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!