Flora of Little Surprise Canyon

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Introduction
Checklist

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Introduction

This checklist is a start at a flora of Little Surprise Canyon, a very small canyon south of the Hellhole Canyon parking lot just west of Borrego Springs.

The flora has been made from only two full days of fieldwork in a single year, on 16 January 2008 and 1 April 2008, and a few hours of fieldwork on 2 March 2009. Fortunately, 1 April 2008 was in prime time, when most of the annuals and perennials were in bloom and could be reliably identified. Nonetheless, this flora is undoubtedly incomplete for three reasons. First, it takes significantly more days of fieldwork to expect a high degree of completeness. Second, some annuals are only seen in some years, and hence might have never germinated in early 2008. Third, there are no online vouchers from this canyon at all.

The name Surprise Canyon is ambiguous, since it is used for several locations. The main use is for a canyon in the Mountain Palm Springs drainage. It is also an alternate name for Flat Cat Canyon immediately north of Hellhole Canyon.

There is very little mention of Little Surprise Canyon online or in reference books. The name is given on the display board in the Hellhole Canyon parking lot. The Canyon is mentioned, as Surprise Canyon, in Lindsay 2001, Anza-Borrego A to Z. However, it is not mentioned in Schad (1998) or Lindsay and Lindsay (2002). Fortunately, the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association has a nice page on it, mentioning it as a nice wildflower location.

The name of Little Surprise Canyon comes from Mark Jorgensen: It is a surprise during good wildflower seasons and holds many species in its shady confines (quoted in Lindsay 2001).

The location of Little Surprise Canyon is shown in the following Google Map, which can interactively be zoomed or panned:

View Larger Map

In the Google map on the left, the Hellhole Canyon Parking lot is the dirt area in the upper part of the map just left of center. Little Surprise Canyon extends south from the parking lot. The west branch of Little Surprise Canyon extends south from the middle of the map. The east branch, which consists of two forks, extends from the center of the map to Highway S22 on the right of the map. Click on the plus or minus symbol at upper left to change the scale of the map.

The map on the right shows the survey path on 16 January 2008, much of which was resurveyed on 1 April 2008. East Canyon was surveyed on 26 February 2008, and no new species were found. Highway S22, Montezuma Valley Road, is offset slightly so that our survey route along the road can be seen.

There are no vouchers from this canyon that we know of. Hence the checklist consists entirely of our observations.

Although this canyon is small, it has considerable appeal. It is a beautiful little canyon, with steep (albeit short) walls rising quickly above you which makes it very scenic. It is indeed a good wildflower location, since there was good annual growth in 2008, which was a fairly-low-desert-rainfall year. The favorable environment is due to decent rainfall in this west-side desert location, good concentration of that rainfall along the bottom by the walls of the canyon without too much runoff, and an abundance of niches in which plants can grow.

See also Botanical Trip Report from 16 January 2008.

The following photograph shows the view from near the top of the west branch of Little Surprise Canyon looking north down into the west branch:

Toro Peak is the highest peak on the left in the farthest ridge, and is due north in this photograph. The intermediate ridge that is the highest-appearing feature on the left leads to Indian Head to the left of the pictured area. Borrego Palm Canyon, the Visitor Center, and the Campground are out of sight to the left in front of Indian Head. The closest prominent buildings are the Administrative Headquarters for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Checklist for Little Surprise 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 Jepson Manual. An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.

A rough estimate of the number of plants, and the number of locations for each species, is given in the last two columns. Maximum values are 99 plants, and 9 locations. The main intent of this column is to indicate the species for which we found very few plants or locations.

Version for printing, without lines and other text on this page: html (4 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (2 double-sided pages). (See printing instructions for an explanation of these options)

