Flora of Smoke Tree and Coachwhip Canyons
Introduction This checklist is a start at a flora of Smoke Tree and Coachwhip Canyons. It was made from field surveys, iNaturalist observations, and vouchers.
The field surveys include:
- a survey of Smoke Tree Canyon on 26 February 2008 by Wayne Armstrong and Tom Chester.
- the addition of a few species from the junction of Smoke Tree Canyon with S22 on 2 April 2010 by Tom Chester and James Dillane.
- a survey of Smoke Tree Canyon on 2 March 2017 by Nancy Accola, Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, Carla Hoegen, and Fred Melgert.
- a survey of Smoke Tree Canyon on 10 February 2019 by Carla Hoegen and Fred Melgert.
- a survey of Smoke Tree Canyon on 18 February 2019 by Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, Kate Harper, and Joe Woods.
- a survey of Smoke Tree Canyon on 23 February 2019 by Nancy Accola, Tom Chester, Don Rideout, Walt Fidler, Kate Harper, Ann Howald, and Joe Woods.
- a survey of Coachwhip Canyon on 28 November 2008 by Tom Chester, James Dillane and Bill Sullivan.
- a survey of Coachwhip Canyon on 24 February 2009 by Tom Chester, Mike Crouse and Dave Stith.
The Smoke Tree / Coachwhip Canyon area is delineated by the red rectangle in the following map:
The rest of this text has not been updated since 1 December 2008, except for the checklist.
The route surveyed on 26 February 2008 is shown in red on the following map; the route surveyed on 28 November 2008 is shown in green:
There is a fairly large area for parking along either side of the road at mile marker 34.5 on S22 for Smoke Tree Canyon, and at mile marker 34.8 for Coachwhip Canyon.
Smoke Tree Canyon Survey
The survey on 26 February 2008 covered 2.2 miles from elevation 920 feet to 1560 feet, and thus did not cover the full extent of the Canyon to the natural rock tanks shown in the above map.
The survey found 80 taxa that could be fairly-confidently identified, given in the checklist below, along with five other species that could not yet be fully identified. Those species were: an unknown grass perhaps developing an inflorescence like Achnatherum; a suncup with no basal rosette; a Boerhavia species with a mostly terminal inflorescence with short peduncles; and two Ephedra species, one possibly similar to E. viridis and the other possibly similar to E. fasciculata var. clokeyi.
The locations of (generally) the first occurrence of all 85 taxa are shown in the plot below:
Some taxa were found at the same location, especially near the beginning of the survey, so there are fewer than 85 points plotted above.
Usually, most of the taxa in any survey are found near the starting point, but the above plot shows that we continued to encounter significant numbers of new species going up the canyon.
Coachwhip Canyon Survey
The survey on 28 November 2008 covered 2.8 miles from elevation 910 feet to 1400 feet.
The survey found 53 taxa that could be fairly-confidently identified, given in the checklist below, along with five other species that could not yet be fully identified. Those species were: two different Cryptantha species, at least one of which was very abundant; a perennial small grass; an abundant dead annual with broad basal leaves and capsule fruit; and an unknown very abundant dead Asteraceae annual.
Note that the Coachwhip Canyon Survey is very incomplete for annuals and perennials, since it was done in late November.
Additional Taxa in the Checklist
Checklist for Smoke Tree Canyon See:
- Notes on the Scientific Names Used At This Site and
- Information about the order in which the species are presented, and the links from the Scientific Name and Common Name.
An asterisk before the common name indicates a non-native species.
The column with label BW links to the photo gallery page for each species at Fred Melgert and Carla Hoegen's BorregoWildflowers site.
The last two columns give the minimum number of plants observed in the sum of all field surveys, up to a maximum number of 99, for each canyon; CW for Coachwhip and ST for Smoke Tree. A V in this column indicates a species vouchered from that canyon but which we have not yet observed. An iNat in this column indicates a species with an iNaturalist observation, which has no abundance recorded for it.
This version of the checklist also includes additional species observed in the Truckhaven Rocks area. Those species have no entry in either of the last two columns.
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)
Version for printing for just Coachwhip Canyon: html (4 pages) or pdf Clickbook booklet (1 double-sided page).
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Copyright © 2008-2019 by Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, Carla Hoegen, Fred Melgert, Nancy Accola, Kate Harper, Joe Woods, Wayne Armstrong, Mike Crouse, James Dillane, Don Rideout, Dave Stith, Ann Howald, and Bill Sullivan
Permission is freely granted to reproduce any or all of this page as long as credit is given to us at this source:
http://tchester.org/sd/plants/floras/smoke_tree_canyon.html
Comments and feedback: Tom Chester
Last update: 12 March 2019