May-Jun 2020 P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2020, May-Jun ‘20 CALYPSO NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY Eschscholzia californica, California poppy Iris douglasiana, Douglas iris Castilleja wightii, paintbrush The Natures’ Beautiful 2020 Wildflower Show - Photos by Mary Sue Ittner Now that we’re able to get out a bit, on Thursday, April 30 th , Mary Sue Iner, Bob Rutemoeller and Harmony walked along Lighthouse Road and near the Stornea Lands, and at Hearn Gulch, all within 20 miles of Gualala, to document this year’s amazing spring bloom. Mary Sue is a longme chapter member, a Thursday Rambler, and a great photographer. You can also view her lovely Winter-Spring 2020 bulb photos of naves and non-naves at: hps://photos.app.goo.gl/wBUYch8i25M2LHUs8. Sisyrinchium bellum, blue eyed grass Wyethia angustifolia, mules-ears Triphysaria eriantha ssp. rosea, johnnytuck Hosackia gracilis, harlequin lotus Calystegia purpurata, morning glory Diplacus aurantiacus, sticky monkeyflower Fragaria chiloensis, beach strawberry Sidalcea malviflora, checkerbloom Cerastium arvense, chickweed
Transcript
May-Jun 2020
P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2020, May-Jun ‘20
CALYPSO NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
Eschscholzia californica, California poppy Iris douglasiana, Douglas iris Castilleja wightii, paintbrush
The
Natures’ Beautiful 2020 Wildflower Show - Photos by Mary Sue Ittner
Now that we’re able to get out a bit, on Thursday, April 30th, Mary Sue Ittner, Bob Rutemoeller and Harmony walked along Lighthouse Road and near the Stornetta Lands, and at Hearn Gulch, all within 20 miles of Gualala, to document this year’s amazing spring bloom. Mary Sue is a longtime chapter member, a Thursday Rambler, and a great photographer. You can also view her lovely Winter-Spring 2020 bulb photos of natives and non-natives at: https://photos.app.goo.gl/wBUYch8i25M2LHUs8.
I am hoping that all of you and yours are doing well during these troubling times of COVID-19. Every day as I scan the news, I am reminded of how fortunate we are to live in this beautiful, remote area of Northern California…so fortunate to be in places where we can enjoy fresh air and see the wonders of nature, even if we aren’t able to venture out as much as we’d like. If there is any silver lining to the shelter-in-place orders, it is that nature is recovering in many areas. Native flora has received a reprieve from trampling in some of the more heavily visited sites, and wildlife are returning to places that have become quieter and less disturbed by people. Conservation continues on many levels.
New conservation issue: The proposed Avalon Hotel, in Fort Bragg, hopes to locate adjacent to MacKerricher State Park, north of the Pudding Creek Trestle. The DKY Chapter was contacted by Mendocino Coast Audubon Society who had concerns about potential impacts to the fragile natural ecosystem from increased visitation by hotel guests. We submitted a comment letter for the Draft IS/MND on April 17, 2020, that included a request that the City prepare an EIR (Environmental Impact Report), not just an MND, and also that potential impacts to tribal cultural landscapes and significant archaeological sites be addressed.
The IS/MND is now being revised and a new comment period is expected to extend from June 1 through June 30, 2020, with a public hearing scheduled for July 22, 2020. Send in your comments...it’s a way you can participate in the process. The letter we’ve submitted offered recommendations to address the impacts of increased public use resulting from the proposed Avalon Hotel. Some are listed here:
Impact areas must first be fully identified and documented through botanical surveys and erosion studies that include geospatial and timeline analysis;
Visitor use in the form of a ratio of existing use by hotel guests versus use by other park visitors needs to be quantified with projections on how use and impacts would increase from development of the Avalon Hotel;
A mitigation, monitoring, and reporting plan must be prepared that specifies success criteria, where and how actions will be taken, and how funds will be dedicated to implement those actions;
Monitoring must include criteria to assess protective actions and where remedial actions may be necessary; mitigation measures, monitoring, and remedial actions must be implemented in perpetuity, with annual funding provided by the project proponent in relation to the number of hotel guests.
Status of the Mendocino County proposed oak woodland ordinance: Planning for the ordinance appears to have been put on hold indefinitely due to COVID-19. The last e-mail received from Vandy Vandewater, Mendocino County Planner, on March 16, 2020 stated that “As a precaution, the Department has decided to cancel the Oak Woodland Ordinance Workshop scheduled with the Planning Commission on Wednesday, March 18, 2020 until further notice.” The County had hoped to schedule a new meeting for late April in a venue that would allow social distancing, but we have not heard more.
Zoom Meetings are the new interactive media platform for monthly CNPS conservation calls. Statewide, CNPS conservation chairs continue our work in reviewing and taking action to reduce impacts to native flora. Our former monthly CNPS conservation calls have now become ZOOM meetings through which we can communicate with colleagues to share and learn about what is happening both on statewide and local issues.
Vegetation Treatment Program (CalFire VTP): ). On 12/30/2019, a controversial programmatic EIR for Cal Fire’s Vegetation Treatment program was approved and certified. Since then, during our monthly conservation meetings, a repeated theme from many of my colleagues has been issues related to vegetation clearing projects that are being proposed, implemented, and funded through the VTP. A lawsuit against the VTP has been filed by the California Chaparral Institute, Endangered Habitats League, Sequoia ForestKeeper, Los Angeles Audubon, and Friends of Harbors, Beaches, and Parks.
The California Chaparral Institute provides an informative document that presents photos and maps detailing serious problems with Cal Fire’s habitat clearance Vegetation Treatment Program: “Five Reasons We Are Taking Cal Fire to Court” https://
-are-taking-cal-fire-to-court/ As stated by the CA Chaparral Institute: “Cal Fire has approved a program that will make the landscape more flammable, fail to protect communities most at risk, accelerate the loss of native plant communities, and reduce the carbon absorbing abilities of native habitats.”
Locally, in Mendocino County, some roadside vegetation clearance projects have been approved under this Cal Fire program. With some success, I have been working with Sanhedrin Chapter members to inform project proponents about sensitive vegetation concerns, avoidance measures that are important, and the need for botanical surveys as part of project planning.
In the meantime, I wish for all to stay well and to seek comfort through appreciation of our wonderful outdoors, knowing that natural areas can recover if we give them a rest from human impact.
Under normal circumstances your Board and others who love the wildflower show would be strategizing about where to collect plants, whether to feature
certain families or habitats, whether more labels need to be made, and who is going to help set up and take down. This issue of the Calypso would contain information about the show and request for volunteers. But this is no normal year, and of course there will be no Wildflower Show. We have started talking about inviting photographers to contribute their best photos of their favorite plants, but we don’t have the details of that worked out yet. Our general plan for the show this year was to feature a couple of important local habitats and the plants found in them, and we will still work on that. You may see the displays online before you get to see them up close and personal.
If you are a user of Facebook, be on the lookout for many wonderful online tours of gardens and reports of neat plants people are seeing on their close-to-home walks. You can learn more about our local plants by using CalFlora.org. Pick a family or genus, and you will see photos of all the species. You can select just from Mendocino County, or Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Click on a species name and you will see a detailed map of where that plant grows. Just looking at the photos carefully, and considering the map, will help you recognize the plants when you get back out in the field.
On a personal note, some of you know that for many years (it seems like forever), I have been going to the California deserts in the spring. Most of my Mother’s Days have been spent in southern California, visiting my mother in Claremont when she was alive, and looking for plants in the southern Sierra Nevada, Owens Valley, and Mojave Desert. My quest was to find populations of Nemacladus, a little annual in the Campanulaceae, in its own subfamily Nemacladoideae, with a fascinating diversity of flower morphologies.
