Nancy
Accola, Jan Auburn, Walt Fidler, Baltasar Pimentel, Don Rideout, Jim
Roberts, and I had a delightful time botanizing the area southwest of
June Wash, as well as a bit of the Vallecito Creek Area near June
Wash. We saw 69 species in bloom, a new record for this year.
The list of plants in bloom is at the end of this email.
Jim
and Don posted a whopping 119 observations of 66 species at iNat:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-23&place_id=95385&user_id=jimirob1,lagoondon
You can click on the "Map" tab to see
exactly where we were.
Of those posts, 92 obs were
marked as being in bloom, of 50 species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2022-12-23&place_id=95385&term_id=12&term_value_id=13&user_id=jimirob1,lagoondon
We met up the beginning of June Wash, when we saw
Walt's car there, at around 11:30 a.m.
We started hiking
just before noon by heading southwest from the car toward the
canyons. We first explored a small canyon that looked
like it might have some good cliffs, and then went into a bigger
canyon with pronounced banks extending as ridges into the alluvial
slopes.
One of Nancy's favorite flowers is
turtleback, and she wasted no time spotting a group of about ten
plants in bloom close to the cars, after several of us had already
passed by them.
My pix of the "discovery site",
showing how easy it was to walk by them:
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/turtleback/photographing_turtleback_1_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/turtleback/photographing_turtleback_2_30.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/turtleback/photographing_turtleback_2_crop.jpg
Nancy's pix showing the beautiful "turtle backs":
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/accola/turtleback_1_accola_25.jpg
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/accola/turtleback_2_accola_25.jpg
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144997204
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144963329
I was a bit surprised that we were in badland rocks
in the entire area we hiked southwest of S22. I had hoped some
of the canyons might have solid rock with sheer cliffs that would
have Petalonyx linearis, but they were all badland sedimentary rock
as far as we went.
But that was ok; it meant we got to
enjoy badlands plants such as Aliciella latifolia (=Gilia l.):
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144965685
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144995651
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144999146
One surprise was to see a small number of plants of
Lupinus arizonicus with tall bloom stalks:
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145004349
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145001128
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145006099
We got in our Mentzelia involucrata, Mohavea
confertiflora (ghost flower), and Mentzelia hirsutissima fix:
Ghost
flower
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145005089
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145008896
M. involucrata:
Don's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144966844
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145008708
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145004181
M. hirsutissima:
Jim's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144992529
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145049043
There was one five spot with a bud that was
probably going to open the next day:
Don's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145007827
Jim's post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144993921
We saw a number of other cuties like desert star,
nama, and Diplacus bigelovii. For pix of those and others, see
the link at the top.
We went up the larger canyon
until the going became slower. Don took some nice pix of us in
the canyon, and the scenery, just before we turned around:
Baltasar, showing the view down canyon:
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/rideout/baltasar_in_canyon_1433_30.jpg
Tom and Walt, showing one of the canyon walls:
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/rideout/tom_walt_in_canyon_1433_30.jpg
The weathering of the canyon side walls was
peculiar. In one spot, there was a deep gash that extended
almost to the top, but not quite. In several other spots, the
alluvial fan looked like it had been bulldozed smooth, with a very
flat surface that of course sloped at a steep angle.
On
the way down the canyon, someone spotted a nice double sun dog.
There are three arcs in the following pix. I think the upper
rainbow section is part of the 22 deg halo, and it has a whitish
"upper tangent arc" curving away from the rainbow section.
The lower arc might be a "Parry arc", but I'm not sure
about that. There are lots of complicated patterns in such sky
phenomena, which all depend on the shape and orientation of the ice
crystals in the clouds at each point in the sky.
Don's
pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/rideout/sundog_1458_30.jpg
Nancy's pix:
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/accola/accola%20sun%20dog%20IMG_3688_25.jpg
After exploring two canyons, we decided to go back
across S2 to the land of sand verbena displays. Jim went ahead
and hustled back to his car, so he could drive most of the way home
before dark.
Don took a great pix of Walt leading the
rest of us through some of the fabby displays to look for Astragalus
insularis harwoodii that he had seen there in the past so abundantly
that he had named this "Harwoodii Hill":
http://tchester.org/temp/221223/rideout/walt_in_abronia_1547_30.jpg
We were running out of daylight at this point, so
returned to the cars. Don, Jan, and Baltasar called it a day,
while Walt, Nancy and I drove to the single Astragalus insularis
harwoodii that Walt had spotted earlier that day. My post of
it:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/145090777
List of plants in bloom on our hike:
#Pls
in bloom Name
99
Abronia villosa var. villosa
99 Achyronychia
cooperi
99 Allionia incarnata var. incarnata
99 Chamaesyce micromera
99
Chamaesyce setiloba
99 Cryptantha
angustifolia
99 Ditaxis lanceolata
99
Hyptis emoryi
99 Monoptilon bellioides
99
Palafoxia arida var. arida
99 Pectis papposa
var. papposa
99 Perityle emoryi
99
Phacelia distans
99 Trichoptilium incisum
50 Cryptantha maritima
40
Physalis crassifolia
40 Senecio mohavensis
30 Aliciella latifolia ssp. latifolia
30 Dalea mollissima
25
Encelia farinosa
25 Eriogonum inflatum
25
Geraea canescens
25 Mentzelia involucrata
25 Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii
25
Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora
25
Plantago ovata
25 Psathyrotes ramosissima
20 Boerhavia triquetra var. intermedia
20 Croton californicus
20
Eremothera refracta
20 Eschscholzia
minutiflora ssp. minutiflora
20 Eschscholzia
parishii
20 Fagonia laevis
20
Justicia californica
20 Lepidium lasiocarpum
ssp. lasiocarpum
15 Ericameria
paniculata
10 Aristida adscensionis
10 Chylismia claviformis ssp. peirsonii
10 Eremothera boothii ssp. condensata
10
Eriogonum thomasii
10 Erodium cicutarium
10 Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima
10 Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa
10
Mohavea confertiflora
10 Psorothamnus
spinosus
5 Acmispon strigosus
5
Dithyrea californica
5 Encelia frutescens
5 Eulobus californicus
5
Mentzelia albicaulis
5 Mentzelia hirsutissima
5 Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi
4
Lupinus arizonicus
4 Phacelia pedicellata
3 Lyrocarpa coulteri
2
Adenophyllum porophylloides
2 Chylismia
cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla
2 Nama demissa
var. demissa
1 Astragalus insularis
var. harwoodii
1 Bahiopsis parishii
1
Bebbia juncea var. aspera
1 Chaenactis
carphoclinia var. carphoclinia
1 Chamaesyce
pediculifera
1 Cuscuta psorothamnensis
1
Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens
1 Hilaria
rigida
1 Loeseliastrum schottii
1
Psorothamnus emoryi
1 Stephanomeria
pauciflora
--
tom
chester
