P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 $5.00 per year, non-members
Volume 2014 May-Jun ‘14 The Printed on recycled paper
CALYPSO NEWSLETTER OF THE DORODOROTHYTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
PRESIDPRESIDENT’SENT’S MESSAGE by Nancy Morin
Many exciting things are happening in the CNPS world, locally, state-wide, and in the national arena. Locally, we had some great wildflower walks for California Native Plant Week April 12—19, at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, on the new California Coastal National Monument, at the Point Arena Lighthouse, and on The Sea Ranch. Thanks to Lori Hubbart, Mario Abreu, Lynn Tuft, and Mary Hunter for leading walks. Now we are gearing up for the Annual Wildflower Show—fast becoming one of our favorite activities. Don’t miss it—it’s such a lot of fun. You get to spend as much time as you like staring at each plant, with the name right there and one of our volunteers happy to answer your questions. We will have books, posters, and plants for sale, too.
All of CNPS is getting ready for the next Conservation Conference, January 13—17, 2015, at the Doubletree by Hilton in San Jose. There will be more than 22 sessions covering every aspect of native plants of interest to CNPS members, with more than 200 presenters plus posters. We’ll be celebrating CNPS’s 50 th anniversary and 50 years of accomplishment— great reasons to party. You’ll hear more about this, of course, but mark your calendars now. This will be an incredibly exciting, invigorating event!
And CNPS is branching out. The Chapter Council meeting CNPS Field Trip at The Sea Ranch, April 19. on May 31 and June 1 in San Ysidro will be in co-hosted by the San Diego Chapter and the new Baja California Chapter, with a couple of great field trips in Baja. Let me know if you are interested in attending. In addition to extending into northern Baja California, CNPS is developing partnerships with sister organizations to address urgent conservation issues. Here are examples of what is going on, thanks largely to great leadership by CNPS Executive Director Dan Gluesenkamp:
Jepson Herbarium obtained funding from the National Science Foundation to train CNPS Rare Plant Treasure Hunt volunteers to collect tissue for DNA analysis! These collections will be used to map the deep evolutionary diversity of California, in the process drawing a whole new map of conservation priorities.
With the California Lichen Society, CNPS is adding rare lichens to the Online Inventory of Rare Plants!
CNPS is partnering with the Center for Plant Conservation, Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, and others to collect seeds from every population of rare plants in California. It is ambitious, unprecedented, will start this summer thanks to a timely contribution from one of our chapter delegates. Please stay tuned for more.
CONSERVATION NEWS by Lori Hubbart
Sudden Oak Death – SOD Blitz 2014 This year’s Blitz, organized by that indefatigable SOD researcher, Matteo Garbelotto, was held over Easter weekend. It included two training sessions, one in Fort Bragg and one in Gualala, each of which was attended by ten or so people. After the training we went out and collected leaf samples over the next two days.
The leaf samples were collected from some new locations this year, as well as some repeat sites from last year. In the primary vector for SOD, California bay laurel MENDOCINO COAST (Umbellularia californica ), only the leaves WILDFLOWER SHOW carry the pathogen. SOD does not get into Memorial Day weekend, the twigs or bark, so it does not kill this tree. May 24-25, 2014 In prolonged dry periods, the pathogen goes 10-5 Saturday, 10-4 Sunday . into a kind of remission in bay leaves, only to Gualala Community Center reappear after rainfall. Since this year has Be sure to come to the THIRD Annual been rather dry, there were far fewer Wildflower Show! It will be at the Gualala diseased bay leaves in evidence than last Community Center on Memorial Day spring. weekend, May 25 and 26. Last year we had The other tree that is a focus of the Blitz some 200 species of beautiful native plants research project is tanbark “oak” on display and more than 250 people (Notholithocarpus densiflora ). Tanoaks, enjoying them. Each plant is carefully labeled relatives of true oaks ( Quercus species), with its scientific name, common name, and support a vast array of other life forms, plant family and virtually all of them can be including mammals, butterflies, lichens and found in our Chapter’s territory. mushrooms. A different year, different plants. With the In this species SOD does attack the wood and drought and early and late rains who knows twigs, leading to a very high mortality rate. what we’ll have for the show—it will be an The Big Sur area in Monterey County and the adventure. We’ll also have examples of local Kashia Pomo Reservation in Sonoma County non-native weeds. Books, posters, and have been devastated by Sudden Oak Death. plants will be for sale too, and botanical experts on hand to answer your questions. Last year, the SOD Blitz volunteers in our Please come, and tell your friends—it is free! area found very few diseased tanoak trees. If you have plants blooming on your property It will be interesting to learn what they found that you would like to have included in the this year. As always, the results of the show, let Nancy Morin know—she can tell you statewide Blitz collecting will be made public whether we already have that species and, if in October. not, will make a label for it (882-2528;
2 May-June ‘14
The information is being published in a series of books (16 out of 30 volumes have been published and one is in press) and online http://www.floraofnorthamerica.org and http://plants.jstor.org . More information on the project and on sponsoring illustrations can be found on its website and on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/fna.org .
