July 2012 CHAPTER MEETING Fred has worked as Tuesday, July 17; 7 p.m. Assistant Herbarium Room 104, Casa del Prado Curator at U.C. Irvine Balboa Park and a botanist for the US Fish and Wildlife THE LIVEFOREVERS OF SAN DIEGO Service but is now a botanical consultant, COUNTY AND ADJACENT SOUTHERN author, and artist. CALIFORNIA AND BAJA He is best known for his work on Orange County CALIFORNIA, MEXICO plants and oaks but he has always had a passion for the genus Dudleya. Presentation by Fred Roberts Pre-meeting Natives for Novices at 6:30 p.m. "Planting and Maintaining Native Plants" by Sue Marchetti. The liveforevers, members of the genus Dudleya, are 7:00 p.m. – refreshments, book browsing, socializing. a popular and easily recognized group of succulent 7:30 p.m. – presentation. plants. They have been assigned to one of three groups depending on whether their flowers are united into a tube or open and star-like, and whether they originate from underground corms or form rosettes of either flattened or finger shaped leaves. About 45 species are found in southwestern North America, San Gabriel with about 25 percent of these found in San Diego Mountains County. If you expand that area to include mainland liveforever Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, and northern Baja (Dudleya California south to Cabo Colonet, the region includes densiflora) well over half of all known species. Many liveforevers are narrow endemics often found in dramatic settings along cliffs, sea bluffs, and vanishing landscapes. If you have seen them in flower, you know they are a delight to find and observe. Tonight, join Fred Roberts, the Chapter Rare Plant Botanist, as he tells us about this interesting Chapter meetings are free and open to the public. They are held group of plants. Learn something about in which the 3rd Tuesday of each month (except August) in the Casa del habitats we can expect to find them, their rarity Prado Room 104, just west of the San Diego Natural History status, the characters used to separate them, and the MuseumFIRST in Balboa ANNUAL Park. CNPS-SD diversity of forms growing within our region. careful if you get me started talking about seed - I think VEEP SPEAKS they are amazing! Imagine, every live seed is waiting, respiring, metabolizing, ever so slowly, waiting for the right moment... Hello Chapter. I have been remiss in my Veep Speaks duties! While many of you know me, many do not. So in I currently work as a plant ecologist in San Diego for the this month’s Veep Speaks, I’d like to use the column to consulting firm AECOM. Some of my current work includes introduce myself to the San Diego Chapter of the California a collaborative effort with the California Department of Native Plant Society. My name is Jonathan Dunn. I am a Fish and Game to map natural vegetation in western San San Diego native and have worked in the field of native Diego County on behalf of San Diego Association of habitat conservation and restoration for the last twenty Governments. I presented some of this work at the recent years. CNPS Conservation Conference, and I hope to present an update of this work to the Chapter in the months to come. My interest and respect for California native plants began, in part, from growing up in and around Tecolote Canyon. I am very pleased to serve as Vice-president of our Board Through most of my childhood, hiking in the canyon was and to assist you all in guiding the Chapter. my primary recreational activity. Getting scratched up by the chaparral and being unsuccessful in avoiding poison ~ Jonathan Dunn, Vice President oak never seemed to lessen the fun of being in what seemed at the time to be a vast natural area. My interest in native plants is also traceable to my mother’s interest in the subject. Lucille Dunn was well known for her BOARD MEETING elderberry wines and cactus apple jellies. She took care to demonstrate her belief that the natural world has intrinsic Wednesday, July 11, 6:30 - 8:30 p.m., monthly CNPS beauty and utility through her use of native landscaping San Diego Chapter board meeting to be held at 4010 and her craft works. While her cactus garden might have Morena Blvd, Suite 100, San Diego (Thomas Guide 1248 seemed intimidating to some, bringing these plants close to C4). Exit I-5 to Balboa Dr. east and turn north on Morena our home helped me to realize that while nature can be Drive. Proceed 1/2 mile and make a u-turn at the Avati dangerous, you can learn to walk in the natural world safely Street signal and turn into the driveway for 4010. Drive to if you are observant to your surroundings. the parking lot on the west side (away from Morena). Members are welcome to attend as observers. If you want My interest in native plants was formalized when I had the to discuss an issue, please ask to get on the agenda by opportunity to study the California flora with Dr. J.R. sending an email to [email protected]. Haller at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Through my studies under and subsequent employment by Dr. Haller, I gained an understanding of taxonomy and systematic, which somewhat redefined my memories of growing up in “the canyon.” The “chaparral and scrub” became individual species and my understating of the ecology of natural systems grew. Following my formal introduction to the California flora through “Botany 103,” Did you know …….? Dr. Haller hired me to assist in the curation of herbarium collections and prepare lab samples for the following year’s The CNPS Rare Plant Phenology Forum provides a place students. This work would inform my eventual career path. for field botanists to share observation data relating to I am still amazed at how often I meet other Botany 103 flowering and fruiting times, as well as the general location alumni working in natural resource conservation fields - a of California’s rare plant taxa. Sharing these types of strong testament to excellent instructor. observations assists field botanists, researchers, consultants, and others on when to conduct field studies Throughout my career, I have had the good fortune to work and surveys on the subject taxon. This forum is only as rich with many outstanding botanists (and a few pretty good as the number of contributors that provide this type of data. wildlife biologists) in some of the most splendid areas of The data that contributors provide is not expected to be California. My work has included, the planning and voluminous, but is expected to be as scientifically accurate implementation of large scale habitat restoration projects and reliable as possible. Short, succinct entries will keep on San Clemente Island, in the Mojave Desert, and in this reference usable and quickly searchable for individuals coastal San Diego county. I have had the opportunity to seeking phenology information on a specific rare plant collaborate on several multidisciplinary endangered species taxon. Find more information about the Forum and how recovery teams. I have constructed several native plant you can participate at: nurseries for the propagation of local plants for restoration http://www.cnps.org/cnps/rareplants/forum-phenology.php. projects. And I had the pleasure to briefly serve as project manager for the San Diego Zoological Society’s Native Seed Gene Bank, and in this capacity, I was fortunate to study seed conservation practices at the Royal Botanic Garden Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank in Wakehurst, England. Be 2 down here, too. CONSERVATION So here's my half of an opportunity, and it's up to you: I'm looking for a few plant geeks, trained or untrained, who are interested in adopting a species and getting to know it One and a Half Opportunities really, really well. If that sounds like fun to you, email me at [email protected]. If a number of people For a change, I'd like to write about one and a half volunteer, we will set up an East Bay-style program. If not, opportunities coming up in the next year. we'll do it my mom's way. If you subscribe to the CNPSSD weblist, you have probably Happy summer! already seen the full-blown opportunity. San Diego City Parks has invited CNPSSD to create a full flora for Del Mar ~ Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair Mesa. This involves collecting and identifying all the plants in the area, and this requires some knowledge of the local plants. I'm leading the effort, and if you want to volunteer, contact me at [email protected] TECOLOTE CANYON Here's the back story: on April 21st, CNPS-SD had a hike NATURAL PARK on Del Mar Mesa, an area that's officially off-limits to the public. I regularly go in there as a volunteer monitor, and July 1; 9 a.m. to noon. A as part of the hike preparation, I created a list of over 100 relaxed opportunity to learn plants I had seen in the area. The hike went extremely well, plant lore of this coastal natural reserve from a CNPS and the rangers took copies of my list. A bit later, the member. Meet at the Tecolote Nature Center. Wear senior ranger got back to me. She had found that my list sun protection and comfortable walking shoes, bring was more complete than the list they had for the area, so water. Rain at 8 a.m. cancels the walk Directions: exit she asked if I would create a complete plant list.