Jan
Auburn, Don Rideout, Jim Roberts and I enjoyed seeing a number of
very happy Elephant Trees on Wednesday, 12/14/22. Jan was
especially pleased to see how many Elephant Trees were on the upper
part of the alluvial fan, and to see that area, since she had never
gone beyond the Discovery Trail. Jan and her husband have a
special affinity for this place, since they cover this area as part
of the ABDSP Botany Society Adopt-a-Wash program. It was a
delight for us to see how happy Jan was to see each new Elephant
Tree.
This area clearly got at least one good monsoonal
rain, judging from the Elephant Trees and the many monsoonal annuals
present. On our hike from the parking area to the mouth of Alma
Canyon, we saw 25 species in bloom. The blooms list is given at
the bottom of this email.
There were no spectacular
displays, since there were no areas with significant sand. In
fact, there were no plants of sand verbena at all along our hike.
Don and Jim posted 49 obs of 35 species at iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-14&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,jimirob1
Jim posted 27 obs of 27 species; Don posted 22 obs of 20
species.
This trip was mainly devoted to
rephotographing some of the elephant trees that were originally
photographed in 2009 or earlier, so we did a bit more hiking than
normal. We made it to the mouth of Alma Canyon, but
unfortunately didn't have time to enter the Canyon.
We
checked two trees that were alive on their last check in 2015: the
tree at post 9 on the Nature Trail, and Bill Sullivan's tree just
south of the Nature Trail. Those trees were not only still
alive, they looked very happy, fully leafed out.
Oddly,
though, none had any fruit. That was true of all the other live
trees we checked, except for a single plant with fruit. This is
pretty unusual not to see fruit if the trees got good monsoonal rain.
Pix of the "post 9" Elephant tree from this
trip by me:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/burseraceae/pix/Bursera_microphylla_stop_9_14_december_2022_2_30.jpg
Pix of that tree from 27 January 2015 by me:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/burseraceae/pix/Bursera_microphylla_stop_9_27_January_2015_crop_55.jpg
Pix of that tree from April 2008 by Richard Zmasek:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/burseraceae/pix/Bursera_microphylla_stop_9_Zmasek_April_2008_80.jpg
We checked one tree that was dead in 2015 and
earlier. It was still there, in a slightly more advanced state
of decomposition.
For pix from 2009, 2010, 2015, and now
2022 of these trees and others, and comments on the differences seen
in the repeat photos, see:
http://tchester.org/bd/species/burseraceae/bursera_microphylla.html#repeat
We failed to relocate one live tree, and one dead
tree, because I didn't have good GPS coordinates of them from our
relocation in 2015.
Details:
It was not
very floriferous on our drive from Fallbrook to the Borrego Valley.
There was frost at Lake Henshaw in shady places
along the road, with steam rising from the frost when sun hit them.
Later, on our drive home, those frosty places, or very nearby areas,
had wet pavement, which puzzled us. The skies were clear, so
there hadn't been any drizzle. Our only speculation is that the
humidity was high enough in those areas to get a little condensation
on the roadside. The wet patches on the road look like the
typical wet patches that were not underneath tree canopies. So
maybe the pavement in those areas cooled from radiating to the sky,
causing the condensation there.
There were no
flowers along S2 to Scissors Crossing, and only a few bladderpod in
bloom in Sentenac Gorge.
We saw a single Agave in
bloom, a single Ericameria paniculata, and a single ocotillo in bloom
along SR78 in the Mescal Bajada. All the ocotillos there were
leafless.
Don and I met Jan and Jim at the junction
of Borrego Springs Road and SR78 at 11:15 a.m., and carpooled to the
trailhead.
We were very happy not to see any
off-roaders at Ocotillo Wells, so we wouldn't be breathing their
dust.
There were some good fields of Abronia in
bloom in Ocotillo Wells, and lots of Datura discolor, some of which
were still in bloom.
The road to the parking area
seemed very similar to its condition in the last ten years or so,
with good stretches interspersed with very rocky stretches. Any
2WD with decent clearance could easily drive it.
The
indigo bushes along the dirt road were covered with good-looking
Cuscuta psorothamnensis, our defined-only-in-2018 endemic Cuscuta,
which may have been in bloom, but we didn't stop to check.
It
was 61 deg at noon, which felt quite pleasant due to the nice sun and
lack of wind.
It looked pretty dry on the Discovery
Trail near the parking area. Two pix from me, from a pano set
at 12:15 p.m.:
Looking back to the parking area, with my
three hiking companions visible in the distance:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/pano_from_discovery_trail_01_30.jpg
View looking up the alluvial fan to the mouth of
Alma Canyon:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/pano_from_discovery_trail_06_30.jpg
Don took this pix of Jan and me near Bill's tree at
12:47 p.m.:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/rideout/jan_and_tom_1247_30.jpg
After Bill's tree, we tried to mostly hike to get
to the mouth of Alma Canyon, and additional Bursera to take repeat
photos of. The plants did get a bit happier near the mouth of
the Canyon.
Of course, the closer we got to Alma Canyon,
with its "thousands of elephant trees", the more elephant
trees we saw, which slowed us down a bit. (:-)
Don
took this pix of Jim photographing an elephant tree at 1:34 p.m.:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/rideout/jim_photographing_bursera_30.jpg
At 2:45 p.m., we made it to what I thought was the
location of a recently-dead (in 2009 and 2015) elephant tree, but it
turns out I didn't have an actual GPS location for that tree, and we
didn't find it. Don took this pix of me photographing that
area, with Jan sitting where I thought the tree should have been:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/rideout/missing_dead_tree_30.jpg
Don and Jan decided to take a break at this
location while Jim and I made a mad dash for the
last elephant
tree I had targeted for repeat photography. Jim and I made it there
precisely at 3:00 p.m., our designated turn-around time. I took
a good look at the mouth of Alma Canyon, that was achingly close, and
then we started back.
On the way down, Don took a
last pix of an Elephant Tree in the waning light at 3:36 p.m.:
http://tchester.org/temp/221214/rideout/bursera_near_sunset_30.jpg
We made it back to the car just at sunset.
The temp was still 61 deg then.
On our drive home,
it was interesting that the temps in the Lake Henshaw / Ranchita area
were also just about the same on our drive home as on our drive out,
a low of 37 deg.
List of species seen in bloom on
our hike:
#Pls in bloom Name
99
Allionia incarnata var. incarnata
99 Bebbia
juncea var. aspera
99 Chamaesyce polycarpa
99 Ditaxis lanceolata
99
Hyptis emoryi
99 Perityle emoryi
50
Cryptantha angustifolia
30 Physalis
crassifolia
10 Chylismia claviformis
ssp. peirsonii
10 Encelia farinosa
5
Amaranthus fimbriatus
3 Palafoxia arida
var. arida
2 Funastrum hirtellum
2
Hibiscus denudatus
2 Psorothamnus schottii
2 Stephanomeria pauciflora
1
Ambrosia dumosa
1 Datura discolor
1
Ditaxis neomexicana
1 Eschscholzia parishii
1 Euphorbia eriantha
1
Hilaria rigida
1 Horsfordia newberryi
1
Phacelia distans
1 Plantago ovata
--
tom
chester
