Volume 42 Number 9 - December 2016

Society News

Northern Nevada Southern Nevada Events Events February 2 – Janel Johnson looks back January - No meeting scheduled. Have a on 2016’s phenomenal Carson Valley Happy New Year! monkeyflower super-bloom. February 6 - Melissa Sanders of the oin our speakers before the meetings Great Basin Institute and Southern Jfor dinner at 5:30 at Great Full Nevada Office of the BLM will present Gardens, 555 South Virginia Street. “Seeds of Success and the Federal Meetings are in room 300G of the Native Materials Development Fleischman Agriculture Building on the Program in Southern Nevada.” UNR campus, north of 9th Street and Evans Avenue. March 6 - Dr. Jim Boone, Ecologist and Enter the building under the founder of BirdandHike.com will present breezeway on the west side near the “Gold Butte and the Biology of Elevation street. There’s an elevator at the east end Gradients.” of the building. Meet on the third floor and down the hall from the UNR herbarium. outhern Nevada Meetings are held Social time starts at 7:00 pm and the Sin Henderson the first Monday of program starts at 7:30. The outside door every month from 6:30-7:30 pm (unless will be automatically locked at 7:30. otherwise noted when holidays fall on first Parking is enforced in the lot on the Mondays) at the U.S. Geological Survey SE corner of Evans and Record Way. office at 160 North Stephanie Street. Parking passes and maps are Our program coordinator is Lesley available from the university – see www. DeFalco. If you would like email updates unr.edu/parking for more information. for Southern Nevada events, please email Parking may be available on the street. her at [email protected] and ask to be A small metered parking lot is along the added to the list. east side of the Fleischmann Agriculture building and another metered lot is located two blocks west at the Center Events subject to change. Street entrance. Visit nvnps.org for updates. carsonensis

The Year of the Monkey Story by Janel Johnson

n the spring of 1868, while Clarence of color among the sage-brush in the IKing’s Expedition waited in Carson City lower valleys, the delicate inch-long for the weather to improve sufficiently to stem seeming scarce able to sustain the resume their survey of the 40th parallel, absurdly disproportionate flowers that the expedition’s newly promoted botanist, terminate it.” In his later report on the Sereno Watson, explored the local hills he collected during the expedition, and valleys (Brewer, 1905). Near Carson he named it a new variety of Mimulus City he found “A pretty dwarf flower of rubellus, var. latiflora, beginning a earliest spring, forming bright patches long tradition of lumping these plants

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

2 E. barbata E. calcicola E. carsonensis E. discolor E. montioides

Geographic distribution of species that were previously included in Mimulus montioides. into broadly defined and wide ranging reviewing the taxonomic history of the Mimulus species (Watson, 1871). group and noticed that the description The western Nevada plants were for M. montioides was based on three maintained as M. rubellus var. latiflora by different collections. When Naomi visited Asa Gray(1886), who also included M. NatiCarsononal Geogr aCityphic, E sinri, D2009,eLorme, havingHERE, UN EpreviouslyP-WCMC, USG S, NASA, ESA, METI, NRCAN, GEBCO, NOAA, increment P Corp. montioides in M. rubellus. Adele Grant’s visited the High Sierra sites of M. G(1924)eogr arevisionphic dis oftr iMimulusbution o fspecies species that were pmontioidesreviously i,n sheclud recognizeded in Mimu limmediatelyus montioid es. recognized M. montioides as a separate that the plants were a different species species with the northern Nevada (Fraga, pers. comm.). Not only are the plants lumped in with plants from high plants separated by a large distance, they mountain meadows in the southern Sierra occupy very different habitats, and the Nevada. flowers of the Carson City plants bear a This treatment was followed until striking red spot that can be difficult to Naomi Fraga, conservation botanist at see in faded pressed specimens. Based Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, was on these and other differences, she

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

3 Erythranthe carsonensis published a paper in 2012 describing range, much of which now lies beneath the western Nevada plants as a Carson City and farms of Carson and separate species, giving them the name Washoe valleys. In 2011, the Nevada Erythranthe carsonensis or Carson Native Plant Society’s Rare Plant Valley monkeyflower. During a recent Workshop added E. carsonensis to extensive revision of the entire family the NNPS list of threatened plants and Scrophulariaceae, Erythranthe, a former recommended that the State of Nevada, sub-genus of Mimulus, was promoted to Bureau of Land Management, and US the level of genus, and all monkeyflowers Forest Service recognize the soon-to-be were moved to the Lopseed Family, named species and begin protecting its (Barker et al. 2012; habitat. Beardsley & Olmstead 2002). From 2010 to 2015, a few local With the recognition of Carson Valley botanists and volunteers searched for monkeyflower as a separate species the plants in remnant sagebrush stands it became clear that the species is around the edges of Carson City, places restricted to a very small geographic such as Prison Hill, Indian Hills, and