#	Family	Scientific Name	(*)Common Name	# Plants # Locations	GPS #
1	Pteridaceae	Cheilanthes parryi	woolly lipfern	30/5	65
2	Acanthaceae	Carlowrightia arizonica	Arizona carlowrightia	3/2	70
3	Acanthaceae	Justicia californica	chuparosa	50/9	58
4	Asteraceae	Adenophyllum porophylloides	San Felipe dogweed	1/1	80
5	Asteraceae	Ambrosia dumosa	burroweed	50/9	8
6	Asteraceae	Bebbia juncea var. aspera	sweetbush	20/9	63
7	Asteraceae	Calycoseris wrightii	white tackstem	20/9	9
8	Asteraceae	Chaenactis carphoclinia var. carphoclinia	pebble pincushion	99/9	9
9	Asteraceae	Chaenactis fremontii	Fremont pincushion	99/9	8
10	Asteraceae	Encelia farinosa	brittlebush	40/9	8
11	Asteraceae	Hymenoclea salsola var. salsola	cheesebush	20/5	8
12	Asteraceae	Malacothrix glabrata	desert dandelion	20/5	8
13	Asteraceae	Monoptilon bellioides	desert star	10/3	8
14	Asteraceae	Perityle emoryi	Emory's rock-daisy	50/9	58
15	Asteraceae	Rafinesquia neomexicana	desert chicory	30/9	9
16	Asteraceae	Senecio mohavensis	Mojave ragwort	30/9	68
17	Asteraceae	Stephanomeria pauciflora var. pauciflora	wire-lettuce	5/3	8
18	Asteraceae	Trichoptilium incisum	yellow-head	10/1	89
19	Asteraceae	Trixis californica var. californica	California trixis	5/3	85
20	Asteraceae	Uropappus lindleyi	silver puffs	2/1	73
21	Asteraceae	Viguiera parishii	Parish's viguiera	2/1	75
22	Boraginaceae	Amsinckia menziesii var. menziesii	small-flowered fiddleneck	10/1	8
23	Boraginaceae	Amsinckia tessellata var. tessellata	bristly fiddleneck	99/9	9
24	Boraginaceae	Cryptantha angustifolia	narrow-leaved cryptantha	99/9	8
25	Boraginaceae	Cryptantha barbigera	bearded cryptantha	20/9	8
26	Boraginaceae	Cryptantha maritima	Guadalupe cryptantha	99/9	57
27	Boraginaceae	Cryptantha pterocarya	wing-nut cryptantha	30/9	76
28	Boraginaceae	Pectocarya heterocarpa	chuckwalla pectocarya	20/1	8
29	Boraginaceae	Pectocarya recurvata	curvenut combseed	99/9	59
30	Brassicaceae	Brassica tournefortii	*Asian mustard	99/9	13
31	Brassicaceae	Descurainia pinnata ssp. glabra	smooth western tansy-mustard	20/1	87
32	Brassicaceae	Guillenia lasiophylla	California mustard	10/1	2
33	Brassicaceae	Lepidium lasiocarpum var. lasiocarpum	hairy-podded pepper-grass	50/9	9
34	Brassicaceae	Lyrocarpa coulteri var. palmeri	Coulter's lyrepod	1/1	43
35	Brassicaceae	Sisymbrium irio	*London rocket	5/2	79
36	Cactaceae	Echinocereus engelmannii	Engelmann's hedgehog cactus	1/1	34
37	Cactaceae	Ferocactus cylindraceus	California barrel cactus	20/9	66
38	Cactaceae	Mammillaria dioica	California fish-hook cactus	5/5	45
39	Cactaceae	Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris	beavertail cactus	5/5	27
40	Cactaceae	Opuntia bigelovii	teddy-bear cholla	1/1	8
41	Cactaceae	Opuntia ganderi	Gander's cholla	50/9	9
42	Campanulaceae	Nemacladus glanduliferus var. glanduliferus	glandular nemacladus	3/1	70
43	Chenopodiaceae	Chenopodium murale	*nettle-leaved goosefoot	2/1	92
44	Crassulaceae	Crassula connata	pygmy-weed	99/1	8
45	Cucurbitaceae	Cucurbita palmata	coyote melon	1/1	67
46	Euphorbiaceae	Chamaesyce polycarpa	small-seeded spurge	50/9	8
47	Euphorbiaceae	Ditaxis lanceolata	narrowleaf ditaxis	20/9	62
48	Fabaceae	Acacia greggii	catclaw	5/1	24
49	Fabaceae	Lotus salsuginosus var. brevivexillus	short-bannered coastal lotus	20/9	8
