N. glanduliferus N. tenuis var. aliformis	Plants of Southern California: Nemacladus of Box Canyon, Mecca Hills	N. rubescens N. orientalis
Click on any of the pictures on this page to get larger versions.

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Table of Contents

Summary
Introduction
Conclusions
Pictures of Entire Plants
Pictures of Stem Bases
Pictures of Flowers

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Summary

Four locations in Box Canyon in the Mecca Hills were surveyed for Nemacladus species, with extensive photographic documentation of the plants we found of three different species. We photographed 37 of the ~75 plants that we found, which includes a single young plant of a fourth species. This page primarily serves to present those pictures, which document the characteristics and variability of those populations.

One of the main goals of this survey was to photograph a number of flowers of the N. tenuis plants known from this area, to study how much variation existed in the flowers of these plants in the direction between var. tenuis and var. aliformis (for pictures of these, and other Nemacladus taxa, see Nemacladus Pictures by Nancy Morin). A total of 76 flowers from 27 plants of N. tenuis were photographed, with their pictures presented below. The flowers were amazingly uniform, showing no variation along the direction between those two varieties.

We unexpectedly found a variation in the color of the base of the stem for these plants of N. tenuis, possibly because most of the plants we found were just beginning to bloom. While this species keys under stem below branches silver-gray, rarely dark, we found that the base of at least some young stems were red. The silver-gray color apparently only develops with time as the plants age and come into full bloom.

We also found a striking variation in the color of the middle and upper stems, from the normal red to bright green.

We documented the previously-known variation in the ratio of the calyx lobes to corolla length for N. glanduliferus, where plants in heavy shade produce much longer calyx lobes, presumably for additional photosynthesis.

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Introduction

The Mecca Hills form the eastern boundary of the Coachella Valley portion of the Salton Trough in Riverside County, trending southwest from I-10 east of Palm Springs and Indio to the southern end of Box Canyon Road just east of the town of Mecca.

On 23 March 2011, after Tommy Stoughton reported that several species of Nemacladus were in bloom in the Shavers Well area, the authors surveyed for Nemacladus in four locations along Box Canyon Road, which separates the Mecca Hills from the Orocopia Mountains.

One of the main goals of this survey was to photograph a number of flowers of the N. tenuis plants known from this area, to study how much variation existed in the flowers of these plants between var. tenuis and var. aliformis. Nancy Morin, the author of the Jepson Manual treatment on Nemacladus, had alerted us that this needed study. This is a project that is easy to do in the field, where one can study a large number of fresh flowers, but is difficult to do with herbarium specimens.

The four locations are shown in Fig. 1:

Fig. 1. Locations surveyed for Nemacladus along Box Canyon Road. The first three stops were roadside surveys only. At the fourth stop, Shavers Well, we surveyed up about 0.5 miles of a side canyon, shown as the red line.

Table 1 gives the amount of time spent at each location, along with the number of Nemacladus species and the number of total Nemacladus plants found in each location. Since we had six people, each looking somewhat-independently for Nemacladus plants, the total person-hours at each location is six times the survey time. Especially for tiny plants like Nemacladus, the number of plants found is directly proportional to the total person-hours devoted to looking for them.

Table 1. Summary of Findings at Each Survey Location.

Stop #	Survey Time (minutes)	# Nemacladus species	# Nemacladus plants	# Nemacladus plants photographed
1	37	0	0	0
2	81	2	~20	14
3	59	3	~20	12
4	280	2	~35	11

Stops 1-3 were devoted entirely to Nemacladus. Stop 4 was primarily a survey of all plant species, including Nemacladus, and hence the effective time devoted to Nemacladus is a small fraction of the entire 280 minutes.

We probably found a single plant of a fourth Nemacladus species at stop 3, from its very different leaf rosette and its stiffly-ascending pedicels, but it wasn't yet in bloom for a definitive determination. This plant is probably N. rubescens, which Tommy Stoughton found to be common in the Shavers Well area, in areas we did not survey. For those reasons, we include in this page a picture of a single N. rubescens flower found in the Shavers Well area by Tommy Stoughton.

A summary of the number of plants of each species found at each location is given in Table 2.

