2c4I/AAAAAAAAAxs/zjKVMc6KS4k/s1600/Mirabilis.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Mirabilis</i> (four o'clock) in bloom in September 2013</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you have a chance to get out and see this spectacular
bloom I would hightly recommend it. Swaths of blooming plants can be seen just outside of the <st1:placename w:st="on">Bighorn</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountain</st1:placetype> Wilderness, north of <st1:placename w:st="on">Yucca</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype> near the town of <st1:city w:st="on">Landers</st1:city>. There in <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Johnson</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Valley</st1:placetype></st1:place> you will find fields of chinchweed and spiny senna (<i>Senna armata</i>). There
are also several other locations to see the unusual green cast in desert. If you head out along I-10 towards <st1:placetype w:st="on">Desert</st1:placetype> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Center you will</st1:placetype> find octotillo (<i>Fouquieria splendens</i>), pallo verde (<i>Parkinsonia <st1:state w:st="on">florida</st1:state></i>), and ironwood
(<i>Olneya tesota</i>) lush and green with some plants in flower and fields of gramma grass (<i>Bouteloua</i> sp.). </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Stay tuned to our <a href="http://rsabg.org/">website</a> for updates on our progress and
findings in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Bighorn</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Mountain</st1:placetype></st1:place> Wilderness and
visit our <a href="https://plus.google.com/photos/104903816053361032490/albums/5713857765831822033?authkey=CJ_ksOXZ3uPSrQE">photo album</a> to see more. The area is an
interesting transition zone between the Mojave and Sonoran deserts and the
interior mountains of southern <st1:place w:st="on">California</st1:place>.
Over the course of our study we are sure to have many interesting discoveries
that will enhance our knowledge of <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>’s
diverse flora. </span></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com95Bighorn Mountain Wilderness, Twentynine Palms-Morongo Valley, CA 92285, USA34.2958382 -116.654745334.190812199999996 -116.8161068 34.4008642 -116.4933838tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-68925527594844215962013-08-19T10:57:00.000-07:002013-10-03T10:58:28.348-07:00Five new species of monkeyflowers added to the ranks of the CNPS Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/erythranthe_carsonensis-400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/erythranthe_carsonensis-400.jpg" height="320" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Carson Valley monkeyflower (<i>Erythranthe carsonensis</i>)</span></td></tr>
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Last year I had the privilege of naming and describing five new species of monkeyflowers in the Garden’s scientific journal <i>Aliso</i> (30: 49-68, 2012). Four of these monkeyflowers have now been added to the California Native Plant Society’s (CNPS) Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants and one will soon be reviewed for its possible inclusion in the Inventory. Plants in the CNPS Inventory are assigned ranks in an effort to categorize their degree of rarity and concern of threat or endangerment. For example, a CNPS Rare Plant Rank of 2B.3 means that the plant is rare in California, but more common elsewhere (2B), and is not very threatened in California (0.3). The four monkeyflowers that have been added to the CNPS Inventory were assigned a rare plant rank of 1B which means they are not only rare in California but throughout their range. In addition three of the monkeyflowers have a threat rank 0.1 which means they are seriously threatened and one has a threat rank of 0.3 which means it is not very threatened in California. In doing field work for my research I wanted to asses the conservation status of these monkeyflowers because many of them are known to be naturally rare and are therefore of conservation concern. In my field work I surveyed and searched for new populations and provided more detailed information on their geographic range. To learn more about the conservation status of these elusive little plants I recorded information on the quality of their habitat (e.g. abundant non-native plant species would indicate poor habitat quality), signs of disturbance (e.g. trash, road cuts, vehicle trespass, trampling by humans or grazing animals), current use of the area, and current status of the population. This is important because if a species is known to be restricted to a small geographic area then chances are that some degree of disturbance (e.g. development, cattle grazing, and impacts from recreation) could have a significant impact on the long term viability of the species. The information I recorded was published and used in their assessment for ranking in the CNPS Inventory.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1OVuZF8FVNs/UjuV4mXE9iI/AAAAAAAACZE/VXw2mpRr7ps/s1600/4585296957_4bc0096f4c_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1OVuZF8FVNs/UjuV4mXE9iI/AAAAAAAACZE/VXw2mpRr7ps/s320/4585296957_4bc0096f4c_b.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Santa Lucia monekflower (<i>Erythranthe hardhamiae</i>)</td></tr>
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The CNPS Inventory serves as a State-wide source of information on California’s rare and endangered plants and is an important resource for scientific research, conservation planning, and effective enforcement of environmental laws that deal with plant conservation. It is essential to much of the work I do in evaluating the status of rare plants in California and identifying geographical areas and species to survey. This past year (2012) Garden Scientists described seven new plant species native to California and all seven of these have been added or are being considered for addition to the CNPS Inventory. This brings to light a couple of very important things: one is that we still have much to learn about the flora of California. Since the second edition of The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California was published in 2012 at least 14 new taxa native to California have been newly described! Even though my research has focused on describing and exploring plant diversity in California, the rate at which we continue to learn about and add new species to our native flora still astounds me. Second is that many of these newly described species in California have been found to be rare, and endangered throughout their range.<br />
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This shows us that it is critical to gather as much information as possible prior to developing land or changing land use. Balancing our use of the land with protection of natural resources is a difficult task, but in order to do this effectively we need information on what occurs there and its significance. The work we do here at the Garden in conservation and research aims to provide this information in the interest of education on the value and significance of California’s native flora.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com110Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.110738 -117.71391319999998 34.110738 -117.71391319999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-16697619248737658832013-07-24T16:28:00.000-07:002013-09-19T16:42:37.648-07:00Windows to the Natural WorldThink back on your experiences at museums, cultural institutions, or really any ‘attraction’ that you’ve ever visited… Which were your favorites? Which stimulated your senses and drew upon your powers of observation, curiosity, and excitement?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/bp2013_eggs-DSC02225%20mourning%20cloak%20eggs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/bp2013_eggs-DSC02225%20mourning%20cloak%20eggs.jpg" height="180" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">mourning cloak eggs</span></td></tr>
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As we grow our Garden and cultivate the messages we hold so dear from our mission, we’ll endeavor to up the ante in providing an engaging, meaningful and memorable visitor experience. After all, it’s likely those very same traits that caused you to recall your most enjoyable experiences during my opening line of questioning. Those traits are the keys to any good occasion, from educational workshops to tours or family-friendly special events. And what’s the real trick to creating those types of experiences that appeal to a broad audience at our Garden?<i> Open windows to the natural world.</i><br />
One of our most successful <i>windows</i> has been our California native butterfly pavilion, now finishing up its fourth season with our grand finale on Sunday, July 28 – the chance for guests to help release our butterflies from the pavilion into the wonderful habitat that our Garden provides. When all is said and done, nearly 8000 guests will have experienced our butterfly pavilion during its two and half month run this late spring and summer. The time of sleepy summer days in our Garden has passed; gone are the days of 1500 total guests strolling our trails during summer months – this year we’ve welcomed nearly 15,000!<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Papilio%20eurymedon%20Pale%20Swallowtail%20Clark%20Thompson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Papilio%20eurymedon%20Pale%20Swallowtail%20Clark%20Thompson.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"><i>Papilio eurymedon</i> (Pale Swallowtail) Photo by Clark Thompson</span></td></tr>
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The butterfly pavilion has created a draw for all ages, from grandparents with grandkids to young families with their toddling children, the appeal and magic of butterflies is universal. <i>But what makes it an engaging, meaningful and memorable experience that furthers our mission?</i> Simply put, it’s the chance to witness nature and the relationships that we often take for granted on display in a scale that we as humans can identify with and appreciate. Curiosity takes over and routine observations evoke thoughtful questions that include “how” or “why” (or are prompted by trained volunteers or butterfly experts on hand), which lead to “ah-ha” moments (one of the most rewarding expressions an educator can hear) and changes in perspective and attitude which, if fostered, can lead to changes in behavior, (drumroll…) ultimately improving the quality of our very existence.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/pavilion_naptime-DSC02785.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/pavilion_naptime-DSC02785.jpg" height="213" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed (<i>Asclepias fascicularis</i>)</span></td></tr>
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Too grandiose an expectation? <i>Not really. </i>Butterflies are an elegant tool to engage and educate a diverse audience. Butterflies beckon young and young at heart to ponder the relationships between plants, animals, and the intricacies that strengthen (or destroy) natural systems. The ties that bind butterflies to their immediate habitat, for instance larval host plants on which to lay eggs necessary for continuation of the species are undeniable. Those relationships describe an absolute necessity – without particular plants, particular butterflies (and ultimately other animal or plant species that depend upon butterflies) cannot exist. When guests are able to put a name to a plant, for instance milkweed, and come to understand that without milkweed, monarch butterflies cannot lay their eggs [though of course it’s not likely to observe monarchs naturally without relatively close proximity to milkweed species], “ah-ha” moments related to habitat and “what can I do to help?” are soon to follow. The list is lengthy - - mourning cloak butterflies and true willows (genus <i>Salix</i>), western tiger swallowtails and sycamores or cottonwood trees, or even our state insect, the California dogface and its larval host plant false indigo (genus <i>Amorpha</i>). Guest questions soon broaden: “Where can I get those plants?” “Can I grow that plant species in my backyard?” “What if I’m the only one in my neighborhood with butterfly habitat.. Does it still work?” A sense of wonder, a sense of purpose, a sense of possibly being able to change the opinions and attitudes (dare I say<i> behaviors</i>) of others? It is possible.<i> Who wouldn’t want more butterflies in their backyard?</i><br />
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Don’t miss this season’s final weekend of the butterfly pavilion July 27 and 28, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.<br />
Thanks to the generosity of Northern Trust, admission to the butterfly pavilion is FREE this weekend (general admission rates apply).RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com104Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-57055513520657593302013-07-10T16:14:00.000-07:002013-09-19T16:54:37.045-07:00Seed banking Orcutt's spineflower<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Chorizanthe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="215" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Chorizanthe.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Orcutt's spineflower (<i>Chorizanthe orcuttiana</i>)</span></td></tr>
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At first glance it may not be the most breathtaking example of California’s botanical diversity, but Orcutt’s spine flower (<i>Chorizanthe orcuttiana</i>) finds itself amongst the states rarest plant species. This small prostate annual in the Buckwheat family (Polygonaceae) is endemic to coastal San Diego County, where it occurs in sandy soils, primarily in association with sandstone bluffs and southern maritime chaparral. With a listing of ‘Endangered” by both the federal Fish and Wildlife service and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), Orcutt’s spineflower receives the highest level of legal protection. Plants of this rarity are continuously monitored for, and the results are tracked by the CDFW. As of July 2013, 14 occurrences of this species are recorded, with only seven of these having been observed since 1980.<br />
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A major goal for the Rancho Santa Ana (RSA) seed bank is to maintain viable seed collections of the states rarest plants. Prior to this season, only one population of Orcutt’s spineflower had been collected and put into long term storage at RSA. In 2013, we are targeting this species for ex situ preservation and have accessioned two new seed collections representing previously uncollected populations into the RSA seedbank. The first collection came from Naval Base Point Loma, under a program administered by the Center for Plant Conservation which seeks to store seeds of endangered plants found on Department of Defense lands. The seeds arrived as most collections do, mixed with bits of stems, twigs, and other chaff. Seed program staff, volunteers and interns quickly set to meticulously removing anything that was not a viable seed. Twenty seeds were set aside to be germinated to assess the overall viability, and the rest were placed in our dryer tanks, to be prepared to freeze for long term storage.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Chorizanthe_habitat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Chorizanthe_habitat.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Orcutt's spineflower habitat</span></td></tr>
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The second collection was made at Torrey Pines Reserve in Del Mar. RSA staff members Evan Meyer and Duncan Bell met up with David Hogan of The Chaparral Lands Conservancy and Margaret Fillius of Torrey Pines Reserve to collect the seeds. This collection was made on maternal lines, which means that each individual plant was collected and will be stored separately, allowing the maximum research and restoration use. As we collected, we had to be on the look out for the Prostrate spineflower (<i>Chorizanthe procumbens</i>), a more common cousin of Orcutt’s spineflower. The pale green foliage and higher number of involucre spines of the Prostrate spineflower made distinguishing these tiny annuals relatively easy, although we had to work slow and make sure we didn’t collect the wrong plant. After we finished the seed collection, we took a few minutes to admire the beautiful coastal landscape and interesting plants such as Short leaved dudleya (<i>Dudleya brevifolia</i>) and White coast ceanothus (<i>Ceanothus verrucosus</i>).<br />
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With the seeds back in the lab, and a little more experience cleaning this species, we were able to quickly get the seeds cleaned and processed for storage. The next step was to germinate a small sample of seeds to test viability. Seeds of spineflowers are found within a fibrous involucre (with attached teeth or spines, hence the common name). We felt that the involucres would impede germination and increase the likelihood of mold contamination as we germinated the seeds. Under the dissecting scope, with fine tweezers and surgical scalpel in hand, intern Monica Rodriquez skillfully removed the fragile seeds from the involucres. The seeds were then sewn on clear agar plates. Within a week, every seed germinated, indicating that there is no dormancy in fresh seed and that the viability is 100%.<br />
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Creating a seed bank is one of many actions that will help protect Orcutt’s spineflower from the very real threat of extinction. This tiny plant is getting big help from Rancho Santa Ana and other plant conservation organizations.<br />
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RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com72Torrey Pines State Reserve, 12600 North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037, USA32.9269866 -117.2592619000000132.8736651 -117.33994290000001 32.9803081 -117.17858090000001tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-77606122993935029682013-07-01T10:55:00.000-07:002013-10-03T10:56:58.182-07:00A glorious week with the GLORIA project<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Telescope_Peak.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Telescope_Peak.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Telescope Peak rises to 11,042 ft</span></td></tr>
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This past weekend I had the opportunity to participate in a global monitoring project in Death Valley National Park. The project is called GLORIA (global observation research initiative in alpine environments) and is a worldwide coordinated effort to monitor climate change and its effects on alpine plants on the top of the world’s highest mountains. I have been aware of this project for sometime, so I was really excited when I learned it was going to be set up for the first time in the Panamint Mountains in Death Valley National Park. I joined the GLORIA botany team from June 24-27 to help with plant identification and gathering data in the vegetation plots. When I told my friends and co-workers that I was headed to Death Valley National Park in late June, everyone thought I was crazy! People immediately thought of the extreme heat in the low valleys and I realized that not many people are aware that there is a large mountain range called the Panamint Mountains that towers above the valley floor. Telescope Peak is the tallest summit in the Panamint Range and rises to 11,042 ft. The peak was our ultimate destination for the project, and on the final day I was able to summit the mountain and enjoy the view<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Calochortus%20panamintensis.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://rsabg.org/images/stories/conservation_blog/Calochortus%20panamintensis.JPG" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">Calochortus panamintensis</span></td></tr>
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On the trip I learned a lot about more about GLORIA. The GLORIA project was first initiated at the University of Vienna in Austria in 2001. The goal of the project is to create a network of monitoring stations that use a standardized and universal protocol to detect changes in vegetation that are due to changes in climate. The project is now being implemented around the world with GLORIA plots in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America. California was the first to established sites in the western hemisphere with GLORIA plots established in 2004 in the White Mountains and in Yosemite National Park in the Sierra Nevada. There are now seven areas set up in California that will be resurveyed every five years. One of my goals in helping out with the GLORIA project was to find out how we can apply these methods to our high alpine summits in southern California. San Gorgonio Mountain in the San Bernardino Mountains rises just over 11,500 ft. This is our most significant alpine area in southern California with several species known only from the highest elevations and other species that have their southern most populations here. Having a GLORIA site in southern California will not only give us the tools to understand how climate change is affecting our local alpine species, but will also allow us to learn how changes here compare with changes around the world. To learn more about the GLORIA project in California you can visit this <a href="http://www.gloriacalifornia.org/">website</a>, and to learn more about the GLORIA project globally you can visit this <a href="http://www.gloria.ac.at/">site</a>. To see more pictures of my trip go <a href="http://www.gloriacalifornia.org/?page_id=141">here</a> and <a href="http://flic.kr/s/aHsjGx2tqy">here!</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com78Telescope Peak, Death Valley National Park, California, USA36.169949 -117.0892223999999836.169949 -117.08922239999998 36.169949 -117.08922239999998tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-43097867326735847472013-05-30T10:59:00.000-07:002013-10-16T11:00:53.259-07:00Hunting for Botanical Biodiversity, Joshua Tree National Park <h2 class="date-header">
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Imagine if we could gather together an enthusiastic multitude of
biologists and interested citizens to comb through a location on a
single weekend, seeking to identify every living thing that occurs in
that one spot. Think of how much we could learn about ecological
complexity, and of how the dimension of our knowledge of that place
would unfold like a Chinese fan. It is like we are taking a biological
snapshot, capturing a record of everything that is there at that point
in time. Holding such a gathering is the aim of a “Bioblitz”, or
Biodiversity Hunt: to positively identify as many species as possible
over a day or two in a delineated area.<br />
Staff at Joshua Tree National Park organized a series of four
Biodiversity Hunts over the past three years, assembling more than 100
people to search, identify, and report on the biological richness of the
park’s desert wetlands, the focus of this project. Rancho Santa Ana
Botanic Garden (RSABG) botanists have been present at all four of these
hunts, applying their botanical expertise to assist the National Park to
identify plant species that reside within their boundaries, and more
generally benefiting knowledge of Southern California’s botanical
richness.<br />
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In March and April a group of botanists from the Garden, including Naomi
Fraga, Sarah Degroot, Evan Meyer, Abby Hird, Loraine Washburn and
Jessica Chu participated in the last two of these four Biodiversity
Hunts. We spent four full days in Joshua Tree, doing thorough surveys
for plants that occur around Cottonwood Springs and the Lost Palms
Oasis, near the south entrance, and in Smithwater Canyon in the
northwest of the Park. We joined birders, herpetologists, entomologists,
and arachnologists, as well as students, photographers, and interested
community members in a wide-ranging survey of these remarkable desert
wetlands.<br />
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In March at Cottonwood Springs and Lost Palms Oasis, RSABG botanists
fanned out into the washes and slopes, identifying common and dominant
species as well as hunting for microsites where less common elements
might be found, such as against a north-facing cliff face, in a more
humid seep, or where the soil became richer in clay. We appreciated the
shade of palms and cottonwoods as we hunted along the edges of the
pools, where we found ferns (<i>Cheilanthes covillei</i>), rushes (<i>Juncus acutus</i>), and orchids (<i>Epipactis gigantea</i>) in the wetter parts of the oases.<br />
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By the end of the March weekend, the collected effort of all bio-hunters
had identified more than 558 species, including more than 200 species
of plants and 300 species of insects, as well as 32 bird species, 12
reptiles, seven mammals, and one amphibian species. For our part, we
found many plant species that had not been documented before for this
location in the Park, and at least one species that was new to the
Joshua Tree park plant list.<br />
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The April Biodiversity Hunt at Smithwater Canyon focused on one of
Joshua Tree National Park’s richest areas for plant diversity, due to
its higher elevation, perennial water flow, and steep canyon walls that
form diverse microhabitats for plants, as well as its location in the
transition between the Mojave and Sonoran deserts. We were fortunate on
Friday to be joined by Tasha La Doux, a Ph.D. graduate of RSABG’s
program, who now divides her time between Joshua Tree and the Sweeney
Granite Mountains Desert Research Center in the Mojave. We were also
joined by Darryl Slate, an enthusiastic and knowledgeable amateur
botanist who lives near the park. In our two day hunt at Smithwater
Canyon we found 160 species of plant, both common and rare species, as
well as contributing the sole sighting of a speckled rattlesnake to the
reptile list. Due to the dry spring in the desert, the abundance of
spring annuals has been quite modest throughout the Park, resulting in
an under-representation of total plant diversity.<br />
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Earth’s biological richness belongs to all of us. A deep appreciation of
the biodiversity of a place can stem from an understanding of the
geological and biological history of that place, and can also help the
human population of the planet deepen its connection to the other
species that share their piece of the planet. We hope, also, that
encouraging people to know the organisms around them will deepen their
caring for wild species enduring presence on Earth. RSABG’s conservation
efforts aim to increase the chances that California’s flora survives
intact to the world of our great-grandchildren. Field studies such as
our Biodiversity Hunt participation at Joshua Tree helps this effort by
assuring that we know what grows where, while also helping federal
resource managers do their job effectively, by helping them to know more
about the biological diversity they are protecting.
</span>Loraine Washburnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16936486865425437016noreply@blogger.com109Joshua Tree National Park, 74485 National Park Drive, Twentynine Palms, CA 92277, USA34.020794936018724 -116.284790039062533.810267436018727 -116.6075135390625 34.231322436018722 -115.9620665390625tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-86083392344501095892013-05-01T15:39:00.000-07:002013-09-19T16:53:54.651-07:00Rare Plant Treasure Hunt<div class="MsoNormal">
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Several years ago Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG)
teamed up with the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) through a contract
grant from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Fish and Wildlife
to do rare plant surveys across <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
deserts as part of the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt (RPTH) program. Last year
marked the third year for RPTH, a program created and named by Josie Crowford
of CNPS.<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rsabg.org/images/stories/articles/blogs/castle_peaks.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A Rare Plant Tresature Hunt group travels out to Castle Peaks. Photo: Kim Clark" border="0" height="240" src="http://www.rsabg.org/images/stories/articles/blogs/castle_peaks.jpg" title="A Rare Plant Tresature Hunt group travels out to Castle Peaks. Photo: Kim Clark" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 19px;">A Rare Plant Tresature Hunt group travels out to Castle Peaks. Photo: Kim Clark</span></td></tr>
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It is largely a citizen-science program with the goal of
getting volunteers out in the field to experience <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> wild places and assist in rare
plant surveys. These surveys largely target rare plant populations that haven’t
been revisited in more than 20 years in order to evaluate the current status of
these populations.</div>
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Many people may be under the impression that the desert is
nothing rocks, lizards and an occasional spiny plant—an open wasteland to be
crossed to get to <st1:city w:st="on">Las Vegas</st1:city> or <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Lake</st1:placetype> <st1:placename w:st="on">Havasu</st1:placename></st1:place>.
But <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> deserts hold more than 35
percent of the flora of <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
and have some of the areas of highest diversity for the state. There are many
botanically unexplored mountain ranges and valleys out there. In 2012 alone, there
were five plant species found in <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
deserts new to science described by RSABG scientists and researchers.</div>
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The Rare Plant Treasure Hunt program largely focuses on the <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> deserts often
associated with the development of renewable energy projects. There are
currently thousands of acres proposed for possible development, of which a
great deal has had little botanical exploration.</div>
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It is the goal of the RPTH program to get volunteers out to
these places to experience them first hand and to educate others on <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>’s diverse
flora and the importance of its conservation.</div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.rsabg.org/images/stories/articles/blogs/Coryphantha%20alversonii%20Big%20Marias%20Mtns.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://www.rsabg.org/images/stories/articles/blogs/Coryphantha%20alversonii%20Big%20Marias%20Mtns.jpg" width="239" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Coryphantha alversonni in the Big Marias Mountains. Photo: Kim Clark.</span></span></td></tr>
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Volunteers from the Sierra Club, the Desert Survivors
Organizations, HabitatWorks, The Wildlands Conservancy, CNPS chapters and
subchapters from across <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> have often
participated with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Rancho</st1:placename>
<st1:placename w:st="on">Santa Ana</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Botanic
Garden</st1:placetype></st1:place> in the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt. But many
volunteers were not affiliated with any particular organization, but were just
interested in joining the group to explore and learn about the desert and to
have a personal experience with these wild places while doing so.</div>
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The spring field season in 2012 was one of the driest years
on record for the <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
deserts; most areas got only 0.01 millimeters of rain or absolutely no rain at
all. Watching the doppler in the winter of 2011-12 was often like watching a
blank screen as there was so little weather action. Watching the weather
stations and dopplers frequently helps plant scientists predict which areas may
have germination or bloom. But even in dry years, the desert rarely disappoints
and almost every area visited had at least one rare plant population if not
dozens.</div>
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The summer field season seemed to the opposite as some parts
of the <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state>
deserts received the most summer rain they have received in more than a decade.
The eastern Mojave in particular had an amazing summer bloom and RSABG/RPTH
participants were able to document around 100 rare plant populations on just a
few trips.</div>
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A total of 24 trips were made in 2012. These trips ranged
from day trips to three-day excursions into very remote places. We started in
March at below sea level around the Salton Sea, topped out on <st1:place w:st="on">Southern
California</st1:place>’s highest peak on Mount San Gorgonio at 11,500 feet in
July, and then headed back down to the lower elevations following the summer
monsoonal storms in September. We documented around 300 rare plant populations.
Many of these were newly documented. We trekked into the Panamint Mountains and
found the type locality of the Panamint daisy (<i>Enceliopsis covillei)</i>, which is
the plant that has always adorned, and will continue to adorn, the CNPS logo;
this population had not been revisited since Frederick Coville made the first
collection of this plant in 1891 on the Death Valley expedition. The new
species was later named for him. We found the first population of Abrams spurge
(<i>Chamaesyce abramsiana</i>) in <st1:placename w:st="on">Imperial</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype> in 100 years; all historic populations from <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Imperial</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">County</st1:placetype></st1:place> are likely extirpated due to
development and agriculture. We documented many range extensions of rare
plants, locating populations where they had never been found before. We
provided information that aided in the evaluation of plant species for the CNPS
inventory, including information about its abundance (or lack thereof!) in <st1:state w:st="on">California</st1:state> and about
threats to historic occurrences of a given species. We had many wonderful treks
into some amazing places and spent many nights under star filled skies. All in
all, it was a very successful and productive year.</div>
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If you would like to learn more about the Rare Plant
Treasure Hunt program please <a href="http://www.cnps.org/cnps/rareplants/treasurehunt/" target="_blank">visit
the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt Website</a>.</div>
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RSABGhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11210640477561112570noreply@blogger.com103Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2146814792736794084.post-49680651180118387292013-03-03T10:49:00.000-08:002013-10-03T10:50:44.818-07:00In search of star phacelia<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8466153671_d627f0e432.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8244/8466153671_d627f0e432.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Phacelia stellaris with a swiss army knife for scale</td></tr>
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<i>Phacelia stellaris</i> is is a tiny annual herb in the borage or forget-me-not family (Boraginaceae). Its common name is star phacelia which is derived from its latin epithet <i>stellaris,</i> meaning star. I find that name particularly fitting since the plant looks like a little star in the sand when it flowers. This is the first year I have had the privilege to see this species in the field. For someone who loves belly plants (like me!), this plant is a show stopper! <i>Phacelia stellaris </i>has pale lavender to purple flowers, and a bluish green cast to the leaves. It gracefully hides itself in the sand and because of this it takes several very skilled botanists with eagle eyes to find them! Its no wonder that there are few recent observations of this species across its range in California.<br />
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<i>Phacelia stellaris</i> is considered <a href="http://www.rareplants.cnps.org/detail/726.html">rare</a> by the California Native Plant Society and is a <a href="http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=Q3IO">candidate</a> for listing under the Endangered Species Act by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This species is of concern because it is known from just a few location in southern California, US, and in Baja California, MX. Many of the occurrence are considered historic; that is they haven't been seen in over 30 years. In fact many haven't been seen in over 80's years, since the 1920's and 1930's. One population that was recorded to be in the bed of the San Diego River is presumed to have gone extinct because it hasn't been seen since 1882!<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8521/8466152533_8fe5cf6d7d.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8521/8466152533_8fe5cf6d7d.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="font-size: 13px; text-align: center;">Phacelia stellaris in the sand. </td></tr>
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Our goal is to retrace the steps of the botanists who have come before us and find <i>Phacelia stellaris</i> at locations where it was historically known in the US. We've started with the easy ones that have been documented since the year 2000. So far we have seen it at four locations which has given us a better understanding of its habitat requirements. I truly hope we can find several if not all of the long lost populations of <i>Phacelia stellaris</i>, and perhaps even document a few that we didn't know about before.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03857837164665563395noreply@blogger.com152Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, 1500 North College Avenue, Claremont, CA 91711, USA34.110738 -117.7139131999999834.0975915 -117.73408319999997 34.123884499999996 -117.69374319999999