Flora of Hall Canyon, San Jacinto Mountains
Introduction
Procedure For Compiling The Checklist
Species Checklist
Notes on Some Species
Fig. 1. Topo map showing the drainage basin of Hall Canyon. Essentially all the records in this flora come from the lower part of Hall Canyon. Most of those are probably within the area roughly outlined in red. Click on the map for a version without the red lines.
Introduction Hall Canyon is a southwest-draining canyon on the west side of the San Jacinto Mountains, on the southwest slopes of Black Mountain (Fig. 1; Google Map). It is best known for Lake Fulmor, a reservoir created by the damming of Indian Creek from the construction of Highway 243 (SR243), and for the UC James San Jacinto Mountain Reserve located just above Lake Fulmor.
Lake Fulmor is 6.8 miles north of Pine Cove on SR243, and 15.0 miles south of the SR243 exit on I-10. Hall Canyon is the upper part of the drainage of Indian Creek, beginning above SR243.
The canyon is named for Colonel Milton Sanders Hall, who constructed a wagon road from Hall City, near today's Cabazon, to what is called Lake Fulmor today, but was called "Little Strawberry Valley" in 1879. The purpose of the road was to log the timber in the upper reaches of Indian Creek, with a lumber camp at today's Lake Fulmor (Robinson and Risher, The San Jacintos, pp. 145, 149).
Hall's road was superceded by the Banning - Idyllwild Highway, surveyed by Alex C. Fulmor in 1933 and 1934, dedicated in 1950. The reservoir was created in 1948 by building the highway across Hall Canyon, rather than contouring into the canyon as the previous road did, and named for him (Robinson and Risher, pp. 150-151, 153).
The James Reserve was established in 1966, after Harry and Grace James sold their Trailfinders Camp (see Fig. 1) property to the University of California to become part of their newly-established Natural Reserve System. The James Reserve is one of the best known and most used of the UC Reserves. Many scientists fondly remember their time here.
Although the James Reserve itself is only 29 acres, it is surrounded by the 667 acre Hall Canyon Research Natural Area, which encompasses most of the rest of Hall Canyon above Lake Fulmor. See the General Technical Report Chapter for this RNA (pdf file), and a vegetation map and physical map of the Reserve
Procedure For Compiling The Checklist The basis for this checklist was the excellent Hall Canyon Annotated Floristic List compiled by Ken Berg in August 1982. That list covered the entire Hall Canyon drainage including Lake Fulmor, and was "compiled from previous lists and data gathered by reserve staff, visiting researchers and instructors, and other reserve users". The most active contributors to that list were Oscar Clarke, Mildred Mathias, Frank Vasek, Andrew Sanders, and Ken Berg.
Berg's List also included informative sections on the physiography, climate, vegetation, and floristics of the area.
Berg's list contained 230 taxa (one more than the 229 taxa in the summary table). After updating the names to the 2012 Jepson Manual Second Edition, the list contained 228 taxa, with the deletions caused by combining the three former varieties of Festuca microstachys into just the species name.
Four of the species listed in Berg are not likely to be in Hall Canyon, and so were deleted from the checklist presented here. Two additional species listed in Berg were misdeterminations, and their names have been replaced with the probable correct determination. Two of the Chenopodium species in Berg probably are a single species with a different name. See Notes on Species Removed or Redetermined from Berg 1982 for information on these nine species.
A few other species are possible misdeterminations, but their occurrence here is not strongly ruled out, and hence remain in the Checklist. Those species are marked with a note in the "ID?" column, and discussed below the Checklist.
This checklist thus contains 221 taxa originally present in Berg's list. The high percentage of surviving taxa is a testimony to the high quality of Berg's list.
The checklist presented here was augmented by field surveys in Hall Canyon on conducted by the authors and colleagues, especially of the Nature Trail, on at least eight separate days, including one at Lake Fulmor. A total of 152 taxa were found in those surveys, of which one species (Cerastium glomeratum) has only a tentative determination.
Vouchers were searched on 2 October 2020 for ones with a locality of "Hall Canyon" or "James Reserve". The localities of all those vouchers were reviewed, and ones not clearly in Hall Canyon were tossed. The determinations of those vouchers were reviewed, and a small number were tossed as being likely misdetermination. Those possible misdeterminations are discussed in Notes on Rejected Vouchered Species. Since no search was made for vouchers that only had a locality of "Lake Fulmor", this flora might be somewhat incomplete for Lake Fulmor-only species.
This procedure left a total of 215 species from vouchers.
The James Reserve created an updated species list in 2007, with 9 additional taxa, and then a printed brochure in 2007, with 3 additional taxa, for a total of 12 additions. Some of those additions were rejected as being implausible; see Notes on Species Removed from later James Reserve Checklists.
iNaturalist was searched for possible additions to the list on 1 October 2020. This was an incomplete search, since so many observations were not determined to the species. One additional species was found, Pentagramma triangularis.
The checklist presented here, from the combination of the six sources, contains a total of 305 taxa, 221 (72%) from Berg's list; 216 (71%) from vouchers; 152 (50%) from field surveys; 12 (4%) from James Reserve 2007 additions; and 1 from iNaturalist.
Species Checklist Basic information about the checklist presentation and links:
- Notes on the Scientific Names Used At This Site and
- Information about the links from the Scientific Name and Common Name.
An asterisk before the Common Name indicates a non-native taxon.
The species checklist has a number of columns giving information about each taxon. The most important is the column with header ID?, indicating that the species might not be correctly determined. Notes on those species are given in the next section.
The column with header #V gives the number of vouchers for each taxon in Hall Canyon, up to a maximum of nine vouchers.
The column with header Abnd gives the abundance noted in Berg 1982, as follows: cmn = common; uncm = uncommon; rare. This column also serves to note those species originally reported in Berg 1982.
The column with header LF indicates if a taxon is only found at Lake Fulmor or in the immediately-surrounding area.
The last two columns, with headers 4S and NT, indicate whether a taxon was observed on the Four Saints Trail or James Reserve Nature Trail. If a number is given in those columns, it is a minimum estimate of the number of plants seen in the area of each trail, up to a maximum of 99 plants. An x in these columns indicate a taxon was observed, but no abundance estimate was made. One species, Pentagramma triangularis, has "iN" in the 4S column, indicating it has an observation at iNaturalist, and was not seen by us on that trail.
Version for printing, without 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)
Notes on Some Species Notes are first given for the species marked in the Checklist with an entry in the "ID?" column, with the species given in alphabetical order by scientific name. Those species are followed by notes on other species in the Checklist; then species removed or redetermined from the Berg 1982 list, and then by notes on vouchered species whose determination was rejected.
Species in the Checklist with an entry in the "ID?" column
Artemisia ludoviciana ssp. ludoviciana. This taxon is only from Berg 1982, despite it being given as "common". The usual subspecies encountered in the San Jacinto Mountains is ssp. incompta, with deeply-lobed leaves. Subspecies ludoviciana has entire to toothed or shallowly-lobed leaves.
Bromus carinatus var. carinatus. The separation between var. carinatus and var. marginatus is less than clear in the San Jacinto Mountains. The Jepson Manual key to separate them is the lemma awn length longer or shorter than 7 mm. Most of our plants have an awn length of exactly 7 mm. The two varieties were combined into var. carinatus in the first edition of the Jepson Manual, but separated again in the second edition.
Camissoniopsis intermedia. This species is very close to C. confusa, which is by far our dominant Camissoniopsis species in the San Jacinto Mountains. C. intermedia is more of a coastal species. However, a small number of vouchers in the San Jacinto Mountains have been determined as C. intermedia, so it is possible it exists here, but should be checked. The main difference is that C. confusa is mostly a grayish plant, and C. intermedia is mostly not grayish. C. intermedia also has smaller flowers.
Carex microptera. This species is very similar to C. abrupta, which is the only one of these two species vouchered in the San Jacinto Mountains. C. microptera was an addition in the 2007 James Reserve Plant, where it was noted as "rare", with no specific known location for it.
Cerastium glomeratum. A patch of finished plants that probably was this species was observed near the beginning of the Nature Trail on 6 July 2016, but the plants were too far gone to be positively identified in the field.
Chenopodium atrovirens, C. incognitum = C. hians, C. pratericola. These three species are very similar, with C. atrovirens distinguished from the other two by "Leaf blade length to 3 x width" for it, and "Leaf blade length 3 to many x width" for the other two. C. atrovirens is common in the San Jacinto Mountains, and is the likely determination of the plants here since it sometimes has some leaves slightly longer than 3 x width. It turned out that the type specimen of C. incognitum was indistinguishable from C. hians, so the name C. incognitum is no longer in use.
Cornus nuttallii. This is a very showy species, when in bloom, that is very rare in the San Jacinto Mountains. It has not been vouchered in Hall Canyon, nor was it present in Berg 1982. The source of this entry in the checklist was the printed brochure of the James Reserve plant list from March 2007. It is possible this is a misdetermination of Cornus sericea ssp. occidentalis, which also was not in Berg 1982, but which has three vouchers from the Lake Fulmor area. The voucher of C. sericea by Sanders notes "reportedly introduced to this site from elsewhere in the San Jacinto Mtns. by Harry James".
Frangula californica ssp. cuspidata. The Frangula subspecies are rarely found in pure form. In the San Jacinto Mountains, plants corresponding to ssp. cuspidata are frequently found growing with plants corresponding to ssp. californica. Vouchers in Hall Canyon are evenly divided between the two subspecies. We have arbitrarily decided to continue with ssp. cuspidata on this list, since that is the subspecies used in the 2007 James Reserve Plant list.
Rumex salicifolius. The usual species at the elevation of Hall Canyon is R. californicus, which used to be known as R. salicifolius var. denticulatus. Although three of the four vouchers from Hall Canyon explicitly say var. salicifolius, we think that is unlikely to be the case. In the San Jacinto Mountains, var. salicifolius is a higher-elevation taxon.
Tragopogon porrifolius. This taxon is only from Berg 1982, and is listed as "uncommon". This species is not otherwise known to occur in the San Jacinto Mountains. We suspect this entry was a misdetermined T. dubius, which unfortunately is fairly common in the San Jacinto Mountains. These two species are distinguished by the color of their flowers, purple for T. porrifolius and pale yellow for T. dubius.
Trichostema lanatum. The usual high-elevation species is T. parishii, with T. lanatum mostly below 2000 feet elevation. But there are vouchers of T. lanatum not terribly far away from Hall Canyon, so we have left this determination in the Checklist. These two species require detailed measurements to separate them. The key to distinguish these two species is corolla tube 4 to 7 mm for T. parishii and 9 to 14 mm for T. lanatum.
Notes on other Species in the Checklist
Pinus jeffreyi, P. ponderosa. All the yellow pines in lower Hall Canyon in the vicinity of the Creek appear to be P. ponderosa. P. jeffreyi is almost surely the dominant yellow pine in upper Hall Canyon, and perhaps is also found on the ridgelines bounding Hall Canyon. See Pinus jeffreyi and P. ponderosa var. pacifica.
Notes on Species Removed or Redetermined from Berg 1982
Carex nebrascensis, C. senta. These two species are often confused, but in the San Jacinto Mountains, the difference is striking. C. nebrascensis is a much shorter plant, is glaucous, and grows in bogs at higher elevation. Of these two, Berg 1982 listed on C. nebrascensis, and said it was common in Hall Canyon. C. senta is the only one of these two species present in Hall Canyon, and it is indeed common. Hence we have replaced Berg's C. nebrascensis with C. senta, and not accepted it in subsequent James Reserve lists that listed both species.
Ceanothus integerrimus. C. integerrimus is so close to C. palmeri that determinations of some vouchers have gone back and forth over the years. The key to separate them is whether the leaves are 3-ribbed from base (C. integgerimus var. macrothyrsus), or generally 1-ribbed from base (C. palmeri). The problem is that C. palmeri has leaves that are "1 or ± 3 ribbed from base". Most of the plants in the San Jacinto Mountains are indeed 1 ribbed from base, and most of the vouchers from here are now determined as C. palmeri. It is highly doubtful that we have both species present in the San Jacinto Mountains, but it is apparently difficult to be absolutely sure.
Eriogonum wrightii ssp. subscaposum. For at least eleven years, Tom has been concerned by how different many of the plants he has called var. subscaposum in the San Jacinto Mountains are from the subscaposum plants in the San Gabriel Mountains. In the past, Tom used the Jepson Manual key to call matted plants var. "subscaposum", and non-matted plants var. "membranaceum":
74. Herb, loosely to compactly matted ==> var. subscaposum
74' Shrub or subshrub ==> var. membranaceum
The ones that bothered Tom were the "loosely compacted" ones in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Alas, this still seemed problematic since there are five matted plants on the top of Suicide Rock, surrounded by many not-so-matted plants. Tom remembers puzzling over those until he finally decided that those matted plants had to be forms of membranaceum, since they appeared to be just the end of a gradient in matted-ness. It appeared how matted a plant was depends on elevation and perhaps exposure, with the stems growing shorter at higher elevation in exposed places.
Fortunately, Tom finally learned that there was an easy killer discriminant between the two varieties: whether the leaf bases ring the stem or not, which is the basis for the common name of "ringstem" for var. membranaceum. James Reveal, in the Flora of North American treatment of var. membranaceum, wrote:
The ring-like petiole bases that surround the node are distinctive, being seen otherwise only in some of the perennial species of Chorizanthe in Chile.Don Rideout has a great iNaturalist pix from SR74 in Garner Valley that clearly shows the "ringstem" since the leaves along the stem have turned brown, along with their bases. Click on the second pix there, and then click on it again to expand it to see those brown rings along the stem.
With that killer distinction, it appears that in the San Jacinto Mountains, the true subscaposum is a tightly-matted plant, found only in at most four places, all ridgelines: Fuller Ridge, upper Tahquitz Ridge, Hidden Divide Ridge, and possibly the Skyline Trail.
Thus it is extremely unlikely that var. subscaposum exists in Hall Canyon, and we have deleted it from the flora.
Gilia sinuata, G. diegensis. The white variant of G. diegensis, which is quite common in southern California, is sometimes mistaken as being G. sinuata. G. sinuata has its stamens and style only reaching the base of its corolla lobes, whereas G. diegensis has its stamens and style reaching roughly to the middle of the corolla lobes. Mark Porter, the Jepson Manual author, kindly confirmed that G. sinuata is a transmontane (DMoj and edge DMoj) taxon, and is not found at SnJt.
Orobanche uniflora. This entry in Berg 1982 really puzzles us. As far as we know, there is only a single occurrence of O. uniflora in the San Jacinto Mountains, in Strawberry Gorge, parasitic on Sedum or Micranthes.
We can think of only two possibilities for the misdetermination:
- Our common similar Orobanche is O. fasciculata, which generally has 5 to 20 flowers per plant. O. uniflora has only one or two flowers per plant. Possibly someone observed an O. fasciculata plant with few flowers and called it O. uniflora. This has been known to happen in the past elsewhere.
- Someone observed an aborted Allium bud, which does resemble a bud or fruit of O. uniflora.
Trifolium cyathiferum. This species is listed as "uncommon" in Berk 1982, but it is not known to be in southern California. It appears next to T. microcephalum in the key, which is common in southern California. Perhaps this entry was a misdetermination of T. microcephalum, also in Berg 1982. Both species were listed as "uncommon" in Hall Canyon.
Notes on Species Removed from later James Reserve Checklists
Agoseris grandiflora. This is only from the 2007 online Flora of the James Reserve, and is most likely a misdetermination of A. retrorsa, which is common in the San Jacinto Mountains.
Delphinium parryi. Delphinium species are notoriously difficult to tell apart. From vouchers and our observations, it is highly likely that only D. patens is found in Hall Canyon; see Delphinium parryi, blue larkspur, and D. patens, spreading larkspur in the San Jacinto Mountains
Dudleya abramsii. This is only from the 2007 online Flora of the James Reserve. In the San Jacinto Mountains, this species is only known from the Garner Valley area in pebble plain type areas. It seems very unlikely to be present in Hall Canyon. It is possible this was a misdetermination of D. saxosa, which is our common Dudleya in the San Jacinto Mountains. However, there are no known locations of any Dudleya species anywhere near Hall Canyon, so we have left it off the checklist.
Lupinus excubitus var. hallii. This is from the 2017 James Reserve Vascular Plants Brochure, and is almost surely a misdetermination of var. austromontanus, the common variety in the San Jacinto Mountains. Variety hallii is a much taller plant that lives in chaparral. There is also a Thorne et al voucher of var. hallii from Hall Canyon, but it has a duplicate voucher determined as var. austromontanus.
Oenothera elata ssp. hookeri. This is only from the 2017 James Reserve Vascular Plants Brochure. The inland subspecies is ssp. hirsutissima. This is an easily-understood frequent misdetermination, since the common name is Hooker's Evening Primrose.
Notes on Rejected Vouchered Species
The scientific name is linked to the voucher for the species.
Carex deflexa var. boottii. This species is not known from the San Jacinto Mountains, and is quite close to C. rossii, which is common here. This voucher has two duplicates both determined as C. rossii: RSA0079909 and GH274462. The latter voucher has a note on the determination made by the Carex expert P.F. Zika in 2011, that it was "differing in peri nerves".
Epilobium canescens. We have no idea what species this refers to; the name is not present in the Jepson Interchange or in Calflora.
Gayophytum ramosissimum. The Jepson eFlora only gives this species as being well north of southern California. This species is very close to G. diffusum, which is found here.
Juncus macrophyllus. There is a lot of confusion among J. longistylis and J. macrophyllus, probably resulting from the omission of J. longistylis in Munz 1974 Flora of Southern California. Using Munz, our plants were called J. macrophyllus. The Jepson Manual separated those two species. J. macrophyllus in general has many more inflorescence clusters than J. longistylis. Perhaps because of the past confusion, the Jepson eflora explicitly states that J. macrophyllus is not found in the San jacinto Mountains.
Lupinus andersonii. There is a lot of confusion between L. andersonii and L. hyacinthinus, since they are extremely-similar species, with the key to distinguish them being just a difference of one mm in flower length separating the largest flower of L. andersonii and the smallest flower of L. hyacinthinus:
103. Flower 9–12 mm; NW, SNH, WTR, SnBr, SNE ..... L. andersonii103' Flower 13–16 mm; SnGb, SnBr, PR ..... L. hyacinthinus
Our plants in the San Jacinto Mountains are L. hyacinthinus, with somewhat larger flowers. Note that the key explicitly rules out SnJt for L. andersonii. In addition, our flower color is always purple, whereas the closest plants of L. andersonii, in SnBr, have white to yellow flowers.
Mimulus bigelovii var. bigelovii. This taxon is very close to M. fremontii. Our plants are all M. fremontii; M. bigelovii is a desert species whose nearest location to here is in the desert to the east of the San Jacinto Mountains. This voucher has a duplicate which is determined as M. fremontii.
Ranunculus eschscholtzii var. oxynotus. This is another unusual Thorne voucher. This species is an alpine species, only found in the San Jacinto Mountains in a snowy cave just below San Jacinto Peak. This voucher was from Lake Fulmor, where two Ranunculus species are vouchered, R. aquatilis and R. sceleratus.
Scutellaria antirrhinoides. This is another unusual Thorne voucher. S. antirrhinoides does not live anyplace close to southern California, being found north of San Francisco. The dupe of this voucher is determined as S. siphocampyloides, our common species here.
Spirodela polyrhiza. Although it is certainly possible this species is found at Lake Fulmor, we suspect this 1961 voucher is actually a misdetermined Lemna species. This genus is not known from the Transverse Range or Peninsular Range in southern California, and the duckweed expert Wayne Armstrong has collected at Lake Fulmor in 1985.
Trichostema oblongum. This species is only found north of southern California. This voucher is probably a misdetermined T. austromontanum, which is right next to it in the Jepson Manual key.
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Last update: 17 October 2020