Photo Contributions

We had many people all over California finding rare plants this year. Over the next few weeks I'll share their photos. Enjoy!

Calochortus weedii var. intermedius, Weed's Mariposa Lily, List 1B.2

Nolina cismontana, Peninsular Bear Grass, list 1B.2

(Photos by Ben Smith)

Another Field Trip

For this field trip we surveyed for Opuntia basilaris var. brachyclada, Shortjoint beavertail cactus, and we found it. The areas had suffered from a burn a couple of years before, but the cacti were making a comeback. We also had a lot of fun scrambling up formations at Mormon Rocks. I also headed up to Ridgecrest the next week to give a presentation to the local CNPS chapter. It's an interesting drive. The presidents of the chapter has a beautiful native plant/xeric garden near the foothills of the Sierras. Oh how I love the desert!

The Desert in Fall

This was my first time to the Mojave desert in the fall and it was more beautiful than I even expected. There weren't many things blooming, but the mountains and the structure of the trees and shrubs and the silhouettes of the Joshua Trees were wonderful to behold. We had a field trip out to Joshua Tree National Park and found this rare little beauty-Coryphantha alversonii, Foxtail cactus.
Some things were blooming with a vengeance, see California fuschia, Epilobium canum ssp. latifolium below.

He's another one of our finds. This is the desert after all.

Rare Beauty

A couple of weeks ago I returned from a CNPS meeting held on the Northern California coast in Fort Bragg. While there we received a tour of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, http://www.gardenbythesea.org/. This garden occupies woods and coastline in Fort Bragg and is such a beautiful place. Near the coastline they recently cleared an area of invasive non-natives (mostly Ice plant) and let native plants repopulate the area. One of these plants to recolonize was the beautiful and rare Castilleja mendocinensis, Mendocino Coast Indian Paintbrush (list 1B.2).Here is our tour guide and the garden's Natural Areas coordinator, Mario, telling us a little more about the area and what they did. Good conservation work, Mario!

Viola!

A group of intrepid treasure hunters went out this month to the El Dorado National Forest and sent back pictures of their rare find. This is Viola tomentosa, the Woolly violet. Good job and thanks for sharing!

Photos by LS Couper - DVM

Call for Photos

Eriogonum lobbii, Lobb's buckwheat

Hello Treasure Hunters- We want your photos!

If you've been on a Treasure Hunt and want to share your photos with us you could win a prize. We are offering a prize to the best photo from a Treasure Hunt. Photos will be featured on this blog and on our CNPS website to get people excited about the project.

Please email them to Amber at treasurehunt@cnps.org.
Thank you and good luck!

It's On

The fall Treasure Hunt location is now confirmed!
We will be going to Joshua Tree National Park on Saturday, October 9th, 2010 from 9:30 am – 5 pm. Meet at the Oasis Visitor’s Center Parking Lot, 74485 National Park Drive Twentynine Palms, CA. Please RSVP to treasurehunt@cnps.org.
It should be a great trip and free camping may also be available in the park for interested volunteers! Please join us.