Jug Handle Creek Farm and Nature Center Native Plant Sale
To celebrate spring and Mother's Day, Jug Handle Creek Farm and Nature Center will host a spring plant sale and open house at its Native Plant Nursery on Sunday May 11th from 1 to 4 p.m. Plants make a lovely Mother’s Day gift.
Come to the Farm at 15501 N. Highway One, on the east side of Highway One in Caspar. Jug Handle is located right near the Jug Handle State Reserve and its Ecological Staircase Trail.
Special cut rate prices on fairy bells, red Dorothy King Young Chapter huckleberries and trees such as alder and Dorothy King Young Chapter redwood and sales on man y other plants, Sponsors Illustration for including wild ginger, wild strawberries, Sitka spruce and wetland plant species. All nursery Flora of North America sales will support Jug Handle's education and
The DKY Chapter has sponsored the illustration restoration projects. Info: call 937-3498 or of Viola adunca, the western dog violet, to email [email protected] appear in Volume 6 of the Flora of North America north of Mexico series. The lovely artwork is by Yevonn Wilson-Ramsey.
Viola adunca is the sole food plant for the endangered Behren's Silverspot Butterfly, which is known only from coastal northern California. Viola adunca is one of the three native violas found in our area. Viola glabella, stream violet, and V. sempervirens, redwood violet, are the others.
Flora of North America is a project undertaken by a group of botanists who coordinate the work of hundreds of colleagues to provide the
best scientific information. about the plants Wild ginger, Asarum caudatum . © Neil Kramer growing outside of cultivation in North America north of Mexico 3 May-June ‘14
MINDING YOUR MENDO COAST PEAS AND...BEANSAND...BEANS???? By Nancy Morin
Conspicuous on the coast right now are plants in the legume family, Fabaceae. Most of our genera are pretty easy to recognize. The tall, shrubby yellow flowered plants along roadsides are all non-native: Scotch broom ( Cytisus scoparius ), French broom ( Genista monspessulana ), and gorse ( Ulex europaeus ). Blooming now is an uncommon native species, Thermopsis californica var. californica, false-lupine, a largish non-woody plant with large, palmately lobed, softly hairy leaves and bright yellow flowers. I’ve seen it growing in patches on the Gualala Ridge. We have been incorrectly naming our species Thermopsis macrophylla , which is found only in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County. Also very special is our native, spiny shrub, with deep pink flowers, Pickeringia montana , chaparral pea, the only species in the genus and only found in California and northern Baja California.
One group that is harder to keep straight is the lotus or bird’s-foot trefoil group. Our most familiar member, which has many names, including witch’s teeth, persian carpet, harlequin lotus, is now called Hosackia gracilis, but we all learned it as Lotus formosissimus. The most recent Jepson Manual of the Plants of California recognizes three genera in what used to be just Lotus. Interestingly, genetic analysis has suggested that the species native in Europe and Asia, kept in Lotus , are not closely related to the North American species, which have been placed in Acmispon and Hosackia .
Hosackia has identifiable, well-developed stipules—these are the two flaps of green tissue at base of each leaf.
