Flora of Desert Gardens and Coyote Creek From First Crossing to Lower Willows

Desert Gardens and First Crossing are locations in the Coyote Mountain Area accessed by the Coyote Canyon Dirt Road. Desert Gardens is a distance of 3.0 miles from the beginning of the dirt road at the end of the pavement on Di Giorgio Road in Borrego Springs, 0.5 miles west of the Alcoholic Pass Trailhead. First Crossing is at mile 3.6, 0.6 miles beyond Desert Gardens. For a large scale map showing these locations, and the flora of the Coyote Mountain Area that includes these locations, see Flora of Coyote Mountain Area.

The checklist on this page includes plants seen along Coyote Creek, the Ocotillo Flat Trail, and the Coyote Creek Dirt Road from First Crossing to Lower Willows. Only the area near First Crossing is in the Flora of Coyote Mountain Area.

A detail map of location covered is shown below, with red lines indicating my survey routes (the flora of the Alcoholic Pass Trail is not included below, but is given in the Flora of Coyote Mountain Area):

At Desert Gardens, on 30 December 2007 I walked a one mile loop as roughly shown on the above map. The loop was not GPS'd; it was drawn from memory.

At First Crossing, on 30 December 2007 I walked a distance of one mile along the Coyote Creek Dirt Road, with only very short excursions away from the road. That route was GPS'd. On 3 January 2008, I walked the route indicated along the Creek, the Dirt Road from just below Second Crossing to Lower Willows, and the portion of the Ocotillo Flat Trail shown.

The checklists from 30 December 2007 were made with the assistance of Rich Schilk and three other members of the CNPS from Orange County.

For more information, see the trip reports for 30 December 2007 and 3 January 2008. I also compiled a list of the plants in bloom for the area surveyed on 3 January 2008.

A checklist, with abundance estimates for each taxon, was compiled separately for those two areas. The checklists include some taxa that were not positively identified because they were seedlings or not in good enough shape to identify 100%. Such taxa are indicated below with a question mark for speculation about the determination or a ~ for a highly probable determination. I will work on positively identifying these taxa in the future.

For each area separately, the table below gives a rough estimate of the number of specimens of each taxon seen. The first number is the number of plants, maxing out at 99; the second number is the number of separate locations, maxing out at 9.

The Checklist is sorted first by category - dicots, monocots, and ferns - and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.

