Hello World,

Back in 1995, the Las Cruces District Office botanist, Laird McIntosh, was out botanizing on the east side of the Organ Mountains, in Rock Springs Canyon. He collected a few plants, one of which was an inconspicuous little member of the carrot family (Apiaceae) that he identified as Spermolepis echinata. At that time, Spermolepis echinata was the only Spermolepis known to occur in New Mexico. Here’s his specimen:

That specimen sat in the New Mexico State University Herbarium (NMC) for 15 years or so. Then Guy Nesom, of the Botanical Research Institute of Texas, decided to study Spermolepis. He got specimens on loan from most of the major herbaria in the southwestern U.S., including NMC. He published the results of his research in 2012, and you can read it here. Nesom made a few changes in the taxonomy of Spermolepis, two of which are relevant here. First, he concluded that Laird McIntosh’s specimen was a new species, which he named Spermolepis organensis. That lone plant on the sheet was the only known individual of this species when Nesom published his work. Second, he separated Spermolepis echinata into two species: Spermolepis echinata and Spermolepis lateriflora. All the New Mexico specimens–except Laird’s from Rock Springs Canyon, of course–were assigned to Spermolepis lateriflora. Spermolepis echinata, which we had thought to be the only Spermolepis in New Mexico, was now not known to occur in the state at all.

Here’s what Spermolepis lateriflora looks like:

There are a couple of clear differences between Spermolepis lateriflora and Spermolepis organensis. The fruits of Spermolepis lateriflora have hooked hairs, while those of Spermolepis organensis are glabrous. Spermolepis lateriflora has sessile umbels, while Spermolepis organensis has pedunculate umbels. So, morphologically it’s clear enough. However, naming a new species based on a single specimen is a bit risky. Maybe this was just one odd individual rather than a species.

Following the publication of Nesom’s paper, a few New Mexico botanists went out to look for Spermolepis organensis at Rock Springs Canyon where Laird McIntosh collected it. Ken Heil and Dave Anderson went out there in 2013. I joined them for another search in 2014. Jeanne Tenorio and I looked for it again in 2015. None of us found it. We found a few Spermolepis, but nothing with the glabrous fruits of Spermolepis organensis. Repeating the search was on my to-do list this year, but I was beginning to suspect Laird’s plant was just a one-off with anomalous morphology.

Before I got the chance to go out and look for Spermolepis organensis, I was out on the northeast side of the Organ Mountains, a couple of miles north of Rock Springs Canyon, to collect seeds. A friend of mine, Gregory Penn, joined me. We made a Seeds of Success collection of Phacelia coerulea. I’m allergic to this species, and it causes rashes very much like poison ivy. Most people have no reaction to Phacelia coerulea and other members of the genus, but a lucky few of us do. In hindsight, doing a seed collection of it was a bad idea. Of course, it’s not just hindsight. I knew it was a bad idea at the time and did it regardless. In any case, before we started collecting seeds, only a few steps out of the truck I noticed that Spermolepis was abundant. Some of it was Spermolepis lateriflora, but I knew immediately that some of it was not. There were many plants that had no hooked hairs on their fruits. I wasn’t sure these were Spermolepis organensis, though. Perhaps I was mistaking another genus for Spermolepis. For instance, perhaps they were Cyclospermum leptophyllum, another inconspicuous little carrot. So I took some photographs and collected some specimens. Both Spermolepis lateriflora and this other little carrot were abundant throughout the area where we collected Phacelia coerulea.

After reviewing Nesom’s work and looking at my specimens under a dissecting microscope, I became certain the plants without hooked hairs on their fruits were indeed Spermolepis organensis. So, Laird’s plant was not an oddball. Spermolepis organensis is out there, easily identifiable from morphology, and locally abundant. Our earlier fruitless searches, I guess, resulted from looking for them when moisture conditions weren’t quite right. Or perhaps it only occurs sporadically at Rock Springs Canyon, and is more reliably found a bit to the north. In any case, here’s what it looks like:

