All About Us!

Check out the article about us in the Desert Report!

Trip to the Mountains

We are joining forces with the US Forest Service to do a treasure hunt in the San Bernardino National Forest Saturday, July 9th at 9:30 am. This should be a wonderful trip to a beautiful area. We will be searching for Lemon lily (Lillium parryi) and San Bernardino Owl's Clover (Castilleja lasiorhyncha) among other things. Don't miss this trip! RSVP to aswanson@cnps.org for more details. Lemon lily (Lilium parryi, list 1B.2) A meadow plant [photo by Jane Tirrell, 2010]

End of the Season

The desert season is winding down and I thought it might be nice to have a little recap of what we've done. Since the middle of February there have been 22 Treasure Hunts in the desert. So far over 100 survey forms have been submitted (with hopefully more to come in) and an estimated 900 volunteer hours have been logged! Thank you, thank you to all those volunteers and organizations that contributed their time and talents to making this season a success!

Things will start back up again in the fall, make some space on your calendars!

Here is one of the 50 different rare plant species we've found this year.

Erigeron parishii, Parish's flebane, rank 1B.1 Listed as a threatened plant.Below: The Kingston Range in the Eastern Mojave.

See you in the fall!

Not To Be Missed

The Rare Plant Treasure Hunts in the desert will be winding down soon, but we still have a couple more trips. This weekend Duncan Bell is taking volunteers into the Southern Mojave and for Memorial day weekend we are planning a trip to the Desert Mountains of the Eastern Mojave.

Penstemon utahensis, a rare gem

We were just in the Eastern Mojave and it is beautiful in the high elevations right now (and the weather is pretty good too). Come join us as we explore the Kingston and Clark Mtns and Maybe the Avawatz Mtns and Ivanpah valley area. We will be looking for three types of Penstemon, a wild onion and several cacti among other things.

You must RSVP for these trips so email us at treasurehunt@cnps.org to hold your spot. You can come for all or part of the trip. According to demand the end of May hunt will go from Friday the 27th to Sunday the 29th or Saturday the 28th to Monday the 30th.

What the Desert Holds-Part II

Another amazing trip out to the desert. This time we went to the Eastern Mojave and found rare plants and animals. Check out the photos taken by intern Duncan Bell. Arctomecon merrriamii, White Bear Poppy-one of my favorite.
the rare Allium nevandense (Nevada onion)
Baby bobcat, I didn't actually get to see this little guy, Duncan climbed the top of the mountain and spotted him.

April Rare Finds

Phacelia nashiana, Charlotte's phacelia, rank 1B.2-An electric blue flower, beautiful. To bad it's being over run with weeds (see the Crane's bill's fruit stuck to the plant).

A beautiful canyon in the western Mohave that will be highly impacted by Wind Power development.

Eriophyllum mohavense, Barstow woolly sunflower, rank 1B.2, a very, very small plant, see the scale below. Those taller flowers are only about 6 inches high.

Coryphantha alversonii, Foxtail cactus, rank 4.3, A darling little cactus. This is the first time I've seen it in full bloom. Love it!

What the Desert Holds

So much to blog about, so little time...
The desert holds so many amazing things and I am constantly suprised. Every trip has something unexpected, like snakes! What is it with rattlesnakes this year?? I saw zero last year and this year I've already seen four, specifically three in one day last week! One (a Mohave green, Crotalus scutulatus) was just hanging out on the road. The others (perhaps Southwestern speckled rattlesnakes, Crotalus mitchellii pyrrhus) were in some kind of combat near another road.