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