50	Fabaceae	Lupinus arizonicus	Arizona lupine	40/9	8
51	Fabaceae	Lupinus sparsiflorus	Coulter's lupine	5/1	4
52	Fabaceae	Psorothamnus schottii	indigo bush	20/9	8
53	Fouquieriaceae	Fouquieria splendens ssp. splendens	ocotillo	50/9	9
54	Geraniaceae	Erodium cicutarium	*redstem filaree	99/9	8
55	Geraniaceae	Erodium texanum	Texas filaree	5/1	1
56	Hydrophyllaceae	Emmenanthe penduliflora var. penduliflora	whispering bells	30/9	61
57	Hydrophyllaceae	Nama demissum var. demissum	purple mat	3/1	8
58	Hydrophyllaceae	Phacelia cicutaria var. hispida	caterpillar phacelia	10/3	75
59	Hydrophyllaceae	Phacelia crenulata var. minutiflora	little-flowered heliotrope phacelia	30/9	8
60	Hydrophyllaceae	Phacelia distans	common phacelia	99/9	8
61	Hydrophyllaceae	Phacelia pedicellata	pedicellate phacelia	10/1	82.5
62	Krameriaceae	Krameria erecta	Pima rhatany	15/5	60
63	Krameriaceae	Krameria grayi	white rhatany	15/5	83
64	Lamiaceae	Hyptis emoryi	desert-lavender	20/9	8
65	Lamiaceae	Salvia vaseyi	Vasey's sage	2/1	75
66	Loasaceae	Mentzelia affinis	yellow blazing star	20/5	5
67	Loasaceae	Mentzelia involucrata	bracted blazing star	20/9	8
68	Malvaceae	Hibiscus denudatus	rock hibiscus	10/5	71
69	Nyctaginaceae	Mirabilis bigelovii var. retrorsa	wishbone plant	5/5	64
70	Onagraceae	Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata	Booth's evening primrose	20/9	9
71	Onagraceae	Camissonia californica	California suncup	99/9	8
72	Onagraceae	Camissonia cardiophylla ssp. cardiophylla	heartleaf sun-cup	20/3	78
73	Papaveraceae	Eschscholzia minutiflora ssp. minutiflora	small-flowered poppy	40/9	9
74	Papaveraceae	Eschscholzia parishii	Parish's poppy	99/9	58
75	Plantaginaceae	Plantago ovata	desert plantain	99/9	9
76	Polemoniaceae	Eriastrum eremicum ssp. eremicum	desert woolly-star	30/9	8
77	Polemoniaceae	Gilia stellata	star gilia	50/9	59
78	Polemoniaceae	Langloisia setosissima ssp. setosissima	bristly langloisia	99/9	57
79	Polemoniaceae	Loeseliastrum matthewsii	desert calico	20/1	7
80	Polygonaceae	Chorizanthe brevicornu var. brevicornu	brittle spineflower	40/9	8
81	Polygonaceae	Eriogonum inflatum	desert trumpet	30/9	8
82	Polygonaceae	Eriogonum thomasii	Thomas' buckwheat	50/9	8
83	Polygonaceae	Pterostegia drymarioides	threadstem	1/1	75
84	Scrophulariaceae	Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii	Bigelow's monkeyflower	5/2	74
85	Scrophulariaceae	Mohavea confertiflora	ghost flower	10/2	77
86	Simmondsiaceae	Simmondsia chinensis	jojoba	5/2	90
87	Solanaceae	Nicotiana obtusifolia	desert tobacco	1/1	81
88	Solanaceae	Physalis crassifolia	thick-leaved ground cherry	1/1	72
89	Sterculiaceae	Ayenia compacta	ayenia	2/1	86
90	Urticaceae	Parietaria hespera var. hespera	pellitory	30/9	65
91	Zygophyllaceae	Fagonia laevis	California fagonia	50/9	58
92	Zygophyllaceae	Larrea tridentata	creosote bush	99/9	9
93	Liliaceae	Agave deserti	desert agave	10/2	51
94	Liliaceae	Dichelostemma capitatum ssp. capitatum	blue dicks	1/1	59
95	Poaceae	Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens	*red brome	30/9	65
96	Poaceae	Pleuraphis rigida	big galleta	3/1	91
97	Poaceae	Schismus barbatus	*Mediterranean schismus	99/9	8
98	Poaceae	Vulpia myuros?	*rattail fescue?	20/1	30

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• Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras