I have been working in the desert for the last 3 months, making me more than half way through my internship with the CLM. Since being here in California I have gotten to go to a plant conservation conference in San Diego, visit Death Valley National Park, Sequoia National Forest, Mt. Zion National Park, Los Angles and Las Vegas. This list fails to include all of the stunning places I have seen in the Ridgecrest Field office. I feel very grateful to have worked here the last 3 months. Many plants are seeding right now in the Ridgecrest Field office.
In this blog I wanted to talk about the seed collection process. The most interesting and beautiful part of the seed collection process is scouting. Having the opportunity to drive/hike around searching for plants is an absolute blast. Over the last few weeks we have transitioned from focusing on annuals to perennial shrubs. This makes it a lot easier for us to make a seed collection. Over the last week we have made at least half a dozen seed collections. Last week we made an Encelia farinosa seed collection in Pleasant Canyon. Pleasant Canyon is in Panamint Valley, one of the most beautiful parts of our field office. There are quite a few riparian areas there and amazing biodiversity of plants/animals. Also, the Navy base has a flight path right through there, meaning you almost always get an amazing airshow while collecting seeds.
On this particular day myself and the other SOS intern were scouting around for Chylismia brevipes and happened upon a few other populations, including the Encelia. We found a population of about 100 plants that were all in seed in this canyon. We quickly got out and vouchered some of the still flower plants. We then took some photos of the population and filled out the SOS data sheet. It does not take long to make a seed collection, especially with 2 people. We probably finished our collection in under an hour. We collected over 15,000 seeds from over 60 plants. Since this took so little time, we were able to go take some other vouchers and also check out a lake bed. Just another great day in the Ridgecrest field office! 