Acmispon’ s stipules are small dark, glandlike dots or are Hosackia gracilis , harlequin lotus. © Neal Kramer absent. Hosackia leaves have 3 -15 leaflets, evenly syn.= Lotus formosissimus distributed and opposite each other along the leaf axis. Acmispon has irregularly arranged leaflets, sometimes palmately arranged and the terminal leaflet offset. In Lotus , which are all introduced from Eurasia, what look like the lowest leaflets are actually stipules.
The Lotus species occurring here are mostly brilliant, deep yellow-flowered plants hugging the ground along roadsides. In our area we have Lotus corniculatus, birdsfoot trefoil, which has 3 slender leaflets, plus the leaflike stipules at the base of the leaf, and Lotus angustissimus, which is slender but very hairy.
Here are the native species in our area, their previous and current scientific names, and tips on how to recognize them:
Hosackia , common name lotus, is also native to western North America. There are 11 species, 8 of which are in California, three reported from our area. Ours are perennial herbs.
• Hosackia gracilis , harlequin lotus, witch’s teeth, Persian carpet, was Lotus formosissimus . 3—9-flowered, the banner is yellow, wings are pink-purple.
• Hosackia rosea , was Lotus aboriginus . Very similar to Hosackia gracilis but flowers pink or white.
• Hosackia stipularis , was Lotus stipularis . 4—9 flowers, pink to purple, stipules wide, leaf-like, papery.
Less common: ● Hosackia oblongifolia , was Lotus oblongifolia . Very similar to Hosackia gracilis but flowers white and yellow. One report from Fort Bragg, otherwise inland. ● Hosackia pinnata , was Lotus pinnata . Flowers with banner yellow, other petals white. Reported from near Fish Rock and Hosackia rosea © Aaron Arthur Iverson Roads. syn.= Lotus aboriginus 4 May-June ‘14
Acmispon , deervetch, is native to western North America. It has 23 species, 21 of which occur in California, and nine of those have been reported from our area. All native.
• Acmispon americanus , Spanish pea, used to be Lotus purshianus . It is annual and has a single pink, white, or yellow flower on a long stalk.
• Acmispon glaber , deerweed, used to be Lotus scoparius . It is perennial, kind of shrubby, and has yellow flowers. The leaves fall early giving it a broom-like look.
• Acmispon grandiflorus used to be Lotus grandiflorus . It is perennial has large bright yellow flowers fading red, 2 or more per head, with leaflike bracts below them. Leaves are felty.
• Acmispon parviflorus , minature lotus, used to be Lotus micranthus . Annual, one flower, pink or salmon.
• Less common: ● Acmispon wrangelianus , was Lotus subpinnatus . Annual prostrate, one flower, yellow, becoming red in age. Coastal bluffs, chaparral. ● Acmispon brachycarpus , was Lotus humistratus . Annual, often fleshy and mat-forming. Dense silky hairs. Flowers 1, yellow, red in age. Grassland, pine woodland. ● Acmispon heermannii used to be Acmispon americanus , Spanish pea Lotus heermannii . It is perennial, prostrate, and its flowers are syn.= Lotus purshianus © D. Cook yellow to red and dark-tipped. ● Acmispon junceus , used to be Lotus junceus . Perennial but not woody, flowers 2—8, yellow. Coastal sand, chaparral. ● Acmispon strigosus , used to be Lotus strigosus . Annual, prostrate, forming mats. flowers one, yellow or orange. Stipules glandlike, black. Coastal scrub, chaparral.
Acmispon glaber , deerweed Acmispon grandiflorus Acmispon parviflorus, miniature lotus
syn. = Lotus scoparius © D. Cook syn. = Lotus grandiflorus © N. Krame r syn. = Lotus micranthus © D. Cook
Lupinus (at least 7 species here of the 96 species in North America), 3 three species of Astragalus , the locoweed (which has more than 2,500 species worldwide), many species of Trifolium, the clovers, about 8 species of Lathyrus , the common pea, and 8 species of Vicia , vetch, round out our legume flora, but we’ll have to talk about these in another issue of Calypso.
5 May-June ‘14
TETETERESATE RESA SHOLARS RETIRES FROM COLLEGE OF THE REDWOODS by Lori Hubbart and Nancy Morin
Teresa Sholars is retiring after nearly 40 years on the faculty at the Mendocino Campus of College of the Redwoods. She has taught many of the botanists now in northern California state agencies and most of the amateur naturalists on the Mendocino coast.
