{"id":66643,"date":"2015-10-12T12:05:35","date_gmt":"2015-10-12T19:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=66643"},"modified":"2015-10-12T12:05:35","modified_gmt":"2015-10-12T19:05:35","slug":"late-blooming-collections-in-las-cruces-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=66643","title":{"rendered":"Late blooming collections in Las Cruces District…"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>

A population of Baileya multiradiata<\/em> “desert marigold” of which we made two collections.<\/p><\/div>\n

We have had a rather exciting month of plant collections.\u00a0 Down here at the extreme southern end of that which constitutes BLM land, our ability to make collections probably tends to come much later in the year than for many of y\u2019all folks in the northern lands. \u00a0This, coupled with the general weirdness of precipitation patterns down here in the deep Chihuahuan Desert, has\u00a0resulted in unusual and often belated phonologies of our target species and sites.\u00a0 It has also required of us that we be somewhat spontaneous in that we collect seeds of those species that are collectible, rather than what is necessarily on the collection target list submitted by our crew leader.\u00a0 For example, we were able to collect Sanvitalia abertii, Verbesina encelioides, Machaeranthera bipinnatifida, <\/em>and\u00a0Panicum obtusum<\/em> (syn. Hopia obtusa);\u00a0most of which were on our original target list, but that are excellent candidate species for the stated goals of the Seeds of Success Program.\u00a0 Sadly, we have been unable to collect some species from the target list that, for whatever reason, did not produce viable seed this year such as Bouteloua gracilis, \u00a0Bouteloua eriopoda,<\/em> and Enneapogon desvauxii.<\/em>\u00a0 However, this morning we were able to complete a collection of Setaria leucopila,<\/em> a hot target species that until last week we had practically given up on as a lost cause.\u00a0 But then\u00a0we checked one final population for it and found that it was setting seed.\u00a0 It was doing so at a low rate, but nonetheless, a collection was achieved.<\/p>\n

Although a few species on our target list weren\u2019t collected, we did make a lot of collections and we were able to make more\u00a0collections than our\u00a0goal of\u00a035 for the duration of the internship.\u00a0 As October is our final month and our collections are winding down, Jeanne and I will be presenting our work with the Seeds of Success Program to the office around October 20th<\/sup>.\u00a0 Aside from the presentation we will be doing some Peniocereus greggii var. greggii<\/em> monitoring and vegetation monitoring at the Jornada Test Range.\u00a0 One cool thing we\u2019ve discovered about P.\u00a0greggii<\/em> is that\u00a0this species seems to have a tendency to die back completely to the tuberous root, only to resurrect later on.\u00a0 This implies that it may be less rare\u00a0than previously thought.<\/p>\n

We went out for two days on a trip up the lower Gila River Box to get some time lapse photo points.\u00a0 In the early 90\u2019s, the area was excluded from grazing because the riparian habitat had been so heavily denuded.\u00a0 It turns out that cows really like to eat baby cottonwoods, an apparently short lived tree species, so young plants weren\u2019t ever given the chance to mature to replace the older dead or dying trees.\u00a0 Now, almost 20 years after exclusion the cottonwoods and willows have returned full force. \u00a0It is beautiful to witness the resilience of nature.\u00a0 Furthermore, we got to see some very cool Indian ruins and petroglyphs.<\/p>\n

In addition to our other duties and endeavors we\u00a0will be getting some much welcome training in ArcGIS and NEPA. We have had some really great experiences to be sure. We have seen so many rattlesnakes that I have long since lost count. One time we even found a pair in the throes of coitus. We stared for a minute and left them to their business.\u00a0\u00a0Coyote song\u00a0has often accompanied our field work.\u00a0 Yeah, the desert does have its charm,\u00a0if you can take the heat.\u00a0 Until next time fellow naturalists.\u00a0 I hope your adventures have been as fun and satisfying as ours.<\/p>\n

Best wishes,<\/p>\n

Dave Morin, Las Cruces District\u00a0Office of the BLM<\/p>\n

\"Petroglyphs<\/a>

Petroglyphs from Lowe Gila Box<\/p><\/div>\n

\"a<\/a>

a granary from Lower Gila Box<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>

An annoyed Western Diamondbac<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pectis<\/a>

Pectis papposa<\/em>, a collection we made that smell and tastes quite lemony<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We have had a rather exciting month of plant collections.\u00a0 Down here at the extreme southern end of that which constitutes BLM land, our ability to make collections probably tends to come much later in the year than for many … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7081,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66643"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7081"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=66643"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66669,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66643\/revisions\/66669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=66643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=66643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=66643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}