This swallowtail was pollinating cardinal lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis pseudospectabalis) in a wetland along the Whitewater River, August 28 2015

Monkshood (Aconitum columbianum), photographed during a personal trip to the Golden Trout Wilderness in late August 2015

I will be transitioning to a Forest Service employee next week, and will continue the rewarding experience I’ve had as a CLM intern on the San Bernardino National Forest (SBNF) in southern California.  The SBNF is one of the nation’s “urban forests”, and is also incredibly diverse floristically.  I began my appointment as in intern working for our district botanist.  In January 2015, I was extended with funding from our Forest-wide restoration program, which is currently focused on restoring Forest lands damaged by Off-Highway Vehicles.

As a botanist, I’ve been excited about the opportunity to work in a region with such a unique and interesting flora.  Almost 2,000 plant taxa have been documented in the San Bernardino Mountains, which means that about 25% of the California flora occurs in this 1,061 square mile range.  Finding new occurrences of rare plants is always a bit of a rush, especially when those plants are federally threatened or endangered.  I’m especially proud of new finds of white bog adder’s mouth orchid (Malaxis monophyllos brachypoda), San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod (Physaria kingii bernardina), and Parish’s checkerbloom (Sidalcea hickmanii parishii).

The experience as an intern with our Forest-wide restoration program widened my focus immensely.  I realized that I had essentially no experience with plant propagation, and had fun learning my way around the greenhouse, researching propagation techniques, and keeping most things alive.  I began considering soils, hydrology, pollinators, plant physiology, and even sociology in ways that I hadn’t really thought about as a rare plant surveyor.  Restoration work involves more than the observation of plants and their habitats:  What soil treatments should we perform to repair compaction and control erosion?  How do we control OHV use in this area?  What native species are best suited to the site?  I also had the chance to help write grants, work with our Urban Conservation Corps, and manage our GIS database.

Many thanks to both my mentors for their guidance throughout my internship, and to CLM staff for their support.

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Dark red onion

Desert five spot

We spent three days in the Deep Creek area in mid-March with a 10 person Urban Conservation Corps crew, slashing and seeding unauthorized OHV trails.  The area is a challenging one to work in becuase it’s open, relatively remote, and not regularly patrolled.  Right now, we are focusing on “defensible” sites, where we can do work that won’t be moved or bypassed.

We’ve had several great volunteer events this month.  In partnership with the Southern California Mountains Foundation, SBNF restoration staff hosted a work day for a local community college ecology class at our Lytle Creek nursery.  Yesterday was our first yearly Green Thumbs volunteer day at the Mountaintop greenhouse, an event we host montly beginning in March.

I spent three (personal) days last week in the Newberry Mountians Wilderness, and am headed to the Orocopia Mountains as we speak.  There’s a lot blooming out in the desert right now, such as the charasmatic desert five spot (Erelmanche rotundifoila) and dark red onion (Allium a great time to go botanizing!

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Non-native Bermuda buttercup at Lytle Creek

Unauthorized OHV trails in the Deep Creek area

At the beginning of January, my internship at the San Bernardino National Forest shifted focus; I am now a part of our forest-wide restoration program.  I have been working in our greenhouse in Big Bear Lake and at our lower-elevation nursery at Lytle Creek, and I also have the opportunity to be more involved in the planning process.     

We are continuing work in the Deep Creek area, which involves restoring areas damaged by unauthorized OHV use.  As we encounter them, we are also mapping new sites and unauthorized trails that need to be restored.  The area is predominantly high-desert scrub; common species include Mojave buckwheat, holly-leaved cherry, chaparral yucca, Great Basin sagebrush, antelope bitterbrush, brittlebush (Encelia sp.), yerba santa, and cup leaf ceanothus.  Palmer’s oak is occasional and is always an interesting find.  Wildflower-wise, it looks like it will be a better spring than last year; lots of annuals are starting to pop up, including chia (Salvia colombiare), Phacelia species, Oenothera californica, Calochortus kennedyi kennedyi, and Leptosyne bigelovii.  Beaver Dam breadroot (Pediomelum castoreum), which I mentioned in a previous post as an exciting possibility in the area, is another one to be on the lookout for.

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

It has been a busy but fairly quiet month.  I’ve been inside entering data, doing herbarium work, and working on data cleaning projects.  It doesn’t make for facinating blogging, but it’s interesting work.  There’s a lot of troubleshooting involved, which I really enjoy.  It’s also a great sense of accomplishment to see all of this season’s new rare plant finds, weed mapping, and rare species monitoring get inputted into our database.     

I will be shifting focus in January in order to work for the restoration program.  In preparation for the change, I’ve been spending time with folks in the program.  Throughout the summer, I’ve helped out with the program here and there, working with volunteers on National Public Lands day and helping with planting projects.  However, there’s a lot left to learn.  I will be doing greenhouse work, working at restoration sites, and helping to write grants for following years’ restoration work. 

Pictured is Eriastrum sapphirinium, in flower on October 7 near Jenks Lake.   

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

A view of the San Bernardino Mountains, north from the lower slopes of the San Jacintos

Aphids on a pod of climbing milkweed (Funastrum cynanchoides hartwegii)

My field season wound down in mid-October, although many of our threatened, endangered, and sensitive plants are still detectable.  We got the first winter storm of the season on Halloween night; mostly rain, but a bit of snow and sleet at higher elevations. 

The photos in this post are from a (personal) backpacking trip I took down to the San Jacinto Mountains in mid-October.  I hiked the Pacific Crest Trail from the village of Snow Creek.  This section of trail has gorgeous views of the steep, forbidding north face of San Jacinto Mountain and is also an interesting passage through different vegetation types.  The trail begins on the desert floor, dominated by creosote bush (Larrea tridentata) and brittlebush (Encelia sp.), and winds up into montane conifer woodland (with white fir, Jeffrey pine, and Quercus species). 

I have been doing a lot of database work, entering the season’s finds into the Forest Service database.  Last week I helped our Restoration crew plant at one of our restoration sites.  I’ve also been spending time in the herbarium, processing collections from this season and seasons past.  The herbarium work has turned up some interesting collections from this field season, including an intriguing Nama species (more later, if it turns out to be something good).

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Parry’s alpinegold (Hulsea vestita parryi)

A late-blooming San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod (Physaria kingii subsp bernardina)

Rock loving oxytrope (Oxytropis oreophila var. oreophila). This species occurs in AZ and UT, but in California it’s known only from high elevations in the San Bernardinos. This picture was taken at a new population in southern California.

In my last blog post, I mentioned a potential new location of fringed chocolate chip lichen, Solorina spongiosa, which is rare in California.  Kerry Knudsen, a lichenologist and curator of the lichen herbarium at University of California Riverside, verified the specimen in September.  This is a new record of the species in the San Bernardino Mountains; the other known locations are in the Sierras.     

I’ve been continuing to monitor populations of T&E in areas around the Mountaintop Ranger District, and especially focusing on older occurrences.  San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod (Physaria kingii subsp. bernardina, pictured) is one species that I’ve been monitoring; it is federally endanged and grows on carbonate slopes around Bear Valley.  In mid-September, I spent a few days working with the Urban Conservation Corps in the Bighorn Mountains Wilderness; we surveyed the wilderness for recreation impacts and removed weeds.  The Bighorn Mountains Wilderness is a little-used and little-known wilderness, but it’s one of my favorites.  The view over the desert from the relatively inaccessible Granite Peaks is amazing.  Many of our plant species endemic to carbonate soils occur in areas of this Wilderness.    

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

cf Solorina spongiosa

San Bernardino grass of Parnassus (Parnassia cirrata var. cirrata, white flowers) on a rocky ledge on the Frontcountry RD

Dwarf checkerbloom (Sidalcea malviflora dolosa) in a meadow in the Santa Ana River valley

We conducted night surveys for arroyo toad at the Deep Creek hot springs in late August (my last blog post included a bit about this endangered toad).  The hot springs are good habitat for this species because the warm water excludes non-native trout, which feed on the toads.  A more lurid inhabitant of these hot springs is an ameba called Naegleria fowleri, which enters the human body through the nostrils and can cause a disease called primary amebic meningoencephalitis (PAM).  PAM caused by N. fowleri infection is rare; since 1962, there have been 134 reported cases in the US (CDC).  However, the survival rate from infection by N. fowleri is very low; of those 132 cases, three (2.3%) have survived.   The presence of this ameba doesn’t seem to deter the many people who soak in these hot springs.

One interesting find in the past few weeks was a possible location of Solorina spongiosa, “fringed chocolate chip lichen”.  This lichen has relatively large, brown, sunken apothecia (fruiting bodies), which are surrounded by a distinctive ring of green tissue.  It has a worldwide distribution, but is rare in California.

I’ve been continuing surveys in the Santa Ana River drainage, focusing on areas near roads and streams, and also monitoring older occurrences.  One showy inhabitant of meadows and streams in this area is Sidalcea malvaflora subsp. dolosa (pictured).  We finished the invasive plant guide and will print this fall.

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest

Woodland pinedrops (Pterospora andromedea), in flower in mid-July

Ash-gray Indian paintbrush (Castilleja cinerea), federally threatened

I’ve been surveying in the Santa Ana River Valley and along Sugarloaf Ridge, which is north of the valley.  Sugarloaf Mountain and the surrounding ridges contain extensive pebble plain habitat.  These open areas of clay soils are extremely harsh environments and are home to some unique plant species.  Rare species of the pebble plains include ash-gray Indian paintbrush (Castilleja cinerea, federally threatened), southern mountain buckwheat  (Eriogonum kennedyi var. austromontanum, federally threatened), Bear Valley sandwort (Eremogone ursina), and Parish’s rockcress (Boechera parishii, sensitive), among others.  As part of the same project, I’ve been working down in Barton Flats.  Barton Flats horkelia (Horkelia wilderae) is a species endemic to this area of the Santa Ana River Valley, where it grows in montane conifer and oak woodland, often in openings or partial sun. 

On August 31, we conducted night surveys for arroyo toad upstream of the Mojave Spillway.  Arroyo toads are endemic to southwestern CA and northern Baja, and inhabit perennial streams.  These nocturnal toads forage for insects at night and burrow themselves in sand during the day.    This lower part of Deep Creek is heavily used, and beaver, trout, and bullfrogs also occur in the stream.  All of these impact arroyo toad populations.

Interesting (plant) finds from last month include new populations of white adder’s-mouth orchid (Malaxis monophyllos var. brachypoda) in two different meadows on the forest, and a new location of Botrychium crenulatum, also in a meadow.  White adder’s-mouth orchid has an interesting distribution in North America; it’s primarily found in the Midwest and Canada, where it grows in swamp forests.  The only records in California are from the San Bernardino and San Jacinto Mountains.    

Mountaintop Ranger District

San Bernardino National Forest/USFS

Mojave phacelia

San Bernardino Mtns. owl’s clover

San Bernardino Mountains bladderpod (fruit)

We have been surveying for sensitive species and weeds within the area burned by the Grass Valley fire (2007).  One of the most interesting parts of the project area is a riparian zone along the north edge of the burn perimeter, where there’s a rich diversity of forbs, grasses, and sedges.  Two of our sensitive species –  (Castilleja lasioryncha, San Bernardino Mountains owl’s clover) and Phacelia mohavensis (Mojave phacelia) – occur in this area.  As another part of this project, we’re also training members of the Urban Conservation Corps (UCC) to use GPS mapping units. 

We’ve been continuing to edit and gather comments on our guide to non-native invasive plants of the southern California mountains, which will be printed in the fall.  Here and there I’ve been doing other monitoring, surveys, and mapping, and especially revisiting older occurrences of some of our threatened and endangered species.  That included some locations of the adorable Physaria kingii subsp. bernardina (San Bernardino Mtns. bladderpod).

Botrychiums should be appearing soon in many of our meadows, and I’m excited about looking for them!

On June 3, I returned from a week-long trip to San Miguel Island, where I assisted a botanist with a vegetation mapping project on the island.  San Miguel, a windy, treeless island, is the westernmost of the Channel Islands.  Dominant shrubs species on the island include coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis), prostrate coastal goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii var. vernonoides), and silver lupine (Lupinus albifrons var. douglasii, pictured, sand-covered).  Giant coreopsis (Leptosyne gigantea), San Miguel Island deerweed (Acmispon dendroideus var. veatchii) and golden yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum) are abundant in areas on the eastern side of the island, but are largely absent from its western side. While common on the larger islands and on the mainland, toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), black sage (Salvia mellifera) and lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia) are infrequent on San Miguel.  The rare Northern Island tree mallow (Lavatera assurgentiflora subsp. assurgentiflora, pictured) also occurs on the island.  Common herbs include San Miguel Island locoweed (Astragalus miguelensis), Greene’s dudleya (Dudleya greenei), Malacothrix species (pictured is the white-flowered M. saxatilis implicata) and the non-native sea-fig (Carprobrotus chilensis).

The seals were another fascinating part of the trip.  In some areas on the western side of the island, we were guided by one of the pinniped (seal) researchers.  We saw four species of seals over the course of the week:  northern fur seals, harbor seals, California sea lions, and elephant seals.  Elephant seals breed on the island from December through March.  We only saw a few northern fur seals; the males were on the island establishing their territory.  The trip was a great opportunity to learn the most common elements of the SMI flora (as well as many less-common species), and to talk to biologists and botanists about their work on the islands.

Mountaintop RD, San Bernardino National Forest, US Forest Service

Northern Island tree mallow

A view of Prince Island and eastern Cuyler Harbor.

Sand-covered silver lupine

Cliff-aster