I photographed them, collected herbarium specimens, collected samples for molecular analysis, and just stared at them a lot. I’ve looked at specimens from herbaria throughout California and other areas in the western U.S. I finally completed the paper, with my colleague Tina Ayers of Northern Arizona University, and it was published in Madroño, the journal of the California Botanical Society (as a sidebar, this is a great organization and if you are really interested in California botany you should join). We named seven new species and a new variety of Nemacladus! You can view the article at:
Authors: Morin, Nancy R., and Ayers, Tina J. Source: Madroño, 67(1) : 35-60 Published By: California Botanical Society URL: https://doi.org/10.3120/0024-9637-67.1.35
Nemacladus are very small annual herbs with slender, sometimes threadlike, branching stems bearing small five-lobed flowers. Varying flower shapes and nectar guide patterns have evolved in these plants that mostly are found in deserts. Some species grow in the Sierra Nevada and coast ranges, often on serpentine.
Of the seven newly named Nemacladus species, two are from the Inyo and White Mountains and also near the California-Nevada state border:
Nemacladus morefieldii, whole flower barely 2 mm. It occurs in the White and Inyo Mountains mostly, and near the California/Nevada border. Named for James Morefield, botanist with the Nevada Natural Heritage Program. Photo S. Matson.
Nemacladus inyoensis, flower barely 2 mm, truly new to science. First discovered in 2010 and large populations were found in 2019. The species name reflects its original discovery in the Inyo Mountains of eastern California. Photo S. Matson.
Nemacladus twisselmannii var. botanywomaniae was first discovered in 2012. Flowers are 2 mm or less. A tiny population of tiny plants represented a 350 km disjunction from the only other known locality--also tiny populations rarely seen in the Greenhorn Mountains. Photo K. Morse.
A new species and an elevated variety to species in the Nemacladus longiflorus complex:
Nemacladus eastwoodiae, flower 2 mm or less, widespread in the Mojave Desert. Named after botanist Alice Eastwood, 1859–1953, quintessential California botanist, who collected Nemacladus throughout the state. Photo T. Ayers.
Nemacladus matsonii, flower 4-5 mm, from the Owens Valley. Named in honor of Steve Matson, who has been documenting the plants of the western U.S., especially the Owens Valley, making his excellent images (nearly 24,000) available through CalPhotos, Berkeley. Photo S. Matson.
Nemacladus parikhiae, flower about 4-5 mm, San Gabriel and San Bernardino mountains. Named in honor of Anuja Parikh, who, with Nathan Gale, for years has provided extremely helpful photos, specimens, and observations of many Nemacladus taxa. Photo N. Morin.
Nemacladus richardsiae, formerly included in N. longiflorus. Flowers 5-6.3 mm long. Mostly the Temecula Valley in southern California. Named after Florida botanist, Jennifer H. Richards, who has studied Nemacladus in the field and accompanied me on many collecting trips. Photo N. Morin.
Four new species in the Nemacladus sigmoideus complex:
Nemacladus breviflorus, formerly N. longiflorus var. breviflorus. Flowers 1.5–2 mm long. Occurs in southern California mountains, western Mojave, south into Baja California, with outliers in Utah and Arizona. Plant photo by A. Schusteff; flower photo by N. Morin.
Nemacladus bellus, flower 2-2.5 mm long. Occurs in the Greenhorn Mountains in Kern County. The specific epithet, ‘‘bellus,’’ refers to the beautiful appearance of the plants when they are covered with delicate flowers. Photo N. Morin.
6 May-Jun 2020
CNPS DKY Botanical Gems
Tauschia kelloggii (A. Gray) J.F. McBride
Kellogg’s Tauschia, Kellogg’s umbrellawort
by Peter Baye
The Mendocino-Sonoma Coast flora has a surprising number of uncommon to rare “intruders” from inland - plant species that are almost exclusively distributed in the interior coast ranges. As more of the vast, remote forest and ranch lands of northwestern Sonoma County and southern Mendocino County undergo changes in ownership from private to conservation forestry by non-profits, like The Conservation Fund’s Buckeye Forest (formerly “Preservation Ranch”), the Gualala Forest, and the Garcia Forest, more of the obscure botanical gems hidden in the back of Dorothy King Young territory become known to our chapter, and to California botany.
Kellogg’s Tauschia (or Kellogg’s Umbrellawort) is a low-growing spring-flowering perennial forb with the overall aspect of a broad-leaf, yellow-flowered Lomatium, for which it could easily be casually mistaken (as I did for longer than I’d like to admit). There are no reported coastal or outer coast range records of the species in Mendocino or Sonoma County; the most coastal occurrences were from the type locality (“Bolinas Bay”, likely Bolinas Ridge) and Mt. Tamalpais in Marin County. The species occurs along the Coast Ranges (Santa Cruz to Del Norte and Trinity Counties), northern Sierra Nevada foothills from Tulare to Shasta Counties, north to Oregon. W.L. Jepson’s regional and state floras from 1911-1925 described Tauschia kelloggii as “rather rare”, but by the time of publication of A Flora of California in 1936, additional collections revised this to “infrequent”.
In Smith and Wheeler’s Mendocino County flora, Tauschia kelloggii’s distribution was based primarily on their own findings and California Academy of Sciences specimens, which were limited to eastern and interior county localities (Mayacmas Range, Red Mountain (serpentine), Mt. Sanhedrin, near Potter Valley, and other eastern Mendocino localities. The 1996 Sonoma County flora of Best, Howell, Knight, and Wells described T. kelloggii as rare, with only
one eastern locality (Pepperwood). Since then, only two other localities were reported, both eastern: Kerry Heise’s Geyserville vicinity population, and another Mayacama locality reported by Don Loarie. The limited Preservation Ranch surveys by Heise and three other botanical teams (which according to Heise did not cover more than 5% of its vast 20,000 acres) did not report T. kelloggii.
There are at least seven occurrences of Tauschia kelloggii on relatively inaccessible steep slopes around coastal watersheds of Fuller Creek and Mountain (including south-facing slopes above the Wheatfield Fork, Gualala River), most of which is now within The Conservation Fund’s Buckeye Forest. Two of these occur on private rural residential parcels adjacent to the former Preservation Ranch.
Each of them occurs on relatively dry, rocky, steep shale and sandstone outcrops or talus (landslide rubble), partially shaded by mixed evergreen forest or redwood-douglas fir-tanoak forest, often associated with openings where canyon live oak (Quercus chrysophylla) colonies occur.
Though Tauschia kelloggii is sometimes associated with serpentine bedrock and soil outcrops elsewhere in its range, it appears to be absent in the serpentine vegetation
Tauschia kelloggii, whole flowering plant.
Tauschia kelloggii, leaf, and leaflet.
Plant growing in shale outcrop.
Seedlings in shale talus.
7 May-Jun 2020
of Buckeye Forest (Big Rock, Oak Ridge; Redwood Creek) as well as the Gualala River Wheatfield Fork (Burnt Knoll, Clark’s Crossing, Haupt Ranch). Population sizes range from a few precarious plants on unstable fractured shale, to extensive colonies, with large “seedling shadows” below large, fertile mother plants perched at the summit of old road cuts, landslides, or outcrops. Some colonies appear to be very old, associated with gnarled mature canyon live oaks on nearly vertical slopes. Others appear to be opportunistic old road cut colonies established from a few founder plants that survived clear-cut logging of the 1960s.
The first flowers of Tauschia kelloggii appear almost at the same time as the first leaves, usually in March, and sometimes even in warm late February, on Fuller Mountain. This mild coastal mountain climate phenology is earlier than the reported April- June flowering period reported in the Jepson Manual and other floras, based on colder interior localities. Flowering can continue here through May, when flower buds, flowers, and immature fruits can occur together on different inflorescences of the same plant. Inflorescences have the aspect of yellow-flowered Lomatiums, but the scent of the leaves, roots, and flowers is unmistakably more like celery-parsley fragrance of Angelica. In fact, the Northern Pomo aboriginal name for Tauschia kelloggii was the same as that for Angelica (ba tco’ wa; very similar to other Pomo dialects). Northern Pomo reportedly consumed T. kelloggii as an edible spring green in large quantities, and also used it as a fragrant and spiritually significant medicinal body rub, like Angelica. The taste is certainly pleasant, with a sweet aftertaste.
The plant grows from a short rootstock and deep, yellowish taproot, which starts development during the seedling stage. Leaves of the Fuller Mountain populations appear nearly glabrous, but are obscurely and minutely (microscopically and very sparsely) scabrous, and dark green. Leaf blades are ovate, Blade 8-20 cm in length, with 1-3 ternate coarsely serrate or sharply lobed leaflets 1.5-3.5 cm.
The only stems above ground are the very firm, leaning thick peduncles of inflorescences, which are usually 20-40 cm long here. Peduncles terminate with 10-20 rays (sometimes as few as 9 here) 2-12 cm long. The corolla is yellow, with a slender pair of styles that persist after the corolla withers. The fruits are 3-5 mm long, nearly round in cross-section, with 2-3 oil tubes in the intervals between the shallow ribs. The flowers are often browsed by deer, and seed maturation and production is irregular among populations and years. Seedling recruitment, however, can be locally abundant one or two years a decade, and this may be essential to the regeneration of populations.
Tauschia kelloggii appears under various synonyms in 19th century California botanical texts: Velaea Kelloggii (Coulter & Rose), and Deweya kelloggii (A. Gray) are the most frequently cited ones. The name Tauschia commemorates I.F. Tausch, a distinguished early 19th century Czech botanist who worked on “Umbelliferae” (Apiaceae) taxonomy.
How many more relatively rare interior coast range species elements are there in the coast ranges within DKY territory? As more amateur and professional field botanists roam newly acquired conservation lands, we will find out how many interior botanical gems we usually associate with serpentine or other special soil types and geologic formations are shared with our coastal flora. More will appear soon in Botanical Gems DKY newsletters.
Tauschia kellogiii umbel and umbellet.
Mendocino County SOD Blitz Proceeds Despite COVID-19
Pick up sampling envelopes in Fort Bragg the weekend of June 6th and 7th from 10-11 am. Volunteer citizen scientists and other participants interested in 2020 SOD training and sampling along the Mendocino Coast can pick up their sampling envelopes at the entrance parking lot of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens 18220 North Highway One Fort Bragg the weekend of June 6th and 7th from 10 - 11 am. The SOD table and box will be labeled containing sampling envelopes and positioned outside of the Gardens Admissions Entrance for pick up. Participants will be asked to individually mail their sample envelopes directly to the UC Berkeley Lab. SOD Blitz sampling envelopes, return address labels and postage will be provided to participants. Contact: DKY Education Chairman Mario Abreu [email protected]. See revised SOD Blitz Guidelines- COVID-19: https://nature.berkeley.edu/matteolab/?page_id=5095.
Membership in the California Native Plant Society is open to all. The task and mission of the Society is to increase awareness, understanding, and appreciation of California native plants. The challenge is to preserve their natural habitat through scientific, educational, and conservation activities. Membership includes subscriptions to Fremontia, Flora and the chapter newsletter, The Calypso. Name_____________________________________
Address ___________________________________
City___________________________ Zip ________
Tel. ___________ E-mail _____________________
Please choose the chapter you wish to join; CNPS will make the assignment if none is specified by applicant.
I wish to affiliate with the DKY Chapter ______ or, other chapter _______________________________
MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY
Student/Fixed Income $25 Individual $50 Plant Lover $120 Supporter $500 Patron $1,000 Benefactor $2,500 Make check to: California Native Plant Society Mail check and application to:
Bob Rutemoeller, Membership Committee DKY Chapter, CNPS PO Box 577 Gualala, CA 95445
Next Board Meeting: The next Board meeting TBA. Contact Nancy Morin at [email protected]. Calypso newsletter: If you wish to contribute items contact [email protected]. If you choose to receive the emailed pdf version of the newsletter, contact Bob Rutemoeller at 884-4426 or [email protected].
Yellow-faced bumblebee on wild rose, Rosa cf. nutkana. Caspar, CA, 2017. Photo by Katy Pye.
Hosackia gracilis, harlequin lotus. Near Point Arena, April, 2020. Photo by Jinx McCombs.
