Flora of Fossil Canyon, Coyote Mountains, Imperial County

Left: Parish's desert-thorn, Lycium parishii; Middle: Panorama of three camera images; Right: Unusual five spot, Eremalche rotundifolia, without any spots.
Pictures taken 13 February 2011 in Fossil Canyon by Tom Chester. Click on pictures to get larger versions.

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Introduction
Checklist

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Introduction

This checklist is a start at a flora of Fossil Canyon, Coyote Mountains.

The Coyote Mountains are in southwest Imperial County, just north of the town of Ocotillo; see area locator map. Fossil Canyon is a canyon on the south side of the Coyote Mountains, in between the Domelands to the West and Painted Gorge to the East, shown on the following map:

As shown on the above map, we have done two floral surveys in Fossil Canyon, along the solid blue line. The first survey was done on 23 December 2010, between the two green crosses, as indicated on the map, by Tom Chester, Mike Crouse and Pam Pallette. The second survey was done on 13 February 2011 between the two red crosses shown on the map, by Tom Chester, RT Hawke, Tommy Stoughton and William Schlegel.

The checklist below gives the maximum number of plants found in either survey, up to a maximum of 99 plants.

The vouchered species on this checklist come from a search on 15 February 2011 of the Consortium of California Herbaria.

The Consortium records were searched for vouchers from Imperial County with the term Fossil, Shell or Alverson in their locality field. (This canyon has also been known as Shell Canyon and Alverson Canyon.)

Localities of those vouchers were examined and ones not definitely in the target area were eliminated.

Vouchers determined just to genus were also eliminated.

The final voucher list contained 79 vouchers of 42 taxa.

The dominant collector by far was Andy Sanders, with 46 vouchers, 58% of the total, most of which he collected with B. Pitzer, D. Charlton, R. Kniffen, J. Stewart, Howie Weir, and D. E. Bramlet on 9 March 1986. June Latting was next, with 17 vouchers, 22% of the total, from 5 April 1978. S. Granger collected 5 vouchers, 6% of the total, in March 1979. Just 11 vouchers, 14% of the total, were collected by ten other sets of collectors.

The total checklist below contains 101 taxa, 91 from our surveys (33 with vouchers and 58 without vouchers) plus an additional nine taxa solely from vouchers that we did not find, or at least could not positively identify, in our surveys.

The checklist below also gives the number of our 228 survey areas in southern California in which each taxon was found. We have never recorded four of the species in the checklist in any of our 228 survey areas: Eucnide rupestris, Nemacladus glanduliferus var. orientalis, Nemacladus tenuis var. tenuis, and Petalonyx linearis. We have seen Nemacladus tenuis var. tenuis in the field, but not on any formally-surveyed area. We did not see any of these four vouchered species here, although we did see a Nemacladus species in bud that might have been one of these.

If anyone knows where any of those four species are hiding here, we would appreciate knowing.

Three other species have only been recorded in the surveys here, among those 228 survey areas: Lycium parishii; Caesalpinia virgata; and Chamaesyce pediculifera. The main reason for this uniqueness is that we have conducted few surveys in Imperial County or southeastern San Diego County, where these species live.

This canyon was also striking for the large number of plants of Phacelia pedicellata and Mohavea confertiflora found here. Both of these taxa usually appear in much smaller numbers in other areas.

See Flora of Ocotillo / Coyote Mountains Area for voucher records for a larger area around Fossil Canyon.

Checklist for Fossil Canyon, Coyote Mountains

The Checklist is sorted first by category - dicots, monocots, and ferns - and then by family and scientific name. The Family and Scientific Name are from the Jepson Manual 1996 First Edition.

The column titled #Pl gives the maximum number of plants found in either of our surveys, up to a maximum of 99 plants.

The column titled #V gives the number of vouchers found for this area.

The column titled #All gives the number of survey areas and floras in southern California in which each taxon was found.

Voucher locations for any taxon can be obtained by searching the Consortium of California Herbaria for the taxon name.

A "~" appears in the #Pl for Loeseliastrum matthewsii, since we observed only dead Loeseliastrum plants on our survey, and could not then determine whether they were this species of L. schottii. We have simply placed our dead plants under the vouchered species name.

Similarly, we observed only young plants that were probably Eucrypta micrantha, and qualified that number of plants with a ~.

We observed ~10 plants of Nemacladus in bud, but could not determine them to one of the three species vouchered from here, and hence those observations do not appear in the checklist below.