She received a B.S. in environmental planning and management from the University of California, Davis, in 1974 and an M.S. in ecology from Davis in 1975. In addition to her important natural areas within the chapter’s many years teaching, she has been a botanical purview. She has been the linchpin of the consultant, written numerous scholarly articles, Chapter’s unofficial, but vital conservation and served in various administrative and committee. In that role she has actively leadership capacities at College of the advocated for conservation of rare plants and Redwoods. plant communities, written letters, testified at Teresa and her husband, Robert E. Sholars, public meetings, and met with a variety of studied the “pygmy forest” of Mendocino stakeholder groups. She has also provided County. Working with Hans Jenny, professor of critical scientific information for chapter soil science at U.C. Berkeley, they learned conservation chairs and presidents. about the relationships between the plants and the extreme, highly acidic “pygmy” soils. Rob’s Teresa was named a CNPS Fellow, the organization’s highest honor, in 2010. book, The Pygmy Forest and Associated Plant Communities of Coastal Mendocino County , In her years of teaching in the Life Science came out in 1982. The couple, with Hans and Department at the College of the Redwoods, Teresa has introduced countless students to Jean Jenny, was very involved in education and advocacy on behalf of the pygmy forest and native plants and to CNPS, inspiring many to were instrumental in the establishment of the go on to careers in botany or ecology in academics, agencies, or conservation Jug Handle State Reserve with its Ecological Staircase Trail. Tragically, in 1988 Rob Sholars organizations. In a county with no four-year was killed in an auto accident. colleges, she has personified the principles behind scientific inquiry. Her educational and Teresa created and has taught most of the outreach work has given credibility to the natural history classes at the College of the biological sciences, native plants, and CNPS. Redwoods in Fort Bragg ever since. She began studying Lupinus and wrote the treatment of Now married to Michael Lloyd, a writer and the genus for the first edition of the Jepson organic gardener, Teresa is a mentor to many Manual of the Higher Plants of California and and a stateswoman of botany. While in its subsequent revision. She is also author for retirement she may choose to teach if she Lupinus for Flora of North America north of wants to, certainly we will never stop learning from her. Mexico. In 1987 Teresa started serving as Rare Plant Coordinator for our Dorothy King Help celebrate Teresa’s retirement on Friday, Young Chapter of CNPS chapter, a position she June 6 th from 5 to 8 p.m. in the Caspar still holds. Over the years she has given many Community Center. Please bring hors talks and field trips for the chapter, and has d’oeuvres to share and a beverage of your inventoried and written plant lists for many choice.
6 May-June ‘14
type of dispersal. Like many bulbs, brodiaeas FERAL PIGS ON THE COAST? and their kin have the ability to work By Lori Hubbart themselves down deeper into the soil as they A month ago, I was driving north on Highway grow. Thus, many larger, more mature bulbs One, a few miles south of Elk. On the east side of the road was a cow pasture, full of cows. However, I glimpsed other, strange animal shapes as I drove by. What the heck were those creatures?
At the next wide spot, I made a U-turn and drove by again. This time there was no doubt about it. Right there on Highway One was a herd of feral pigs. There were about 15 of them, in a variety of sizes. They were covered with bristly fur in dark gray or dark brown.
In 23 years on the coast, I have never seen an entire herd of feral pigs. Once in a while someone will report a wild pig or two on the coast, but hog herds were always seen miles Feral pig mother and piglets. © noozhawk.com inland, from Anderson Valley eastward. are below the reach of pig snouts.
Feral pigs are hybrids between escaped Some native grasses have also demonstrated domestic swine (Sus ccrofus domesticus and resilience in the face of pig grubbing. European wild boar ( Sus scrofus ) that were turned loose for hunting in the 19th century. The net effect of feral pig foraging and rooting They are intelligent, temperamental, about will vary from one plant community to omnivorous and usually hungry. another. Since our coast has not previously
Pigs do widespread damage by rooting in soil hosted large herds of these animals, we don’t with their leathery snouts, in search of native know what the impacts will be if pigs become more common here. bulbs, roots or small soil creatures. When soils are heavily disturbed in this way, the physical If readers have seen feral pig herds on the and chemical composition of the soil is altered. coast, please contact the editor so our CNPS
Researchers have found that not very many chapter can keep track of sightings. plants survive being uprooted by pigs. If there are weedy plant species in the vicinity, churned CNPS RARE PLANT TREASURE up soil is very hospitable to weeds. Nevertheless, some native bulbs, such as HUNTS –––TRIPS–TRIPS AND TRAININGS Brodiaea and Dicholostemma , have proven These trainings are scheduled to take place in fairly resistant to pig disturbance. nearby counties during May and June 2014:
There are possible reasons for this. One is that June 7th-8th - Knoxville Serpentines Day Hike these plants can produce copious amounts of (Lake/Napa County) small bulblets that are more likely to be June 28th - 29th – Rare Plant Treasure Hunt dispersed, rather than eaten by pigs. Another and Adopt-A-Botanical Area Training near is that for many thousands of years, native Arcata (Humboldt County). people dug up the bulbs of these plants for food, dispersing the bulblets in the process. See link for more information: The plants may have become adapted to this http://www.cnps.org/cnps/rareplants/treasure hunt/calendar.php
7 May-June ‘14
All phone numbers are area code 707
DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER
OFFICERS 2014 President: Nancy Morin 882-2528 [email protected] Vice President: Mario Abreu 937-3155
[email protected] Secretary: Lori Hubbart 882-1655 MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION [email protected] DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER Treasurer: Mary Hunter 785-1150 Membership in the California Native Plant Society [email protected]
is open to all. The task and mission of the Society is to COMMITTEE CHAIRPERSONS increase awareness, understanding, and appreciation
CONSERVATION Lori Hubbart 882-1655 of California native plants. The challenge is to preserve their natural habitat through scientific, educational, EDUCATION Helene Chalfin 964-1825 and conservation activities. Membership includes FIELD TRIPS Mario Abreu & Nancy Morin (temp) subscription to Fremontia , as well as our local chapter HISTORIAN Ramona Crooks 884-3585 newsletter, the Calypso .
HOSPITALITY OPEN Name ______
INVASIVE PLANTS Mario Abreu 937-3135 Address ______JUBATA ERADICATION OPEN City ______Zip ______
MAILINGS Ramona Crooks 884-3585 Tel. ______E-mail ______
MEMBERSHIP Bob Rutemoeller 884-4426 Please check, or name a chapter; CNPS will make NEWSLETTER Julia Larke 882-2935 assignment if none is specified by applicant. PLANT SALE Mario Abreu 937-3155 I wish to affiliate with the DKY Chapter ______
PLANT WATCH OPEN or, other chapter______POSTERS Lynn Tuft 785-3392
MEMBERSHIP CATEGORY PUBLICITY OPEN Student/Limited Income $25 PROGRAMS Lori Hubbart 882-1655 Individual $45 RARE & ENDANGERED: Family/International/Library $75 Coordinator Teresa Sholars 962-2686 Plant Lover $100 Inland Clare Wheeler-Sias 895-3131 Patron $300 Benefactor $600 Sea Ranch Lynn Tuft 785-3392
Make check out to: South Coast Jon Thompson 884-4847 California Native Plant Society VEGETATION OPEN
Mail check and application to: WEBMASTER Mindy Eisman [email protected] Bob Rutemoeller, Membership Committee
DKY Chapter, CNPS PO Box 577
Gualala, CA 95445
MEMBERSHIP : Renewal - renewal date is listed on the address label of your CNPS Bulletin. If you have questions, contact Bob Rutemoeller at 884-4426, [email protected].
NEXT BOARD MEETING : Contact Nancy Morin at 882-2528 for board meeting dates.
CALYPSO items : Send to Julia Larke - [email protected] . If you wish to switch to a digital
version of the newsletter, please send an email © Jake Ruygt request to Bob Rutemoeller [email protected] .
Hosackia stipularis is the new name for Lotus stipularis as a result of recent taxonomic revisions in the genus Lotus. 8 May-June 14 ‘