Ted Caragozian, Don Rideout, and I had an excellent time enjoying all
the delightful flowers along our hiking route from just south of the
Vern Whitaker Horse Camp, to the Canyon just south of Second
Crossing. We hugged the base of the hills on the way up, and
were away from the hills a bit in the Coyote Canyon Road area on the
way back.
We saw 48 native species in bloom! 12 of
those species had over 99 plants in bloom. And we never got
close to Coyote Creek, which probably had another ten or so species
in bloom.
We also saw three native grass species that we
love, that are impossible to easily tell whether they are in bloom or
not.
We saw just three non-native species in bloom, and
not very many plants of any of them.
The list of species
in bloom is at the bottom of this email.
Don and I
posted 94 observations of 63 species from this trip, including two
obs from Don's house earlier in the morning:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-11-20&place_id=95385&user_id=tchester,lagoondon
In an earth-shattering unusual event, I posted more obs
than Don! But he still won the "number of species posted"
event. I posted 51 obs of 30 species; Don posted 43 obs of 40
species.
The reason I posted so many is that I wanted to
document the monsoonal plants in this area, since great monsoonal
years like this don't come along very often.
You can see
our route by clicking on the "map" tab under the
"observations" page.
40 of those observations,
of 32 species, were tagged as "flowering":
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-11-20&place_id=95385&term_id=12&term_value_id=13&user_id=tchester,lagoondon
The most widespread and abundant monsoonal annual
species here was Datura discolor. It was EVERYWHERE in large
numbers. Plants of this species were on the flats, which I
thought was their main habitat, but also on the hillsides, growing
alongside Perityle.
When I think about the years in which
we'd only seen this species in one or two spots that had received
monsoonal rain, it is mind-boggling that there could ever be so many
plants found in so many areas this year.
Kallstroemia
californica was also widespread and abundant on the flats, but
doesn't venture onto the hillsides.
Pix of Datura
discolor plants on hillside; my post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142655065
Pano of Datura discolor plants on flats, along with large
mats of Kallstroemia californica; my post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142698464
Pix of Datura discolor growing inside a mat of
Kallstroemia; my post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142655063
Don's close-up pix of one D. discolor:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142567942
Along Borrego Springs Road, Ted noticed that some
of the Datura plants looked terrible. We had no idea what
happened until Matt Bristol commented in my iNat post that it looked
like herbicide damage. It was, from spraying to knock down the
Volutaria! My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142654727
Pectis was also widespread in this area, but never
terribly abundant. But the huge fields in town still have some
color.
My post of a field along Borrego Springs Road a
bit north of Christmas Circle:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142654728
Don's pix of a still-glorious nearby field just
north of the field I photographed:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/glorious_pectis_field_just_north_of_borrego_springs_30.jpg
There were hillsides and some flat areas nearly
completely covered with Chamaesyce setiloba (=Euphorbia s.). My
posts:
hillside just south of Horse Camp:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142645345
a flat area north of Horse Camp:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142646389
Perityle almost complete covered some areas of the
slopes. Most of it is not in bloom yet, but we still saw over
100 plants in bloom. One wonders if there will be any possibility for
other winter / spring annual to germinate in those areas if we get
more rain, due to the high perityle coverage!
My post of
one hillside:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142699871
Don's post of a blooming plant:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142561760
Details:
On the drive to Borrego, fall
color suddenly appeared, that was not there six days earlier.
The sycamores looked quite beautiful along SR76 west of Lake Henshaw,
much prettier than they usually are, with more yellow in their leaves
than brown. The black oaks along SR76 in the Lake Henshaw area
were also beautiful.