See Flora of Ocotillo / Coyote Mountains Area for voucher records for a larger area around Fossil Canyon.

Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (8 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (2 double-sided pages). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)

Checklist updated to include species from surrounding areas, but the text above has not yet been updated!!

#	Fam	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	#V	Dm	Ws	FC
1	Pte	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	1	24
2	Cup	Juniperus californica	California juniper	1
3	Eph	Ephedra californica	desert tea			1
4	Eph	Ephedra sp. (2 lv'd)	2 lv'd ephedra			1
5	Eph	Ephedra trifurca	long-leafed ephedra	4		5
6	Aca	Justicia californica	chuparosa	11
7	Aiz	Trianthema portulacastrum	horse-purslane	3
8	Ama	Tidestromia oblongifolia	Arizona honeysweet	9	2	2	2
9	Ana	Rhus ovata	sugar bush	1
10	Asc	Asclepias albicans	white-stemmed milkweed	3	1
11	Asc	Asclepias subulata	rush milkweed	1	50
12	Asc	Cynanchum utahense	Utah vine milkweed	1
13	Ast	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	21	99	99	99
14	Ast	Ambrosia ilicifolia	holly-leaved burbush	1
15	Ast	Baccharis brachyphylla	short-leaved baccharis	1	5
16	Ast	Baileya pauciradiata	Colorado Desert marigold	3
17	Ast	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	7	99		99
18	Ast	Calycoseris wrightii	white tackstem	5	5
19	Ast	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	pebble pincushion	10	99		99
20	Ast	Chaenactis stevioides	desert pincushion	7	99	99	99
21	Ast	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	8	99	20	99
22	Ast	Encelia frutescens	button encelia	15		99	2
23	Ast	Eriophyllum wallacei	Wallace's woolly daisy	1
24	Ast	Filago arizonica	Arizona herba impia				50
25	Ast	Filago depressa	dwarf filago	1
26	Ast	Geraea canescens	hairy desert-sunflower	10	50	10	50
27	Ast	Geraea viscida	sticky geraea	1
28	Ast	Gnaphalium bicolor	bicolored everlasting	1
29	Ast	Hymenoclea salsola	cheesebush	5		99
30	Ast	Isocoma acradenia var. eremophila	solitary-leaved alkali goldenbush	5
31	Ast	Malacothrix glabrata	desert dandelion	4
32	Ast	Malperia tenuis	brown turbans	6	60		50
33	Ast	Monoptilon bellioides	desert star	16	20		99
34	Ast	Palafoxia arida var. arida	desert needle	15	2	99	10
35	Ast	Pectis papposa var. papposa	chinch-weed	4
36	Ast	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy	12	50		99
37	Ast	Peucephyllum schottii	pygmy-cedar	2	3		1
38	Ast	Pleurocoronis pluriseta	arrow-leaf	10	50		99
39	Ast	Psathyrotes ramosissima	turtleback	4	7	20	5
40	Ast	Rafinesquia neomexicana	desert chicory	6	10	1	40
41	Ast	Senecio mohavensis	Mojave ragwort	9	3		99
42	Ast	Senecio vulgaris	*common groundsel	1
43	Ast	Stephanomeria pauciflora	wire-lettuce	1	99	10	10
44	Ast	Stylocline micropoides	desert nest straw		1
45	Ast	Trichoptilium incisum	yellow-head	6	10		5
46	Ast	Trixis californica var. californica	California trixis	1
47	Ast	Viguiera parishii	Parish's viguiera	1
48	Big	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata	desert-willow	1
49	Bor	Cryptantha angustifolia	narrow-leaved cryptantha	16	99	99	99
50	Bor	Cryptantha barbigera	bearded cryptantha		5
51	Bor	Cryptantha costata	ribbed cryptantha	1
52	Bor	Cryptantha decipiens	gravel cryptantha	1
53	Bor	Cryptantha holoptera	winged cryptantha	5			V
54	Bor	Cryptantha maritima	Guadalupe cryptantha	12	99		99
55	Bor	Cryptantha micrantha	purple-root cryptantha	2
56	Bor	Cryptantha pterocarya	wing-nut cryptantha				10
57	Bor	Cryptantha pterocarya var. cycloptera	Tucson wing-nut cryptantha	1
58	Bor	Cryptantha racemosa	bushy cryptantha	9	10		V
59	Bor	Pectocarya heterocarpa	chuckwalla pectocarya	3	2
60	Bor	Pectocarya peninsularis	Baja pectocarya	1
61	Bor	Pectocarya platycarpa	broad-fruited combseed	1
62	Bor	Pectocarya recurvata	curvenut combseed		50		2
63	Bor	Pectocarya setosa	moth combseed	1
64	Bor	Plagiobothrys jonesii	Jones' popcorn flower	2
65	Bor	Tiquilia palmeri	Palmer's coldenia	13	5	99
66	Bor	Tiquilia plicata	plicate coldenia	1		5
67	Bra	Arabis pulchra var. gracilis	slender & beautiful rock-cress	1
68	Bra	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	4	99	99	1
69	Bra	Descurainia pinnata	western tansy-mustard	1
70	Bra	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod	2	3
71	Bra	Draba cuneifolia	wedge-leaved draba		2
72	Bra	Lepidium fremontii var. fremontii	desert pepper-grass	2
73	Bra	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass	3	99	20	40
74	Bra	Sisymbrium irio	*London rocket	1	50
75	Bra	Sisymbrium orientale	*Oriental mustard	1
76	Bra	Streptanthella longirostris	longbeak streptanthella	5
77	Cac	Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus	cottontop cactus		15
78	Cac	Mammillaria tetrancistra	fish-hook cactus		4
79	Cac	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	2	38		5
80	Cac	Opuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla			1
81	Cac	Opuntia echinocarpa	silver cholla	1	20	5	1
82	Cac	Opuntia wolfii	Wolf's cholla	6	99		4
83	Cam	Nemacladus glanduliferus	glandular nemacladus	2
84	Cam	Nemacladus glanduliferus var. glanduliferus	glandular nemacladus				10
85	Cam	Nemacladus glanduliferus var. orientalis	eastern glandular nemacladus	2			V
86	Cam	Nemacladus tenuis var. tenuis	desert threadplant	1			V
87	Cap	Cleomella obtusifolia	Mojave cleomella	7
88	Car	Achyronychia cooperi	frost mat	9		20	2
89	Che	Atriplex canescens	fourwing saltbush	3
90	Che	Atriplex elegans var. fasciculata	wheelscale	1	30
91	Che	Atriplex hymenelytra	desert holly	20	99		99
92	Che	Atriplex lentiformis	big saltbush	1
93	Che	Atriplex polycarpa	cattle saltbush	1	50
94	Che	Chenopodium murale	*nettle-leaved goosefoot	2
95	Che	Chenopodium pratericola	meadow goosefoot	1
96	Che	Monolepis nuttalliana	Nuttall's poverty weed	2
97	Che	Salsola paulsenii	*Paulsen's Russian thistle	1	20
98	Che	Suaeda moquinii	bush seepweed	1
99	Cuc	Cucurbita foetidissima	stinking gourd	1
100	Cuc	Cucurbita palmata	coyote melon			3
101	Cus	Cuscuta sp.	dodder			1
102	Eup	Chamaesyce melanadenia	red-gland spurge	2
103	Eup	Chamaesyce micromera	Sonoran spurge	5
104	Eup	Chamaesyce parishii	Parish's spurge	1
105	Eup	Chamaesyce pediculifera	Carrizo Mountain spurge	8			30
106	Eup	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	14	50	99	30
107	Eup	Chamaesyce setiloba	starfish (Yuma) spurge	5			10
108	Eup	Croton californicus	California croton	8	10		3
109	Eup	Ditaxis lanceolata	narrowleaf ditaxis	7	1		5
110	Eup	Ditaxis neomexicana	New Mexico ditaxis	3			V
111	Eup	Stillingia linearifolia	linear-leaved stillingia	3		1
112	Eup	Stillingia spinulosa	annual stillingia	5		10
113	Fab	Acacia greggii	catclaw	3	15	1	50
114	Fab	Astragalus aridus	annual desert milk-vetch	2
115	Fab	Astragalus crotalariae	Salton milk-vetch	3
116	Fab	Astragalus insularis var. harwoodii	Harwood's milk-vetch	1
117	Fab	Caesalpinia virgata	wand holdback	22	1		99
118	Fab	Dalea mollis	silky dalea	3
119	Fab	Dalea mollissima	downy dalea	12	5	2	1
120	Fab	Hoffmannseggia glauca	hog potato	4
121	Fab	Lotus haydonii	pygmy lotus	1
122	Fab	Lotus heermannii var. heermannii	silky lotus	1
123	Fab	Lotus salsuginosus var. brevivexillus	short-bannered coastal lotus	3			5
124	Fab	Lotus strigosus	strigose lotus	10	10		30
125	Fab	Lupinus arizonicus	Arizona lupine	3	50	5	99
126	Fab	Lupinus concinnus	bajada lupine		2
127	Fab	Lupinus excubitus var. medius	Mountain Springs bush lupine	1
128	Fab	Olneya tesota	ironwood	1
129	Fab	Prosopis glandulosa var. torreyana	honey mesquite	3	50		1
130	Fab	Psorothamnus emoryi	Emory's indigo-bush	14	5	50	7
131	Fab	Psorothamnus polydenius	Nevada indigo-bush	3	99
132	Fab	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	7	30	20	1
133	Fab	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree	9		50	50
134	Fab	Senna armata	spiny senna	1
135	Fou	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	5	99	99	99
136	Ger	Erodium cicutarium	*redstem filaree		99
137	Ger	Erodium texanum	Texas filaree		5
138	Hyd	Eucrypta micrantha	desert eucrypta	4			3
139	Hyd	Nama demissum var. demissum	purple mat	1
140	Hyd	Nama hispidum var. spathulatum	hispid nama	2
141	Hyd	Phacelia crenulata	heliotrope phacelia				V
142	Hyd	Phacelia crenulata var. ambigua	heliotrope phacelia	2
143	Hyd	Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora	little-flowered heliotrope phacelia	9	99		10
144	Hyd	Phacelia distans	common phacelia	1
145	Hyd	Phacelia ivesiana var. pediculoides	Ives' phacelia	2
146	Hyd	Phacelia neglecta	alkali phacelia	3
147	Hyd	Phacelia pachyphylla	thick-leafed phacelia	6
148	Hyd	Phacelia pedicellata	pedicellate phacelia	6			99
149	Kra	Krameria erecta	Pima rhatany	1	15
150	Kra	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	5	99	10	2
151	Lam	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	9	20	1	99
152	Lam	Salvia columbariae	chia	1
153	Loa	Eucnide rupestris	rock nettle	3			V
154	Loa	Mentzelia albicaulis	white-stemmed blazing star	5
155	Loa	Mentzelia desertorum	desert blazing star	1
156	Loa	Mentzelia hirsutissima	hairy stickleaf	1
157	Loa	Mentzelia involucrata	bracted blazing star	8	10		50
158	Loa	Mentzelia veatchiana	Veatch's blazing star	1
159	Loa	Petalonyx linearis	narrow-leaf sandpaper-plant	1			V
160	Loa	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	Thurber's sandpaper-plant	2		7
161	Mal	Eremalche rotundifolia	desert five-spot	4	20	10	50
162	Mal	Hibiscus denudatus	rock hibiscus	7	2		7
163	Mal	Horsfordia newberryi	Newberry's velvet mallow	5			15
164	Mal	Sphaeralcea ambigua	apricot mallow				1
165	Mal	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rosacea	rosy apricot mallow	10
166	Mal	Sphaeralcea angustifolia	copper globemallow	1
167	Mal	Sphaeralcea emoryi var. emoryi	Emory's globemallow	2
168	Mal	Sphaeralcea orcuttii	Carrizo mallow	4
169	Nyc	Abronia villosa var. villosa	hairy sand-verbena	7	10	99
170	Nyc	Allionia incarnata	trailing four o'clock	6	1		1
171	Nyc	Boerhavia intermedia	fivewing spiderling	1
172	Nyc	Boerhavia wrightii	Wright's spiderling	3
173	Nyc	Mirabilis bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's desert four-o'clock	1
174	Nyc	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	Bigelow's desert four-o'clock	2	15		10
175	Nyc	Mirabilis tenuiloba	slender-lobed four o'clock	5
176	Ona	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata	Booth's evening primrose	12	50		30
177	Ona	Camissonia boothii ssp. decorticans	Booth's evening primrose	2
178	Ona	Camissonia brevipes	yellow cups	1
179	Ona	Camissonia brevipes ssp. arizonica	Arizona sun-cup	1
180	Ona	Camissonia californica	California suncup	10	99	50	99
181	Ona	Camissonia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla	heartleaf sun-cup	12	20		99
182	Ona	Camissonia chamaenerioides	long-fruit suncup	5			3
183	Ona	Camissonia claviformis	brown-eyed primrose	3
184	Ona	Camissonia claviformis ssp. claviformis	brown-eyed primrose	1
185	Ona	Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii	brown-eyed primrose	21	99	99	99
186	Oro	Orobanche cooperi	Cooper's broom-rape	3			2
187	Pap	Argemone munita	prickly poppy	4
188	Pap	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora	small-flowered poppy	4	4		20
189	Pap	Eschscholzia parishii	Parish's poppy	3	50	20	99
190	Pla	Plantago ovata	desert plantain	7	99	20	99
191	Pol	Gilia latifolia	broad-leaf gilia	7	99	1	99
192	Pol	Gilia stellata	star gilia	4			1
193	Pol	Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima	bristly langloisia	7			10
194	Pol	Linanthus aureus ssp. decorus	golden linanthus	1
195	Pol	Linanthus jonesii	Jones' linanthus	4			V
196	Pol	Loeseliastrum matthewsii	desert calico	2			V
197	Pol	Loeseliastrum schottii	Schott's calico	2
198	Pol	Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	brittle spineflower	4	50		30
199	Pol	Chorizanthe corrugata	wrinkled spineflower	8
200	Pol	Chorizanthe rigida	devil's spineflower	9	99		5
201	Pol	Eriogonum deflexum var. deflexum	flat-topped buckwheat				5
202	Pol	Eriogonum deflexum var. rectum	flat-topped buckwheat	1
203	Pol	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	6	30	2	10
204	Pol	Eriogonum reniforme	kidney-leaf buckwheat	4
205	Pol	Eriogonum thomasii	Thomas' buckwheat	7	50		99
206	Pol	Eriogonum trichopes	little desert trumpet	3	99
207	Por	Calandrinia ambigua	desert red maids	5
208	Raf	Pilostyles thurberi	Thurber's pilostyles	9
209	Res	Oligomeris linifolia	lineleaf whitepuff	6	99		2
210	Rub	Galium stellatum var. eremicum	star-flowered bedstraw	1
211	Scr	Antirrhinum filipes	desert twining snapdragon	1
212	Scr	Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's monkeyflower	4
213	Scr	Mimulus fremontii	Fremont's monkeyflower	1
214	Scr	Mimulus guttatus	common monkeyflower	1
215	Scr	Mohavea confertiflora	ghost flower	9	30		99
216	Scr	Veronica peregrina ssp. xalapensis	purslane speedwell	1
217	Sim	Castela emoryi	crucifixion thorn	13
218	Sim	Simmondsia chinensis	jojoba	2
219	Sol	Datura discolor	desert thornapple	1		5	1
220	Sol	Datura wrightii	sacred datura	1
221	Sol	Lycium fremontii	Fremont box-thorn		15		6
222	Sol	Lycium parishii	Parish's desert-thorn	3			6
223	Sol	Nicotiana obtusifolia	desert tobacco	4	5		3
224	Sol	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry	2		3	10
225	Tam	Tamarix ramosissima	*saltcedar	1			5
226	Urt	Parietaria hespera var. hespera	pellitory	1
227	Vis	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe		1		10
228	Vis	Phoradendron densum	dense mistletoe	1
229	Zyg	Fagonia laevis	California fagonia	10
230	Zyg	Fagonia pachyacantha	sticky fagonia	13	99	1	99
231	Zyg	Kallstroemia californica	California caltrop	3
232	Zyg	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	13	99	99	99
233	Jun	Juncus bufonius var. bufonius	toad rush	1
234	Lil	Agave deserti var. deserti	desert agave		10		1
235	Lil	Hesperocallis undulata	desert lily	11		50
236	Poa	Aristida adscensionis	six-weeks three-awn	9	50		99
237	Poa	Aristida californica var. californica	California three-awn	1
238	Poa	Aristida purpurea var. nealleyi	Nealley three-awn	2
239	Poa	Avena barbata	*slender wild oats	1
240	Poa	Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides	needle grama	1
241	Poa	Bouteloua barbata var. barbata	six-weeks grama	4
242	Poa	Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens	*red brome		80		1
243	Poa	Erioneuron pulchellum	fluff grass	1
244	Poa	Leptochloa uninervia	Mexican sprangletop	1
245	Poa	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	4	30
246	Poa	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus		99	99	30

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Voucher data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria (ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/)

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