Table 2. Number of Plants of Each Species Found at Each Survey Location.

Species	# Plants of Each Species by Location
	1	2	3	4
N. glanduliferus	0	1	2	5
N. orientalis	0	0	3	0
N. tenuis var. aliformis	0	~20	~15	30

In the above tables, approximately ten plants were without flowers, but were identified based on their resemblance to the other species present in each area.

Each photographed plant was numbered sequentially through all locations beginning with the first location. The photographs presented here are identified by that number. Plants #1-14 were from location #2; #15-26 from location #3; and #27-37 from location #4. We photographed nearly every plant from stops 2 and 3, omitting only a few vegetative plants, but only a sampling of the plants at location #4.

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Conclusions

• The flowers of the N. tenuis plants here were amazingly uniform, showing no variation along the direction between those two varieties. They were all consistently var. aliformis, as documented by the photographs below.

• The stem base of young plants of N. tenuis are often red, with the silvery-gray color used in floras to distinguish this species appearing only in age. Of the plants in flower whose stem bases were photographed, eight had at least one stem with an entirely gray base, three had at least one stem base that was in between red and gray, and four had a red base, with no gray color at all. Vegetative plants all had red or reddish gray stem bases.

  The contrast between the red young stems and the gray older stems is seen clearly in plant #16.

• We found a striking variation in the color of the middle and upper stems of N. tenuis, from the normal red to bright green. All observed plants had reddish middle and upper stems, except for four plants found in a single location that were all bright green, as shown for plant #8 compared to plant #19. The flowers from these plants were identical, as documented in the photographs below.

• We documented the previously-known variation in the ratio of the calyx lobes to corolla length for N. glanduliferus, where plants in heavy shade produce much longer calyx lobes, presumably for additional photosynthesis. We found only a single plant with this variation, plant #37. It was growing under a boulder at the bottom of a narrow canyon. Compare the calyx lobes in that picture with the normal calyx lobes of plant #36, found in a more open location just a few hundred feet (~100 m) away from plant #37.

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Pictures of Entire Plants

N. glanduliferus
Plant #13	Plant #17	Plant #23

N. orientalus
Plant #22	Plant #25	Plant #25

N. tenuis var. aliformis
Plant #1	Plant #8	Plant #15	Plant #18
Plant #19	Plant #26	Plant #34

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Pictures of Stem Bases

N. glanduliferus
Plant #13	Plant #17	Plant #23
Plant #	Plant #	Plant #31

N. orientalus
Plant #22	Plant #25

N. tenuis var. aliformis
Plant #1 (stem base gray)	Plant #3 (stem base gray)	Plant #5 (stem base red / gray)	Plant #8 (stem base reddish)
Plant #10 (stem base red)	Plant #14 (stem base red / gray)	Plant #15 (stem base gray)	Plant #16 (stem base gray)
Plant #18 (stem base gray)	Plant #19 (stem base gray)	Plant #24 (stem base gray)	Plant #26 (stem base red)
Plant #27 (stem base red / gray)	Plant #30 (stem base gray)	Plant #33 (stem base red)

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Pictures of Flowers

N. glanduliferus
#	Pix 1	Pix 2	Pix 3	Pix 4
13
17
23
31
36
37
37

N. orientalis
#	Pix 1	Pix 2	Pix 3	Pix 4
22
25

N. rubescens

N. tenuis var. aliformis The color of the stem is given underneath the plant identification number: g = gray; r = red. If the stem is reddish gray, both colors are given.
#	Pix 1	Pix 2	Pix 3	Pix 4
1 g
3 g
3 g
5 r g
5 r g
8 r
10 r
12
12
14 r g
15 g
15 g
16 g
18 g
19 g
24 g
24 g
26 r
27 r g
28
29
30 g
32
32
33 r
34
34

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We thank Tommy Stoughton for alerting us to blooming Nemacladus in this canyon, which was the origin for this page. Tommy also took the pix of N. rubescens.

We also thank Nancy Morin for reviewing our determinations, and for insightful comments about these species.

Go to:

• Native and Introduced Plants of Southern California
• Field Guide to San Diego County: Natural History: Plants