Don Rideout and I decided to botanize Henderson Canyon on Saturday,
1/7/23,
to see if there were any plants of Phacelia
rotundifolia present. We didn't find any in Clark Valley on the
previous trip, but thought there might be a better chance to see them
in Henderson Canyon, since we knew it had received more rain.
We
were right about Henderson Canyon getting more rain, from the large
number of annual species we saw there, but the rock exposures where
Phacelia rotundifolia was found were essentially barren. The
rainfall wasn't enough to germinate annuals that grow in south-facing
rock faces.
Although we expected to see more plants in
bloom in Henderson Canyon, we were very surprised by how much was in
bloom in Henderson Canyon, including along the now-closed-to-driving
one mile access road. There were the expected carpets of sand
verbena at the start, at the junction of Borrego Springs Road and
Henderson Canyon Road. But within moments we were seeing blooms
of desert dandelion, Phacelia distans, Camissoniopsis pallida,
Cryptantha micrantha (Eremocarya micrantha), Filago depressa (=Logfia
depressa), Chaenactis fremontii, and even an Opuntia basilaris with
blooms!
Altogether, we saw 51 species in bloom. The
list is given at the end of this report.
You can see 42 of the
blooming species in Don's and my iNat posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-01-07&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,tchester&term_id=12&term_value_id=13
This is all the more remarkable since we saw only
11 species in bloom just six miles east in Clark Valley on the
previous trip.
Including non-blooming species, Don
and I posted 94 obs of 71 species:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2023-01-07&place_id=95385&user_id=lagoondon,tchester
Details:
On my drive in from Fallbrook,
wild cucumber, Marah macrocarpa, had popped along the part of SR76
above Pauma Valley. There were even a few plants of Castilleja
foliolosa in bloom. The Ribes indecorum just below the Red Gate
Road pullout was still in full bloom.
I finally was
able to stop at the glorious Arctostaphylos glauca on SR76 near the
San Luis Rey picnic area. Alas, it was no longer glorious,
since many of the blooms had fallen off. But those fallen
blooms made a carpet of white at the foot of the plant.
My
post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146246334
Unfortunately, Sahara mustard essentially lines the
Montezuma Road from the western park entrance down to close to the
Crawford Overlook, and it is already mostly in fruit. In the
area of the Overlook, Acmispon glaber has popped. There is not
much else in bloom until near the bottom of the Grade, which still
has Perityle in bloom.
About 15 cheery blooms of
desert dandelion greeted us in the first part of the Henderson Canyon
access road. Don took a pix of one flower when we started
hiking, and again on our return near sunset, when it had closed up:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146090335
We were quite surprised to see a single beavertail
cactus in bloom, and Don also photographed it at noon and at sunset.
Its blooms had not closed much:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146093265
It is always a pleasure to see our showy Diplacus
bigelovii in bloom, and especially fun when it is flowering alongside
the stems in fruit from last year. Don's posts:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146100802
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146164378
I noticed that one anthill had a ton of Datura
discolor seeds discarded on the waste pile, and immediately realized
that those seeds must have had eliaosomes attached to them to attract
the ants. The eliaosomes are the small white parts attached to the
seeds, which are a bribe to ants to carry off the seed plus eliaosome
to their nest. At their nest, they consume the eliaosome, and
then discard the seed, spreading the Datura seeds farther than they
could go on their own. Don examined a nearby plant, and by
golly, it still had seeds with eliaosomes attached.
Interestingly, another nearby plant had no eliaosomes attached to its
seeds.
My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146237031
We also saw some peculiar scratch marks in at least
four places along the road, clearly made by a mammal of some sort,
but with no clue as to why it made those scratches. Our best
guess is that a bobcat urinated in these spots and made those
scratches. Comments welcome! My post:
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/146246839
We were a bit bummed to arrive at the location of
the Phacelia rotundifolia, to find not even Perityle growing on the
rock outcrop. But that meant we wouldn't be delayed in our
plant to hike to mile 2.8 from the car, and explore a side canyon
that had no observations posted from it at iNat.
We
got to the side canyon just before 2 p.m., giving us an hour to
explore it.
Don's pix of the entrance to the side canyon:
http://tchester.org/temp/230107/rideout/mouth_of_side_canyon_1358_40.jpg
A half hour later Don took this pix of me surveying
the area for something new:
http://tchester.org/temp/230107/rideout/tom_surveying_1431_25.jpg
I had put on a sweatshirt since we lost the sun in this
side canyon due to the canyon walls.
We, mostly
Don, posted 44 observations from this side canyon!
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?nelat=33.31478086723544&nelng=-116.42742714844644&on=2023-01-07&place_id=any&subview=map&swlat=33.3124138849459&swlng=-116.43238387070596&user_id=lagoondon,tchester
Our hour was up all too soon, and we turned around
shortly after having a snack at 3 p.m. Don's pix of the upper
part of the side canyon and the beautiful clouds:
http://tchester.org/temp/230107/rideout/turn-around_point_1504_40.jpg
We made it back to the car just before needing
flashlights or heavy winter coats.
List of species
in bloom:
#Pls in bloom Name
99
Abronia villosa var. villosa
99 Allionia
incarnata var. incarnata
99 Chamaesyce
polycarpa
99 Chamaesyce setiloba
99
Chylismia claviformis ssp. peirsonii
99
Cryptantha angustifolia
99 Hyptis emoryi
99 Parietaria hespera var. hespera
99
Perityle emoryi
50 Cryptantha micrantha
var. micrantha
50 Phacelia distans
40
Ditaxis lanceolata
40 Mimulus bigelovii var.
bigelovii
30 Physalis crassifolia
20 Brassica tournefortii
20
Chamaesyce arizonica
20 Eschscholzia
minutiflora ssp. minutiflora
20 Justicia
californica
15 Malacothrix glabrata
10 Aristida adscensionis
10
Camissoniopsis pallida ssp. pallida
5
Bebbia juncea var. aspera
5 Cryptantha
maritima
5 Datura discolor
5
Fagonia laevis
5 Logfia depressa
5
Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa
3
Erodium cicutarium
2 Adenophyllum
porophylloides
2 Ambrosia salsola var.
salsola
2 Chaenactis fremontii
2
Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum
2 Eulobus
californicus
2 Pectis papposa var. papposa
2 Pectocarya recurvata
2
Stephanomeria pauciflora
2 Trichoptilium
incisum
2 Trixis californica var. californica
1 Amaranthus fimbriatus
1
Bahiopsis parishii
1 Boerhavia triquetra var.
intermedia
1 Cryptantha barbigera var.
barbigera
1 Emmenanthe penduliflora var.
penduliflora
1 Encelia farinosa
1
Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium
1
Eriogonum inflatum
1 Eschscholzia parishii
1 Euphorbia eriantha
1
Hibiscus denudatus
1 Opuntia basilaris var.
basilaris
1 Sisymbrium irio
--
tom
chester