Once I knew we had found Spermolepis organensis, I decided I needed to go back out there, look at more of them, collect a few more specimens so I could send duplicates to various regional herbaria, and visit a few more sites to get a better idea of its distribution in the area. I was also hoping to get some more pictures, of both Spermolepis organensis and Spermolepis lateriflora, but it was very windy. I went back another week later for pictures and it was, again, very windy. Oh well. I eventually got some decent pictures in spite the wind. During these revisits of the area, I noticed that there seem to be three Spermolepis species out there. One, with sessile umbels and hooked hairs on the fruits, is Spermolepis lateriflora. One, with pedunculate umbels and glabrous fruits, is Spermolepis organensis. The third has pedunculate umbels and hooked hairs on the fruits. I collected specimens of all three and, again, I needed to review Nesom’s work and look at my specimens under a dissecting microscope. It turns out that the third Spermolepis is Spermolepis echinata. Here’s what it looks like:

I guess this is the story of how a plant that was identified as Spermolepis echinata, but wasn’t, led in a roundabout way to the discovery of Spermolepis echinata in New Mexico. Our knowledge moves forward, more or less, but takes a few odd turns and relies on some happy accidents along the way.

So. It has been a really long time since I have given an update. Sorry about that. I promise I’ll do better from now on. To try and make it up to you, I’ll share lots of cool pictures from all the places my internship has taken me over the last couple months. March and April presented the Carson City CLM interns with a lot of opportunities for traveling. Lately it seems like I’ve spent more time on the road than at home – fine by me! The workshops and conferences we got to attend were supremely informative, and I got to scratch a couple more states off my bucket list. But, I’m just about spent by this point, and I’m practically falling asleep as I write this, so it’s probably a really good thing that I don’t have to go anywhere else for a while.

The first of our road trips was to Las Vegas. We attended the Nevada Rare Plant Workshop, which I imagine is probably just about the most fun a person could possibly have while visiting Vegas. Our drive there was scenic – we had decided to take a detour through Death Valley, so that we could enjoy the rare super-bloom. As advertised, it was pretty super. The typically barren plains were shrouded with desert gold, and for about half an hour I basically became Mary Poppins. It’s worth making the trek out there if you get chance. (Is the super-bloom even still happening? You probably ought to check before you go. I’d feel really bad if you went all the way out there on my recommendation and were disappointed by the lack of super-bloom. Although Death Valley is still pretty neat even without flowers. I digress.)

Anyways, after this highly worthwhile side trip, we arrived in Las Vegas for the workshop. Several botanists from around the state and beyond shared their work with us, and it was enlightening to gain a better understanding of the work they do. What’s more, the workshop included a field trip to Valley of Fire State Park. I don’t think there’s two words in the English language that I like hearing more than “field trip,” with the possible exception of “grilled cheese.” This field trip involved beautiful scenery and searching for a rare species of Astragalus, which we found. After being introduced to (and subsequently forgetting) a couple dozen plants endemic to the Mojave desert, we made our way back north to Carson City.

The second trip our crew took was to Boise, the site of our Integrated Pest Management and Pesticide Applicator Certification course. This training taught us everything we ever could want to know about managing unwanted populations of bothersome plants and animals. Also, I am now licensed to use restricted pesticides. Look out, weeds, here I come. The only downside to this course was that it took place entirely within the confines of a hotel basement, which was decidedly less beautiful than the scenery that surrounded me during my trip to Las Vegas. I didn’t bother to take pictures.

Although the first two outings were both fun and profitable, the third was definitely my favorite. Alec, Margaret, and I flew to Tucson to spend a week learning about measuring and monitoring plant populations. If you’re anything like me, then you would agree that measuring and monitoring plant populations is pretty much the best thing ever. It offers all the fun and excitement of a field trip, plus people actually pay you to do it. It’s a perfect situation. Previously, I only had experienced the field work aspect of plant monitoring. This workshop gave me a better understanding of what goes into designing a monitoring program, and also how to analyze the data I collect. I anticipate this course being a tremendous boon to my future endeavors as a botanist, and I am thankful that the CLM program provided me with this opportunity.

I also am grateful that I had the chance to briefly visit and explore the Sonoran desert. On our day off, we took a trip to Saguaro National Park, where we got to see some of the American southwest’s most iconic plant species in the flesh (both figuratively and literally – I made the mistake of touching a beavertail cactus and I think some of the small prickly hairs are still stuck in my hand.) As an east coast native, I’d always imagined deserts as wastelands that couldn’t measure up to the lushness and liveliness of the green forests where I’d grown up. The cacti blooms I saw in Arizona dispelled those notions. We even saw a rattlesnake! And lived to tell the tale.

Anyways, that’s just a brief overview of the experiences that my internship has granted me in these past couple months. I’ll report back soon with more updates. Thanks for reading!

-SS

Reno Earth Day, which happened last Sunday, was a grand success. The annual 3,000 person event takes place in Idlewild Park along the Truckee River. Hundreds of canopies arranged by environmental groups, artists, public agencies, and food vendors line the green space and baseball fields. It is a lively and cooperative community event that I was glad to take part in.

We had been generating outreach material for months leading up to the event, and were able to hand out a wide range of activities, from invasive species word searches to Seymour the Antelope coloring pages. In addition we had informational brochures on local plant diversity, EDDMapS web-based invasive species mapping system, local trail maps, horse and burro management, and more.

However our number one initiative at the event was educating and involving fourth graders in Every Kid in a Park (EKIP): a nationwide program that provides free access to national parks and other public lands to kids ages 9-11! We had a separate table at our Earth Day booth devoted to EKIP, where fourth graders worked through an activity that involved assigning either Hooker’s balsamroot or Lupine to its appropriate family. Although a bit advanced (we have since revised the activity for future events), with provided references on inflorescence, leaf and root structure, as well as our guidance, students were able to complete the activity, after which we were able to give them their park pass! It was delightful to see students, their families and friends excited about the possibilities for outdoor exploration.

Reno Earth Day was a valuable experience to interact with the public, and share information about how they can engage with and promote the health of their public lands.

Margaret Lindman, Carson City BLM

These past couple of weeks have been an information overload. I have not been presented with this much new knowledge in a short period of time since college! The first week was the Assessment, Inventory and Monitoring (AIM) training in Prineville, Oregon. It was a busy few days learning the core methods of AIM and practicing them in the field. One of the first things we did was get some practice at texturing soils. I have very little experience with soils in my background, so this was truly foreign to me. After calibrating ourselves in the classroom we went to the field to dig soil pits, which are used to confirm or determine the ecological site in order to get an ecological site description (ESD). Never has digging in the dirt been so fun or educational! I find myself wanting to dig holes all over the place to see how the soils compare and practice my ribbon making skills. The other components of AIM were also new methods to add to my monitoring repertoire.

There were probably 40 or so people at the AIM training, mostly GBI crews from around Oregon. It was really fun getting to know other crews and being around other people who all share the same love for the outdoors. The majority of them were camping south of town while our crew stayed in a hotel. But one of the nights we went out to the campground and ended up doing an evening hike, it was a blast. Leaving Prineville after the training was almost sad. We had been there for 2 separate training weeks and had come to know the small town pretty well. We had been to the town hot spot Ochoco Brewing CO. enough times to have the servers know us.

It wasn’t sad to leave the other crews when Prineville was over because almost all of them were headed to Reno Nevada the following week! A short weekend was followed by a looong 13 hour drive Monday. This training, Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health, was based out of a casino hotel, The Nugget. What a place. The huge lobby stretched around the building and was filled with gambling games, slot machines, card tables, and bar tops. The whole building was like a labyrinth that was designed to keep you from leaving. It was surprisingly difficult to find your way around at first or even get out, well played Nugget. This training focused on the 17 IRH. While the AIM training focused on more quantitative methods of collecting data this was more qualitative. Making a judgement from a mostly visual standpoint. Reading the landscape and understanding its natural processes. I found myself having difficulty grasping certain concepts and understanding some of the landscape terminology being used. Practicing in the field helped and I do feel more competent on the subject, but I think the key with this one is experience. Working in the field over a long period of time, understanding the landscape components, seeing it change, and knowing how each indicator fits within and with each other.

Over the course of those two weeks many new friendships were made and fun experiences shared. It was nice to finally head home, but sad to leave at the same time. While I knew that I would be leaving each training with new knowledge and understanding, I hadn’t expected to leave with so many new connections from around the region! 🙂

-Katherine

It’s been a crazy two weeks for the Wenatchee CLM interns! Today is our first day in the office since April 15–we spent last week in Reno, NV and the week before that in Prineville, OR. After a total of 38 hours in a car together, I’m glad to say we still like each other!

At the AIM training in Prineville, we learned multiple quantitative methods for monitoring our rangeland sites. Line-point intercept, gap-intercept, vegetation height, species inventory, and soil stability testing were the main protocols that were covered, as well as the digging of the all-important soil pit. Personally, my favorite part of the week was learning how to texture soil, because who doesn’t like getting their hands dirty? At the end of the week, we ran through all of the protocols individually in order to make sure that we were all somewhat calibrated to each other. I had a hard time getting a hang of some things, especially gap-intercept, but shockingly, I calibrated successfully!

Katherine and Gabe practice reading LPI in Prineville

Makeshift rain shelter at the campground, courtesy of the Robel pole! 🙂

We went for a moonlight hike with some of the other crews!

After a quick but relaxing weekend at home in Wenatchee, we were back on the road again the following Monday, this time going twice as far! Luckily we’d had the foresight to take some audiobooks out of the library; the 13 hour drive was made much more exciting thanks to the addition of Jurassic Park. When we arrived at our hotel, a casino resort called The Nugget, I was completely overwhelmed–the place was like a labyrinth of flashing lights and mirrored walls, filled with bars, restaurants, and hundreds of slot machines. Finding our way to the check-in desk was an adventure in itself!

At training the next morning, we were excited to see many of the people we’d befriended the week before in Prineville. IIRH turned out to be a lot more complicated than AIM, and we spent a full day watching presentations before even heading out into the field. The qualitative nature of the protocol made it more difficult for beginners like me, since accurately assessing the 17 indicators of rangeland health requires actual experience seeing these indicators in the field! However, I was feeling much more confident by the end of the week after running through some practice sites and discussing our assessments at length with the whole group.

Leaving Reno felt a little bittersweet: although the constant training and travel was exhausting, and I’ve gotten a bit sick of living in hotels, it was great being able to spend time with the other crews, and I’ll really miss some of the people we met. I feel so lucky to have an internship with so many travel opportunities, and to be in a field with so many like-minded people. And now that I’m all trained up, I’m looking forward to actually applying what I’ve learned back here in Washington!

A beautiful yellow Castilleja I found in Reno!

Hit up California for the first time on the drive back from Reno, and it didn’t disappoint!

Katherine Schneider, BLM, Wenatchee WA Field Office

In case you were wondering, this is what a lake looks like in the desert.

Mesquite Lake is actually a dry lake bed.

Welcome to Mesquite Lake, which is actually a dry lake bed and therefore not (in my humble, Northern Wisconsin opinion) a lake. It does, however, provide a different environment for desert plant life than what I’ve seen thus far.

Not all of the Needles Field Office is all dried up, though! The very next morning after surveying Mesquite Lake, I was able to tag along on a secretive marsh bird survey in the backwaters of the Colorado River.

I didn’t want to wake up at 3 A.M., but I did it for the birds!

Our main goal was to determine if there were any rails present–particularly the ridgway rail, which is considered a threatened species. We were able to hear a couple ridgway rails as well as several other marsh bird species. We even noticed a nesting pair of western grebes.

Trying to see the nesting pair of Western Grebes.

I know it’s a little hard to see in the picture, but there’s a white spot in the reeds behind the blue kayak–that’s the female grebe on the nest. There’s also a white spot a little in front of the blue kayak–that’s the male grebe trying to distract us from the nest.

In other water-related news, it rained a lot in April– at least 5 days (4 of which were consecutive) which I’ve been told is really weird! We’ll have to see if all this unseasonable rain affects bloom times or not.

It rained a lot (for the desert) this April.

Happy Trails

Jessica Samuelson

Needles Field Office

Bureau of Land Management

I left Southern California in March, passing snow laden Joshua Trees in the high desert, heading north to Gold Country to work at the BLM Mother Lode Field Office. I camped along the American River for a couple of days before meeting some nice folks from whom I am now renting a lovely trailer.

The south fork of the American River and Salmon Falls Rd.

Before my internship began, I was exploring many nearby woodlands, shrublands, and grasslands. As I encountered unfamiliar plants, I wondered about their names, occurrences, and origins. I have since enjoyed learning about and re-encountering these species, though some of the beautiful flowers I had photographed I later discovered to be invasive. After three weeks of working here, I continue exploring locations which are new to me. Working as a field botanist is a sure way to get to know a new region to which you’ve just moved. Most of the fieldwork has involved scouting for Seeds of Success collection targets. Some of the work is nearly in my backyard, and almost always near others’ yards, while other work can take place three hours away as far south as Yosemite. We are scouting targets along the Merced River, where the wildflower bloom could convert many wildlife folks to botanists.

Delphinium along the Merced River near Briceburg, CA

There are also plans to collect seeds at the northern burn area of the Butte Fire that occurred last fall.

Butte Fire burn area around Jesus Maria – the Calochortus monophyllus is numerous

Calochortus monophyllus

Butte Fire burn area near Jesus Maria – Toxicoscordion exaltatum is in the distance

Toxicoscordion exaltatum

A bird’s eye – Gilia tricolor

Many collections will take place close to home on the Pine Hill Preserve lands. I have already made collections of two species. One of which was the common and abundant Claytonia perfoliata. The other was the much less common California endemic Wyethia bolanderi. No offense miner’s lettuce.

A bird’s eye view of the American River – collecting Gilia tricolor

Calochortus albus a stone’s throw from highway 50 on Pine Hill Preserve lands

Work has also involved meetings and tours of preserve lands, which are learning opportunities as well as opportunities to meet a wide range of professionals within the agency, from other agencies, in the private and non-profit sectors, along with students and fellow interns. A few days recently I have set up plots at locations in which vegetation was cleared, piled, and burned, where future monitoring will occur, which I am excited about.

Until next time,

John Woodruff

BLM Mother Lode Field Office

Since my last blog, I’ve been trying to keep busy. My main task around this time of the year at the Cosumnes River Preserve is to manage the weeds that we have around the wetlands and the visitor center. However, there’s always something else new to work on. That’s what I like about this job, it can be unpredictable sometimes. Just today, we had someone from Wilderness Inquiry spot a possible mountain lion. The preserve manager, Harry, and I followed up on the lead and attempted to track the lion through dense oak woodland full of mosquitoes. When we were back from our search we started working on our plant identification. We saw Orgegon ash, box elder, curly dock, valley oaks, and blackberry bushes for sure. Afterwards, we set up a camera trap so see if we could get pictures of the cougar later on.

Also during this week, I assisted with showing 6th graders about the macroinvertebrates that are in the wetland ponds. It was nice to see the kids having fun at the canoemobile event. A part of their activities is the paddle down the Cosumnes River, an experience that many kids get to have for the first time.

I was able to help out with the specimen collection a couple of weeks ago down at the Merced River, the wildflower displays were gorgeous. We had Dave, a BLM employee who showed us where all the plant species were. It was a good experience get to know more about the SOS program and too bad we we’re only at the river for roughly two hours.

Funeral Mountains

Hello Blog readers!

I hope to once again effectively highlight my journey here in the sunny place that is Ridgecrest, California. A nearby sign reads ‘100 miles to anywhere’ that seems aptly placed. This past weekend (4/22-4/24) we (My fellow intern, Erin, and I) attended the Owens Lake Bird festival in the wonderful little town of Lone Pine, CA.
This little town was once famous for its role in cinema production. Many of the old west hit movies were shot here. As well as “Tremors”!!! This little town should deserve more recognition for its natural beauty than those films indicated. In fact, many of those old west movies were set in other states entirely, yet all share the same backdrop that is the beautiful Eastern Sierra and adjacent Owens valley.

Owens Lake is important to note on an ecological scale, as it has recently been reformed into a lake. In the 90+ years previous it was more of a playa. However, it has recent history as a lake. All the way up until when the aqueduct was constructed. This is the lake from which Los Angeles receives the majority of its water. In the early 1900’s some clever engineers developed and implemented a water diversion scheme known as the LA aqueduct.  The aqueduct runs over 300 miles from Owens lake near the town of Lone Pine to LA. So crazy!!

This was a lucky week of work for us as we got to work with a real botanist doing seed collecting. The wonderful Sarah De Groot took us out to the Funeral mountains to help show us some proper protocol for seed collection. It was so educational to be out with a field botanist. Everywhere we turned we uncovered a new little plant hiding from view. From some plants that have no leafs, or at least ones appearing as they don’t, to some very strange shrubs, to a skin irritating phacelias several new plant friends were made and several seed collections as well. The most challenging aspect of it for me was realizing how allergic I was to the Phacelia (Boragaceae) genus. Almost every one I’ve touched leaves me with some minor dermatitis. I wonder if this is an issue for any other interns out there?

Today we helped teach an outdoor environmental education class to some 4th graders at the lovely sand canyon.

By far, another exciting couple of weeks here in California. Hoping to make more collections while they are still viable. Finding proper timing can be the most difficult part of collections I’m learning. Aside from identifying a population, one has to then figure out when the best time to collect seeds will be and hopefully the weather cooperates!! One day we had 40 mile gusts come down on us while in the middle of collecting. Anywho..
Best Wishes,
Robbie Wood

Alabama hills with MT. Muir? The mountains aren’t labeled in real life

Alabama hills- Mobius Arch