Listen to the Desert Tortoise

Photo by: B. Eisenstein (4/17/2104)

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). 

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 Spring Wildflower Show. The Wildflower Show brings some of the discoveries made by researchers to the public. As noted on the Rancho website:

Loeseliastrum matthewsii
(Desert Calico)
Photo by: B. Eisenstein

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). 

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.

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.

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.

Desert tortoise in collection site. Photo by: B. Eisenstein

Seed Collecting in the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts

Deidre collecting Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) seeds north of Barstow, August 2013

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, Minnesota, and did my undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin- Madison.  While I have some field experience out west in Montana and New Mexico, working on Seeds of Success in California has been a bounty of new plants, habitats and culture to experience. It is amazing how much public land remains in Southern California, 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.
  

Seeds of Success is a national program set forth by the Bureau of Management (BLM) that aims to collect, conserve, and develop native plant materials for stabilizing, rehabilitating, and restoring lands in the United States.  RSABG receives funding from the BLM as a partner to combine seed collecting efforts in Southern California. For 2013, our team made a total of 67 collections from 31 different species native to California.  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. 

Manybristle chinchweed (Pectis papposa) near Algodones Sand Dunes, October 2013

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 (Larrea tridentata).  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.

Some 2013 collecting highlights:

Acton’s brittlebrush (Encelia actoni)

The first collection I made upon arriving to California was of the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) north of Barstow. 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.

Manybristle chinchweed (Pectis papposa) 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.

  Parish’s goldeneye (Bahiopsis parishii)

Final collection of the season, (this December!), was in Ruby Canyon of the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness area. Acton’s brittlebrush (Encelia actoni) and Parish’s goldeneye (Bahiopsis parishii) 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.

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 Southern California. Check back for more collecting news in the spring!

Summer showers bring fall flowers

Bighorn Mountain Wilderness near Ruby Canyon

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 California’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 Bighorn Mountain Wilderness.

The Bighorn Mountain Wilderness is the subject of an ongoing RSABG 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 San Bernardino County, California. Our partners on this project are the Bureau of Land Management and the San Bernardino National Forest who both manage portions of the wilderness.

Fields of brightly covered chinchweed blanket the floor

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.  

The summer annuals that predominate and form carpets in the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness are: fringed amaranth (Amaranthus fimbriatus), needle grama (Bouteloua aristidoides), six weeks grama (Bouteloua barbata), Sonoran sandmat (Euphorbia micromeria), Yuma sandmat (Euphorbia setiloba), and chinchweed (Pectis papposa).

Other less common annuals include windmills (Allionia incarnata) and spinderling (Boerhavia triquetra var. intermedia).  Shrubs in the sunflower family such as wedgelead goldenbush (Ericamerica cuneata), rubber rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa), round-leaf rabbitbrush (Ericameria teritifolia), and scale broom (Lepidospartum squamatum) are approaching full flower and create a haze of yellow across the landscape.

Mirabilis (four o'clock) in bloom in September 2013

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 Bighorn Mountain Wilderness, north of Yucca Valley near the town of Landers. There in Johnson Valley you will find fields of chinchweed and spiny senna (Senna armata). There are also several other locations to see the unusual green cast in desert.  If you head out along I-10 towards Desert Center you will find octotillo (Fouquieria splendens), pallo verde (Parkinsonia florida), and ironwood (Olneya tesota) lush and green with some plants in flower and fields of gramma grass (Bouteloua sp.). 

Stay tuned to our website for updates on our progress and findings in the Bighorn Mountain Wilderness and visit our photo album to see more.  The area is an interesting transition zone between the Mojave and Sonoran deserts and the interior mountains of southern California. Over the course of our study we are sure to have many interesting discoveries that will enhance our knowledge of California’s diverse flora.