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

4 A mat of Erythranthe carsonensis overlooking Washoe Valley.

Jack’s Valley. Except for 2011, which was nlike perennial plants that use deep unusually cold and wet, the winter and Uroots, hairy leaves, or stored water spring weather was exceptionally dry. to survive a drought, annual plants can You may remember the unusual mid- avoid the effects of drought by simply winter wildfires in Reno and Pleasant staying dormant until growing conditions Valley, driven by high winds and parched improve. Desert annuals are well adapted vegetation. For a plant with roots that for this strategy with small, hard seeds rarely extend beyond three inches deep, that can survive for years in the soil. This winter and spring rainfall are critical to survival strategy results in the famous growth and reproduction. During these “super-blooms” in Death Valley when severe drought years, our searches flooding stimulates seeds to germinate en yielded very few plants. At the type masse, carpeting the valley with color. locality on the southwestern slope of In the winter of 2015-2016 the drought Prison Hill, a team of eight interns and cycle finally eased, bringing a wetter two botanists managed to find only a than normal winter and then an unusual single . series of rain showers alternating with

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

5 Development threatens many of the known Erythranthe carsonensis populations.

warm, sunny weather in the spring. The “they’re all over valley floor south of the combination of moisture and warmth Gardnerville Ranchos.” One email even proved to be just the thing the dormant led us to a small valley at the top of the seeds were waiting for. The first sighting ridge that separates Carson City from came in late March; a former Natural Washoe Valley, a spot we never would Heritage Program colleague saw them have looked if not for a guy out riding while jogging on Prison Hill, just east of his dirt bike who noticed the cute yellow Carson City. Even on a cold, cloudy day flowers. the carpets of yellow flowers around the We only expected a short window water tank were visible from a distance. for surveying before the flowers dried up We spent a full day chasing the little and the tiny plants became impossible to flowers from the top of the toeslope down find, but the unusual weather pattern of to the line of houses. frequent light showers extended through Excited by our find and knowing April and May, delivering more than three that there was far more habitat than times the normal amount of precipitation two botanists could cover in two to for those two months. With the extra rain three weeks, we sent a press release and help from volunteers, including a to the local newspapers, websites, and large group of NNPS members, we were the NNPS mailing list, asking people able to map areas of monkeyflowers to contact us and send photos if they about five times larger than everything we located any monkeyflowers. While we had mapped previously. More importantly, started searching near previously known many of the new populations are in areas locations, the reports from the public that are farther from development on started pouring in. Each day when I public lands that have not been identified returned from my field surveys I found up for sale. While the new information is to a dozen emails, ranging from “there’s good news, we will continue to track this one plant growing in my driveway” to

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

6 species and additional loss of habitat to Beardsley, P.M. and R.G. Olmstead. development, agriculture, or fire. 2002. RedefiningPhrymaceae : The Once the flowers started to wither, placement of Mimulus, Tribe Mimuleae, we were forced to give up our search and Phryma. American Journal of and turn to processing the mountain of Botany 89: 1093–1102. data that had collected on our desks and computers over the course of two Brewer, W. 1905. Biographical Memoir of months of surveys. With more than Sereno Watson, 1820-1892. 12,000 photos, miles of GPS tracks, and a box of soil samples, we will probably be Biographical memoirs, Volume 5, Issue analyzing these data until the next “year 13. National Academy of Sciences, of the monkey.” Washington, DC. https://books.google. com/books?id=btkWAAAAYAAJ Acknowledgments Fraga, N. 2012 A revision of Erythranthe The author and the Nevada Natural montioides and Erythranthe palmeri Heritage Program would like to thank the (Phrymaceae), with descriptions of following individuals and groups for their five new species from California and assistance and contributions: Nevada, USA. Aliso, 30(1), pp. 49–68

• Naomi Fraga, Rancho Santa Ana Fraga, Naomi. 2016. Personal Botanic Garden communication. • NNPS volunteers • US Fish and Wildlife Service Grant, A. L. 1924. A monograph of the • KTVN Channel 2, Carsonnow.org, genus Mimulus. Ann. Missouri Bot. Nevada Appeal, Carson Valley Times, Gard. 11: 99–389. This is Reno, and other local news out- lets for sharing our story Gray, A. 1886. Synoptical flora of North • Everyone who sent us monkeyflower America: division II. The gamopetalous sightings dicotyledonous plants, continued after Compositae, pp. 1–392. In Literature Cited Synoptical flora of North America: the Gamopetalae, ed. 2 of vol. I, part Barker, W.R., G.L. Nesom, P.M. II, and vol. II, part I, collected. Ivison, Beardsley, and N.S. Fraga. 2012. A Blakeman, Taylor, and Co., New York, taxonomic conspectus of Phrymaceae: USA A narrowed circumscription for Mimulus, new and resurrected genera, Watson, S. 1871. List of plants collected in and new names and combinations. Nevada and Utah, 1867-’69: Numbered Phytoneuron 2012-39: 1–60. as Distributed. Washington D.C.: United States Geological Exploration of the 40th parallel, 1871.

NNPS Newsletter Vol. 42, No. 9 December 2016

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