Flora of Harper Canyon
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park

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Introduction
Procedure For Compiling The Checklist
Interesting Species
Checklist

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Introduction

(This is a placeholder page for now, just to give the checklist.)

Procedure For Compiling The Checklist

The checklist was compiled from four surveys, as follows:

19 January 2011, a six hour survey of 2.33 miles beginning at mile 0.85 south of Old Kane Springs Road, by Tom Chester, Mike Crouse, and Jim Adams.

23 January 2011, a six hour survey of 3.33 miles beginning at mile 1.35 south of Old Kane Springs Road, by Tom Chester, Mike Crouse, RT Hawke, and Tim Chumley, with Shaun Hawke assisting with the first half of the survey.

18 March 2011, a 7.5 hour survey of 1.96 miles beginning at mile 0.85 south of Old Kane Springs Road, by Tom Chester and Kate Harper, with Anthony Ferrari assisting with a portion of the survey.

See Pictures from Anthony from this survey.

20 December 2013, a six hour survey of 3.3 miles beginning at mile 1.35 south of Old Kane Springs Road, by Tom Chester, Kate Harper and Frank Harris. This survey included a very small portion of the hill immediately south of Harper Flat.

None of these surveys was done after a good monsoon season, so the number of monsoonal species may prove to be larger in a good year.

Total Checklist

The total checklist contains 150 species. There are only three vouchers from this Canyon, which do not contribute any additional species.

The following information is for the checklist as of 18 March 2011 which had 138 species:

Of the 138 species in the checklist, 89 have vouchers in the Northeast Vallecito Mountains and Adjacent Lower Borrego Valley. Thus 49 of these 139 species are new records for the flora of this area.

Of those 49 species, 46 have vouchers in the Borrego Valley area that encompasses this region, area #16 in the Duffie Clemons Flora.

The three species not vouchered from this area are the native species Eriogonum plumatella and Porophyllum gracile, and the non-native species Vulpia bromoides. The first two species have very nearby vouchers just outside area #16, and Tom Chester has a number of vouchers of Vulpia bromoides not yet placed in the San Diego Herbarium.

Interesting Species

The species found here that are found in few other areas of the Borrego Desert (as narrowly defined in the link as roughly the northern half of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park) in our surveys are, as of 18 March 2011:

• Eriogonum plumatella. This is the only area in which we have found this taxon in the Borrego Desert.

• Draba cuneifolia. This species has been found in only one other survey we have done in the Borrego Desert.

• Caulanthus cooperi. This species has been found in only two other surveys we have done in the Borrego Desert.

• Camissonia refracta. This species has been found in only two other surveys we have done in the Borrego Desert.

To put these numbers in perspective, the median number of survey occurrences is 24 for the plants in this Checklist, and creosote, Larrea tridentata, has been recorded on 67 of our Borrego Desert surveys, and is the most frequently-occurring species on those surveys.

Harper Canyon is also notable for its large populations of:

• Lyrocarpa coulteri var. palmeri, Coulter's lyrepod, found nearly everywhere along the trail. We saw a minimum of 99 plants, and probably many more. We've only seen it so abundant in one other location, Glorietta Canyon. In all other locations, we have never seen more than a handful of plants in other areas, and those plants were almost always straggling through another plant. Here many of the plants were out in the open as bushes!

• Boerhavia coccinea

Checklist for Harper Canyon

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

The column #Plants gives a rough estimate of the minimum number of plants that we saw, with a maximum value of 99 plants. The main intent of this column is to indicate the species for which we found very few plants.

Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (4 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided page). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)