Don took these pix on his way back
home in the Lake Henshaw area:
Black oak along SR7:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/black_oak_fall_color_SR76_30.jpg
Solidago and cottonwoods:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/fall_color_along_S2_lake_henshaw_area_30.jpg
When Ted and I met Don along the Horse Camp Road,
he gave us the exciting news that he had seen a bobcat, up close and
personal, at his house the previous day! He got beautiful pix
of the bobcat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142556428
When we started hiking, we went first to Doc
Beaty's house (or houses). Don's pix:
House #1:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/doc_beaty_house_1_30.jpg
House #2:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/doc_beaty_house_2_30.jpg
Beaty's root cellar, immediately west of the Horse Camp
itself:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/doc_beaty_root_cellar_next_to_horse_camp_30.jpg
Info about Doc Beaty's root cellar:
https://www.abdnha.org/pages/06_exploring/north/north_historic.htm
Much more info about the history of "Borego":
https://sandiegohistory.org/journal/1997/january/borrego/
In addition to the monsoonal annuals, we found a
small number of babies of the usual winter / spring annuals,
including Eulobus, Emmenanthe, Lupinus arizonicus, Rafinesquia
neomexicana, and even one Gilia stellata. See the main
link above for pix.
It was interesting that all the
Tiquilia we saw in our hike was T. palmeri, and not a single T.
plicata. Don's pix:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142561174
Surprisingly, we saw a single plant of Datura
wrightii amongst the zillions of D. discolor. My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142655347
There was one plant of Lycium in bloom, L.
andersonii, with its usual mix of lavender and brown/cream fresh
flowers. Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142569167
There was a huge field of Boerhavia wrightii on a
bench just above the desert floor.
My posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142633128
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142633125
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142557875
There were some gorgeous plants of smoke tree in
good bloom. Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142568814
There were scattered plants of Chylismia
claviformis in full bloom. Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/142577451
We started to explore the canyon south of Second
Crossing, but all too soon it was time for us to turn-around.
Don's pix of our turn-around point, showing the deep shadows at 3:30
p.m.:
http://tchester.org/temp/221120/rideout/turn-around_point_30.jpg
We got back to the car at 4:30 p.m., just beating
sunset.
List of species in bloom
Native
species in bloom:
#pls in bloom name
99
Abronia villosa var. villosa
99 Achyronychia
cooperi
99 Boerhavia wrightii
99
Chamaesyce polycarpa
99 Chamaesyce setiloba
99 Cryptantha angustifolia
99
Datura discolor
99 Ditaxis lanceolata
99
Kallstroemia californica
99 Palafoxia arida
var. arida
99 Pectis papposa var. papposa
99 Perityle emoryi
40
Psorothamnus emoryi
30 Physalis
crassifolia
20 Amaranthus fimbriatus
20 Justicia californica
6
Senegalia greggii
5 Allionia incarnata
var. incarnata
5 Chylismia claviformis ssp.
peirsonii
5 Croton californicus
5
Euphorbia eriantha
5 Hyptis emoryi
5
Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi
5
Psorothamnus schottii
5 Psorothamnus spinosus
5 Tiquilia palmeri
4
Dithyrea californica
3 Ditaxis
neomexicana
3 Stephanomeria pauciflora
2
Bebbia juncea var. aspera
2 Encelia farinosa
2 Fagonia laevis
1
Acmispon rigidus
1 Adenophyllum
porophylloides
1 Ambrosia dumosa
1
Bahiopsis parishii
1 Cylindropuntia ganderi
1 Datura wrightii
1
Eriogonum inflatum
1 Fouquieria splendens
ssp. splendens
1 Hibiscus denudatus
1
Hilaria rigida
1 Krameria bicolor
1
Larrea tridentata
1 Lycium andersonii
1
Mammillaria dioica
1 Plantago ovata
1
Simmondsia chinensis
Native grasses in prime shape,
may or may not be "in bloom":
99
Aristida adscensionis
99 Bouteloua
aristidoides var. aristidoides
99 Bouteloua
barbata var. barbata
Non-native species in bloom
99 Chenopodium murale
5
Tribulus terrestris
2 Sisymbrium irio
--
tom
chester