#	Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	# of Plants / # of Locations
				Desert Gardens	First Crossing
1	Acanthaceae	Justicia californica	chuparosa		20/2
2	Asteraceae	~Chaenactis fremontii	~Fremont pincushion	99/9	20/2
3	Asteraceae	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	99/9	99/9
4	Asteraceae	Baccharis salicifolia	mule fat		50/9
5	Asteraceae	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush		50/9
6	Asteraceae	Dicoria canescens	desert dicoria		20/1
7	Asteraceae	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	50/9	40/9
8	Asteraceae	Encelia frutescens	button encelia		2/1
9	Asteraceae	Ericameria brachylepis	boundary goldenbush		20/3
10	Asteraceae	Gnaphalium luteo-album	*common cudweed		30/9
11	Asteraceae	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola	cheesebush	30/9	50/9
12	Asteraceae	Isocoma acradenia var. eremophila	solitary-leaved alkali goldenbush		1/1
13	Asteraceae	Lactuca serriola	*prickly lettuce		1/1
14	Asteraceae	Malacothrix glabrata?	desert dandelion?	3/1
15	Asteraceae	Palafoxia arida var. arida	desert needle		30/9
16	Asteraceae	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy		1/1
17	Asteraceae	Pluchea sericea	arrow-weed		99/9
18	Asteraceae	Sonchus oleraceus	*sow thistle		30/9
19	Asteraceae	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	wire-lettuce		30/9
20	Bignoniaceae	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata	desert-willow		30/9
21	Boraginaceae	Cryptantha sp.	cryptantha	99/9
22	Boraginaceae	Tiquilia plicata	plicate coldenia		30/2
23	Brassicaceae	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	10/3	99/9
24	Brassicaceae	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod		1/1
25	Brassicaceae	Sisymbrium irio	*London rocket		20/9
26	Brassicaceae	Sisymbrium orientale	*Oriental mustard		20/9
27	Cactaceae	Ferocactus cylindraceus	California barrel cactus		10/2
28	Cactaceae	Mammillaria dioica	fish-hook cactus	1/1
29	Cactaceae	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	3/3
30	Cactaceae	Opuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla	99/9	99/9
31	Cactaceae	Opuntia ganderi	Gander's cholla	99/9	99/9
32	Capparaceae	Isomeris arborea	bladderpod		2/2
33	Chenopodiaceae	Atriplex lentiformis	big saltbush		1/1
34	Chenopodiaceae	Atriplex polycarpa	cattle saltbush		20/5
35	Cuscutaceae	Cuscuta californica var. papillosa	papillate dodder	20/9	1/1
36	Euphorbiaceae	~Chamaesyce polycarpa	~small-seeded spurge	99/9	50/9
37	Euphorbiaceae	Croton californicus	California croton		30/2
38	Euphorbiaceae	Stillingia linearifolia	linear-leaved stillingia	5/2
39	Fabaceae	Acacia greggii	catclaw		2/1
40	Fabaceae	Lupinus concinnus	bajada lupine		1/1
41	Fabaceae	Melilotus sp.	*non-native clover		99/9
42	Fabaceae	Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana	honey mesquite		20/9
43	Fabaceae	Psorothamnus emoryi	Emory's indigo-bush		20/5
44	Fabaceae	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	30/9	30/9
45	Fabaceae	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree		10/5
46	Fouquieriaceae	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	99/9	50/9
47	Geraniaceae	Erodium cicutarium	*redstem filaree	30/5	99/9
48	Hydrophyllaceae	~Phacelia distans	~common phacelia		20/1
49	Krameriaceae	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	20/9	40/9
50	Lamiaceae	Hyptis emoryi	desert lavender	1/1	10/9
51	Loasaceae	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	Thurber's sandpaper-plant		50/9
52	Malvaceae	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. ambigua	apricot mallow		1/1
53	Malvaceae	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rosacea	rosy apricot mallow		1/1
54	Nyctaginaceae	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	wishbone plant		1/1
55	Onagraceae	Camissonia californica	California suncup	99/9	30/9
56	Polygonaceae	Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium	California buckwheat		1/1
57	Polygonaceae	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	3/1
58	Portulacaceae	~Calyptridium monandrum	~sand cress	2/1
59	Salicaceae	Salix exigua	narrowleaf willow		20/2
60	Salicaceae	Salix gooddingii	black willow		1/1
61	Scrophulariaceae	Veronica anagallis-aquatica	*water speedwell		99/9
62	Simmondsiaceae	Simmondsia chinensis	jojoba		5/1
63	Solanaceae	Datura discolor	desert thornapple		10/3
64	Solanaceae	Datura wrightii	sacred datura		1/1
65	Tamaricaceae	Tamarix sp.	*tamarisk		10/3
66	Viscaceae	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe		20/2
67	Zygophyllaceae	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	99/9	99/9
68	Ephedraceae	Ephedra californica	desert tea		10/9
69	Cyperaceae	Cyperus odoratus	fragrant flatsedge		20/2
70	Cyperaceae	Scirpus americanus	American tule		20/1
71	Juncaceae	Juncus xiphioides	iris-leaved rush		2/1
72	Liliaceae	Agave deserti	desert agave		50/2
73	Liliaceae	Hesperocallis undulata	desert lily	2/2
74	Poaceae	Cynodon dactylon	*Bermuda grass		10/1
75	Poaceae	Leptochloa uninervia	Mexican sprangletop		50/9
76	Poaceae	Phragmites australis	common reed		20/1
77	Poaceae	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	30/9
78	Poaceae	Polypogon monspeliensis	*rabbits-foot grass		30/3
79	Poaceae	Schismus sp.	*Mediterranean schismus	20/9
80	Typhaceae	Typha domingensis	southern cattail		50/3

Go to:

• Plants In Bloom On 3 January 2008
• Trip reports for 30 December 2007 and 3 January 2008
• Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras