Flora of Iron Age Mine Area, east of 29 Palms

Fig. 1. Panorama of a field of Pectis papposa, chinch-weed, from three camera frames, taken just south of SR62 on 7 October 2011.

Fig. 2. Panorama of three camera frames of a different field of Pectis papposa, chinch-weed, taken roughly 0.5 miles south of SR62 on 7 October 2011.

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Introduction
Location
Fieldwork Results
Procedure For Compiling The Checklist
Important Caveats
Checklist

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Introduction

Jane Strong alerted us to a Calphoto message posted by John Cubit about the wonderful fall bloom in this area, including John's beautiful pix of the bloom from 29 September 2011.

All the authors visited this area, about 23 miles east of the city of 29 Palms and about 1.5 miles east of the signed Ironage Road, on 7 October 2011, and found it to be absolutely delightful. We recorded all the species we saw, including whether they were blooming or not, and found 40 species in bloom out of a total of 70 species observed. RT and Shaun Hawke returned to this area on 8 October 2011, finding one additional species in bloom, making it 41 species in bloom out of a total of 71 species observed.

Best of all, we found zillions of plants of Kallstroemia californica in bloom and in fruit. This is the first time that most of us have seen this species, and it was our target species for coming here. We didn't have to hunt hard for it; when we got out of the car, it was on both sides. There are many plants of it in Fig. 1 above, but it doesn't show up well in a field of Pectis.

A bonus was finding all three annual species of Boerhavia in bloom and in fruit.

It surprised us that we found all the species in the initial part of our survey, adding no additional species as we walked up the canyon. RT and Shaun Hawke surveyed up to and beyond the Iron Age mine, which included south-facing slopes in a different drainage basin, and still found no additional species, which is extremely unusual.

Perhaps we just quickly ran out of the summer annuals that grow in this area, and maybe the canyon is just too open to offer anything different. It also might be a different story for additional species in a survey made in a spring after a wet winter.

Location

The area we surveyed is shown in the following maps:

• large scale map showing the nearby Joshua Tree National Park, as well as three different versions of the boundary between the Mojave (DMoj) and Sonoran (DSon) Desert.

• medium scale map showing the nearby Dale Lake and Iron Age Mine

• detail map showing our survey route.

The three different versions of the DSon / DMoj boundary are given on the above maps since this area seems to have a typical DSon flora. During the survey, we kept commenting that all the species seemed to be familiar Sonoran Desert taxa, and we weren't picking up any uniquely Mojave Desert taxa. Then, when we checked the GPS unit to find our elevation, we were shocked when it read just 1600 feet elevation. We had assumed, because we were on the north side of Joshua Tree National Park, that our elevation should be the typical 4000 feet of the Mojave Desert.

Of course, it is unreasonable to think that there is a sharp boundary between DMoj and DSon. Instead, there is most likely a broad transition area between the deserts, and this happens to be one of the places in that transition zone that more closely resembles DSon.

Fieldwork Results

Procedure For Compiling The Checklist

Important Caveats

Checklist for Iron Age Mine Area

This is a preliminary, working list of the flora of this area, compiled from surveys done on 7 and 8 October 2011. Some of the taxa were identified from immature plants, and some of them might not grow up to be the species we thought they were. We've indicated those taxa by a ~ in front of their names.

The Checklist is sorted first by category - ferns, dicots, and monocots - and then by family and scientific name. The JM Family and Scientific Name are from the 1993 first edition Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.

Two columns are given under # Plants. The column Bloom gives the number of plants observed to be in bloom in our surveys. The column Obs'd gives the minimum number of plants we observed, blooming and not, in our surveys, up to a maximum number given of 99.

This is a working list, about which we make no guarantees at all. Use at your own risk!

Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (3 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided pages). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)

#	JM Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	# Plants
				Bloom	All
1	EPH	Ephedra californica	desert tea		20
2	AMA	Amaranthus fimbriatus	fringed amaranth	20	20
3	TID	Tidestromia oblongifolia	Arizona honeysweet	10	10
4	ASC	Asclepias subulata	rush milkweed	3	20
5	SAR	Sarcostemma hirtellum	rambling milkweed	10	15
6	AMB	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	5	40
7	BEB	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	30	50
8	CHA	~Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	~pebble pincushion		10
9	CHR	Chrysothamnus paniculatus	blackbanded rabbitbrush	2	10
10	DIC	Dicoria canescens	desert dicoria	1	1
11	ENC	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush		5
12	ENC	Encelia frutescens	button encelia	30	50
13	GER	Geraea canescens	hairy desert-sunflower		1
14	HYM	Hymenoclea salsola	cheesebush		50
15	PAL	Palafoxia arida var. arida	desert needle	20	99
16	PEC	Pectis papposa var. papposa	chinch-weed	99	99
17	PER	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy		40
18	STE	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	wire-lettuce	2	10
19	CHI	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata	desert-willow	3	5
20	TIQ	Tiquilia plicata	plicate coldenia	1	10
21	BRA	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard		99
22	DIT	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod		5
23	LEP	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass		5
24	MAM	Mammillaria tetrancistra	fish-hook cactus		1
25	OPU	Opuntia echinocarpa	silver cholla		6
26	OPU	Opuntia ramosissima	pencil cholla		8
27	ACH	Achyronychia cooperi	frost mat		15
28	BRA	Brandegea bigelovii	desert star-vine		3
29	CHA	Chamaesyce micromera	Sonoran spurge	99	99
30	CHA	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	99	99
31	CHA	Chamaesyce setiloba	starfish (Yuma) spurge	20	20
32	CRO	Croton californicus	California croton		20
33	DIT	Ditaxis neomexicana	New Mexico ditaxis	2	10
34	EUP	~Euphorbia eriantha	~beetle spurge		4
35	ACA	Acacia greggii	catclaw	2	50
36	DAL	Dalea mollis	silky dalea	10	50
37	DAL	Dalea mollissima	downy dalea	1	30
38	LOT	Lotus strigosus	strigose lotus		2
39	PSO	Psorothamnus emoryi	Emory's indigo-bush	5	30
40	PSO	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree	1	99
41	SEN	Senna armata	spiny senna	10	14
42	PHA	~Phacelia distans	~common phacelia		10
43	KRA	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	4	20
44	HYP	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	3	5
45	SPH	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. ambigua	apricot mallow		5
46	MOL	Mollugo cerviana	*carpet-weed	3	3
47	ABR	Abronia villosa var. villosa	hairy sand-verbena		5
48	ALL	Allionia incarnata	trailing four o'clock	5	99
49	BOE	Boerhavia coulteri	Coulter's spiderling	2	2
50	BOE	Boerhavia intermedia	fivewing spiderling	10	10
51	BOE	Boerhavia wrightii	Wright's spiderling	20	20
52	MIR	Mirabilis bigelovii	Bigelow's desert four-o'clock		2
53	CAM	Camissonia boothii	Booth's evening primrose		5
54	CAM	Camissonia claviformis	brown-eyed primrose		2
55	OEN	Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides	dune primrose		99
56	CHO	~Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	~brittle spineflower		2
57	CHO	Chorizanthe rigida	devil's spineflower		10
58	ERI	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	10	20
59	ERI	Eriogonum trichopes	little desert trumpet		40
60	LYC	Lycium andersonii	Anderson's desert-thorn		1
61	PHY	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry	3	20
62	PHO	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe		15
63	KAL	Kallstroemia californica	California caltrop	99	99
64	LAR	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	5	99
65	ARI	Aristida adscensionis	six-weeks three-awn	20	99
66	BOU	Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides	needle grama	99	99
67	BOU	Bouteloua barbata var. barbata	six-weeks grama	10	30
68	ERI	Erioneuron pulchellum	fluff grass	4	4
69	MUH	Muhlenbergia microsperma	littleseed muhly	10	10
70	PLE	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	30	30
71	SCH	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus		5

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