Plant Guide to Wellman Divide to San Jacinto Peak, San Jacinto Mountains This is a working list, about which we make no guarantees at all until we officially release it. Use at your own risk!
Introduction and Explanation of Plant Trail Guides
Introduction
Highlights of This Trail
Fieldwork Dates and Summary of List Changes With Time
Botanical Trip Reports
The Plant Guide
Comments On Specific Species
Introduction Wellman Divide, elevation ~9720 feet, can be reached from Humber Park via the Devils Slide Trail, PCT and Wellman Trail, or from the upper Palm Springs Tramway Station via the Round Valley Trail. The trail is somewhere between 2.0 and 2.3 miles long, with ~1120 total feet of elevation gain.
A free wilderness permit is required, available at the Long Valley Ranger Station or at the Idyllwild Forest Service Office.
Highlights of This Trail The botanical highlights of this trail are:
Number of Unique Taxa On This Trail
Histogram not produced until the guide reaches the peak.
The following histogram gives the number of trails in our database that contain each taxon on this trail (not including the taxa seen only off-trail given at the end of the guide). We had 109 trails in our database when this histogram was made; 10 of those trails, including this one, are in this area of San Jacinto Mountain. A number of "1" means the taxon has only been found on this trail among the trails in our database; numbers of "10" or smaller may indicate taxa found only in this area of San Jacinto Mountain.
Number of Trails
Containing A TaxonNumber Of Taxa
On This Trail% of Taxa
On This Trail1 0 0% 2 0 0% 3 1 6% 4 0 0% 5 0 0% 1-5 1 6% 6-10 4 25% 11-15 8 50% 16-20 1 6% 21-25 1 6% 26-30 1 6% Total Taxa 16 100% We found 2 additional species not in the above table, since they have not been fully identified yet. The unidentified ones are marked with ? or sp in the id? column in the guide, and have no entries in the #all column.
Fieldwork Dates and Summary of List Changes With Time The following table gives the dates the trail was walked and taxa recorded. After each visit, the table gives the total number of taxa on the list and the breakdown of the taxa without positive identification. See Explanation of Plant Trail Guides to understand the symbols below.
Visit Date Visit # # taxa # "?" # "sp" # "~" # "ssp" 8/7/2007 1 12 1 1 0 0 8/12/2007 2 18 0 2 0 0 The fieldwork on 8/7/07 was only to mile 1.18.
We thank Eric Baecht, Gabi and Cliff McLean for help with the fieldwork on 8/12/07.
Botanical Trip Reports
The Plant Guide Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (3 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided page). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)
The mileages in the guide come from Topo!, and thus may be underestimated due to tight switchbacks near the Peak. The mileage of this trail according to Tom Harrison maps is 2.3 miles.
Mile S # id? Common Name Latin Name #here #all 0.00 Begin guide at Wellman Divide; elevation ~9720 feet (2963 m); Sign: "[ahead] San Jacinto Peak 2.3 mi; [right] Round Valley 1.0 mi; Long Valley 3.0 mi" 0.00 b 1 Parish's snowberry Symphoricarpos rotundifolius var. parishii 99 / 9 15 0.00 l 2 bush chinquapin Chrysolepis sempervirens 99 / 9 15 0.00 l (white fir, Abies concolor) 0.00 b 3 San Jacinto lupine Lupinus hyacinthinus 30 / 9 11 0.00 r 4 limber pine Pinus flexilis 30 / 9 11 0.01 b 5 lodgepole pine Pinus contorta ssp. murrayana 50 / 9 12 0.08 (cone from Jeffrey pine, Pinus jeffreyi; tree not seen) 0.09 b 6 San Jacinto Mts. keckiella Keckiella rothrockii var. jacintensis 50 / 9 8 0.09 r View of Tram Station 0.10 r 7 southern mountain-monardella Monardella australis 40 / 9 13 0.13 l 8 San Bernardino rubber rabbitbrush Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. bernardinus 30 / 9 24 0.14 b (ranger's buttons, Sphenosciadium capitellatum) 0.18 b (wax currant, Ribes cereum var. cereum) 0.28 l 9 white fir Abies concolor 2 / 2 28 0.28 l 10 ranger's buttons Sphenosciadium capitellatum 20 / 9 10 0.43 r (green-leaf manzanita, Arctostaphylos patula) 0.62 b 11 sp sedge Carex sp. / 0.65 Switchback left 0.66 Switchback right 0.76 Elevation 10,000 feet (3048 m) 0.91 Cross broad drainage 1.09 l (shaggy-haired alumroot, Heuchera hirsutissima) 1.10 r 12 wax currant Ribes cereum var. cereum 5 / 5 18 1.18 Miller Peak is dead ahead to the north; Jean Peak is the prominent peak south of here 1.35 Switchback left near Miller Peak; elevation 10,400 feet (3170 m) 1.40 r 13 sp mystery sedge different Carex sp. 10 / 2 1.68 r 14 Parish's bedstraw Galium parishii 1 / 1 10 1.73 r Jct. Deer Springs Trail (ahead) and trail to San Jacinto Peak (right); go right; elevation ~10,580 feet (3225 m); sign: "[left] Little Round Valley 1.3 mi; Deer Springs 8.0 mi; Banning Highway 9.5 mi; Idyllwild 10.0 mi; [right] Peak 0.3 mi; [back] Wellman Divide 1.8 mi; Round Valley 2.8 mi; Tram 4.3 mi; Humber Park 7.3 mi" 1.77 Switchback left 1.77 r 15 mountain gooseberry Ribes montigenum 10 / 2 3 1.86 Y-jct with cut switchback on left; stay right 1.89 Switchback left 1.90 Jct. other end of cut-switchback use trail 1.91 r Jct. path to warming rock-shelter hut 1.95 Small saddle 1.97 r 16 mountain California-fuchsia Epilobium canum ssp. latifolium 5 / 1 11 1.97 r 17 Parish's campion Silene parishii 2 / 1 9 1.97 Trail is braided now, and soon disappears; scramble over the boulders to get to the peak 1.99 r 18 mountain spray Holodiscus microphyllus var. microphyllus 5 / 1 11 2.00 San Jacinto Peak, elevation 10,842 feet (3305 m) Species found by Hall in 1902 within 100 feet elevation of summit not previously on guide: western columbine Aquilegia formosa / 12 pussy paws Calyptridium monospermum / 10 brown sedge Carex subfusca / 3 Southern California rock draba Draba corrugata var. saxosa / 1 alpine mountain-sorrel Oxyria digyna / 1 pine lousewort Pedicularis semibarbata / 15 Eschscholtz's buttercup Ranunculus eschscholtzii var. oxynotus / 1 spike trisetum Trisetum spicatum / 2 Additional species vouchered above 10,000 feet (3048 m) Utah service-berry Amelanchier utahensis / 9 greensheath sedge Carex feta / 1 Mariposa sedge Carex mariposana / 1 many-ribbed sedge Carex multicostata / 1 brittle bladder fern Cystopteris fragilis / 7 prickly hawkweed Hieracium horridum / 4 beautiful hulsea Hulsea vestita ssp. callicarpha / 11 Arizona hymenoxys Hymenoxys acaulis var. arizonica / 1 San Gabriel beardtongue Penstemon labrosus / 13 Watson's spike-moss Selaginella watsonii / 7 few-flowered clover Trifolium monanthum var. grantianum / 3 Mile: 0.00 includes all mileages from 0.000 to 0.009; etc.
Side: Side of trail on which the first occurrence is found: left, right, both, or center
#: On-Trail species are numbered in order of first occurrence on trail (touchable without leaving the trail). Off-trail species are in parentheses.
id?: Species without an entry in this column are positively identified. "?" means we are just guessing the identification; "sp" means the genera is probably known, but the species name is uncertain; "~" means we have 95% confidence that this is the determination, but have not yet positively identified it; "ssp" means the subspecies or variety needs to be determined.
#here gives the minimum number of on-trail plants of this species on this trail, with the number of locations on this trail following the /, using maximum values of 99/9. 1/1 means a single plant in a single location; 20/9 means 20 plants occurring in at least 9 locations, etc.
#all gives the number of plant trail guides, from all over southern California, that contain this taxon.
Comments On Specific Species
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Copyright © 2007 by Tom Chester, James Dillane, and Pete Dodge.
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to us at this source:
http://tchester.org/sb/plants/guides/wellman_SnJt_peak.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Updated 15 August 2007.