#	Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	# Pls
Lycopods
1	Selag	Selaginella eremophila	desert spike-moss	1
Ferns
2	Pteri	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	70
Gymnosperms
3	Ephed	Ephedra aspera	Mormon tea	99
Eudicots
4	Amara	Amaranthus fimbriatus	fringed amaranth	10
5	Apocy	Funastrum hirtellum	rambling milkweed	99
6	Aster	Adenophyllum porophylloides	San Felipe dogweed	40
7	Aster	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	50
8	Aster	Ambrosia salsola var. salsola	cheesebush	99
9	Aster	Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. albula	white mugwort	1
10	Aster	Baccharis brachyphylla	short-leaved baccharis	6
11	Aster	Bahiopsis parishii	Parish's viguiera	30
12	Aster	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	99
13	Aster	Brickellia atractyloides var. arguta	California spear-leaved brickellia	1
14	Aster	Brickellia desertorum	desert brickellia	4
15	Aster	Calycoseris wrightii	white tackstem	2
16	Aster	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	pebble pincushion	99
17	Aster	Chaenactis fremontii	Fremont pincushion	99
18	Aster	Chaenactis stevioides	desert pincushion	99
19	Aster	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	99
20	Aster	Gutierrezia californica	California matchweed	10
21	Aster	Logfia depressa	dwarf filago	5
22	Aster	Logfia filaginoides	California filago	40
23	Aster	Malacothrix glabrata	desert dandelion	40
24	Aster	Monoptilon bellioides	desert star	99
25	Aster	Pectis papposa var. papposa	chinch-weed	3
26	Aster	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy	99
27	Aster	Pleurocoronis pluriseta	arrow-leaf	99
28	Aster	Porophyllum gracile	odora	3
29	Aster	Rafinesquia neomexicana	desert chicory	5
30	Aster	Senecio mohavensis	Mojave ragwort	99
31	Aster	Stephanomeria exigua ssp. exigua	slender wreathplant	10
32	Aster	Stephanomeria pauciflora	wire-lettuce	99
33	Aster	Trixis californica var. californica	California trixis	20
34	Aster	Uropappus lindleyi	silver puffs	1
35	Bigno	Chilopsis linearis ssp. arcuata	desert-willow	2
36	Borag	Amsinckia intermedia	common fiddleneck	2
37	Borag	Cryptantha angustifolia	narrow-leaved cryptantha	30
38	Borag	Cryptantha barbigera var. barbigera	bearded cryptantha	99
39	Borag	Cryptantha decipiens	gravel cryptantha	5
40	Borag	Cryptantha maritima	Guadalupe cryptantha	99
41	Borag	Cryptantha pterocarya	wing-nut cryptantha	20
42	Borag	Cryptantha racemosa	bushy cryptantha	6
43	Borag	Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora	whispering bells	99
44	Borag	Pectocarya platycarpa	broad-fruited combseed	10
45	Borag	Pectocarya recurvata	curvenut combseed	50
46	Borag	Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora	little-flowered heliotrope phacelia	5
47	Borag	Phacelia distans	common phacelia	99
48	Borag	Phacelia pedicellata	pedicellate phacelia	15
49	Brass	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	99
50	Brass	Caulanthus cooperi	Cooper's jewel-flower	15
51	Brass	Caulanthus lasiophyllus	California mustard	5
52	Brass	Descurainia pinnata ssp. glabra	smooth western tansy-mustard	99
53	Brass	Dithyrea californica	spectacle-pod	3
54	Brass	Draba cuneifolia	wedge-leaved draba	10
55	Brass	Lepidium lasiocarpum ssp. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass	99
56	Brass	Lyrocarpa coulteri	Coulter's lyrepod	99
57	Brass	Sisymbrium irio	*London rocket	15
58	Cacta	Cylindropuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla	99
59	Cacta	Cylindropuntia ganderi	Gander's cholla	99
60	Cacta	Cylindropuntia ramosissima	pencil cholla	20
61	Cacta	Echinocereus engelmannii	Engelmann's hedgehog cactus	10
62	Cacta	Ferocactus cylindraceus	California barrel cactus	99
63	Cacta	Mammillaria dioica	California fish-hook cactus	30
64	Cacta	Mammillaria tetrancistra	fish-hook cactus	1
65	Cacta	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	50
66	Campa	Nemacladus glanduliferus	glandular nemacladus	99
67	Crass	Dudleya arizonica	Arizona chalk dudleya	15
68	Eupho	Bernardia incana	western bernardia	1
69	Eupho	Chamaesyce melanadenia	red-gland spurge	1
70	Eupho	Chamaesyce micromera	Sonoran spurge	20
71	Eupho	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	99
72	Eupho	Chamaesyce setiloba	starfish (Yuma) spurge	99
73	Eupho	Ditaxis lanceolata	narrowleaf ditaxis	99
74	Eupho	Euphorbia eriantha	beetle spurge	7
75	Eupho	Stillingia linearifolia	linear-leaved stillingia	3
76	Fabac	Acmispon maritimus var. brevivexillus	short-bannered coastal lotus	1
77	Fabac	Acmispon rigidus	desert lotus	4
78	Fabac	Acmispon strigosus	strigose lotus	25
79	Fabac	Astragalus palmeri	Palmer's milk-vetch	1
80	Fabac	Lupinus arizonicus	Arizona lupine	99
81	Fabac	Lupinus concinnus	bajada lupine	1
82	Fabac	Marina parryi	Parry's marina	2
83	Fabac	Olneya tesota	ironwood	99
84	Fabac	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	99
85	Fabac	Psorothamnus spinosus	smoke tree	99
86	Fabac	Senegalia greggii	catclaw	99
87	Fouqu	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	99
88	Geran	Erodium cicutarium	*redstem filaree	99
89	Geran	Erodium texanum	Texas filaree	35
90	Krame	Krameria bicolor	white rhatany	70
91	Lamia	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	99
92	Lamia	Salvia columbariae	chia	50
93	Lamia	Salvia vaseyi	Vasey's sage	20
94	Loasa	Mentzelia affinis	yellow blazing star	1
95	Loasa	Mentzelia involucrata	bracted blazing star	1
96	Loasa	Petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi	Thurber's sandpaper-plant	1
97	Malva	Ayenia compacta	ayenia	48
98	Malva	Eremalche rotundifolia	desert five-spot	1
99	Malva	Hibiscus denudatus	rock hibiscus	20
100	Malva	Sphaeralcea ambigua var. ambigua	apricot mallow	30
101	Mollu	Mollugo cerviana	*carpet-weed	25
102	Nycta	Allionia incarnata var. incarnata	trailing four o'clock	4
103	Nycta	Boerhavia coccinea	scarlet spiderling	99
104	Nycta	Boerhavia triquetra var. intermedia	fivewing spiderling	99
105	Nycta	Mirabilis laevis var. retrorsa	Bigelow's desert four-o'clock	99
106	Onagr	Chylismia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla	heartleaf suncup	15
107	Onagr	Chylismia claviformis ssp. peirsonii	brown-eyed primrose	99
108	Onagr	Eremothera refracta	narrow-leaf suncup	99
109	Onagr	Eulobus californicus	California suncup	30
110	Oroba	Orobanche cooperi	Cooper's broom-rape	1?
111	Papav	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora	small-flowered poppy	99
112	Papav	Eschscholzia parishii	Parish's poppy	99
113	Phrym	Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's monkeyflower	99
114	Plant	Mohavea confertiflora	ghost flower	99
115	Plant	Penstemon clevelandii var. clevelandii	Cleveland's beardtongue	1
116	Plant	Plantago ovata	desert plantain	30
117	Polem	Aliciella latifolia ssp. latifolia	broad-leaf gilia	10
118	Polem	Eriastrum eremicum ssp. eremicum	desert woolly-star	10
119	Polem	Gilia stellata	star gilia	20
120	Polyg	Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	brittle spineflower	20
121	Polyg	Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium	California buckwheat	20
122	Polyg	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	50
123	Polyg	Eriogonum plumatella	yucca buckwheat	10
124	Polyg	Eriogonum thomasii	Thomas' buckwheat	99
125	Polyg	Eriogonum wrightii var. nodosum	Wright's buckwheat	50
126	Polyg	Pterostegia drymarioides	threadstem	5
127	Rosac	Prunus fremontii	desert apricot	10
128	Rubia	Galium stellatum	star-flowered bedstraw	20
129	Rutac	Thamnosma montana	turpentine broom	4
130	Simmo	Simmondsia chinensis	jojoba	20
131	Solan	Lycium andersonii	Anderson's desert-thorn	12
132	Solan	Lycium cooperi	Cooper's box-thorn	15
133	Solan	Nicotiana obtusifolia	desert tobacco	5
134	Solan	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry	5
135	Urtic	Parietaria hespera var. hespera	pellitory	99
136	Visca	Phoradendron californicum	desert mistletoe	99
137	Zygop	Fagonia laevis	California fagonia	1
138	Zygop	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	99
Monocots
139	Agava	Agave deserti var. deserti	desert agave	99
140	Agava	Yucca schidigera	Mohave yucca	5
141	Poace	Aristida adscensionis	six-weeks three-awn	99
142	Poace	Aristida purpurea	purple three-awn	15
143	Poace	Bouteloua aristidoides var. aristidoides	needle grama	99
144	Poace	Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens	*red brome	99
145	Poace	Dasyochloa pulchella	fluff grass	2
146	Poace	Festuca bromoides	*brome fescue	50
147	Poace	Hilaria rigida	big galleta	30
148	Poace	Melica frutescens	tall melica	3
149	Poace	Muhlenbergia microsperma	littleseed muhly	10
150	Poace	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus	99

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We thank Shaun Hawke for help with part of the 23 January 2011 survey, and Anthony Ferrari for help with the 18 March 2011 survey.

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

Go to:

• Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras