P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 i $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2013 NovNov----DecDec ‘13‘13‘13 Printed on recycled paper The CALYPSO NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY Annual Potluck and Program: Sunday, December 15, 2013 is the date for the annual DKY Potluck, from noon to about 2:00 p.m., at the Greenwood Community Center in Elk. Bring a dish to share, your own liquid refreshment, and dishes and utensils. Lunch starts at noon, with the annual meeting at 1 p.m. held to elect the 2014 slate of officers: President: Nancy Morin, Vice-President: Mario Abreu, Secretary: Lori Hubbart, Treasurer: Mary Hunter. The program starts soon after the meeting and there will be native plants for sale as well as books and posters. This year’s speaker is Nancy Morin, our chapter president and nationally known botanist, who will give a program about rare plants of the Mendocino Coast. Nancy is currently Vice-President for Business and Development at the Flora of North America (FNA) and she was Convening Editor of FNA for sixteen years until 1999. More recently, she served as the Executive Director of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden and, at present, she is collaborating with a faculty member of Northern Arizona University on a phylogenetic analysis of the genus Nemacladus . LOCAL RARE PLANTS, WHAT DO WE KNOW ABOUT THEM? a program by Nancy Morin The Mendocino/northern Sonoma coast is home to fascinating rare plant communities and rare plant species. Some of them have originated fairly recently, some are quite ancient. Some are spectacular—think of Coast Lily, Lilium maritimum , and others are extremely inconspicuous—think of short- leaved evax, Hesperevax sparsiflora var. brevifolia . But what is actually known about the evolutionary history, relationships, and biology of our rare plants? This talk will Hesperevax sparsiflora var. brevifolia photographed in coastal bluff scrub near look at some of the patterns Fort Bragg, CA © Aaron Arthur 2013. that are seen in rare plants generally, give case studies of some of our better known rare species, and consider some of the intriguing sightings of rare plants that might be worth a concerted effort to relocate. our rare Horkelias described in the article p. 5, PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE are relicts from much larger earlier populations. by Nancy Morin There were close to 300 excited plant lovers at The Dorothy King Young Chapter this Southern California Botanists meeting and it of CNPS has had two extremely was both mentally stimulating and a lot of fun. successful and fun Fall Plant Sales. We were in Fort Bragg at Our equivalent, the Northern California Botanists its Town Hall on September 28, meeting, will be 13—15 January 2014 in Chico. and this turned out to be a great Its title is “Northern California Plant Life—Botany space for the sale. Right on for a Changing World.” In addition to a day full Main Street, with lots of folks of talks, the keynote speaker will be Dr. David out and about and dropping in to Ackerly, who has been doing some of the most look at plants, chat, and buy. We even had innovative and interesting work on the potential visitors who came from other CNPS chapters for impacts of climate change on native vegetation. our sale. A plenary talk will be given by Dr. Kabir Peay on Then on October 5 we were again on the mycorrhizal relationships between plants and beautiful deck behind the Gualala Hotel—our fungi, and there will be a workshop on second year at this venue. It was a “Pay and “Introduction to Mushroom Foraging and Take” day, and some of that crowd definitely Identification” by Phil Carpenter. Two other spilled over to our sale. Lots of people, workshops will be offered, one on the biology of beautiful day, sold lots of plants. whitebark pine in California, and the other on “Regulatory Framework” for botanists. Many many thanks to Francine Temple for letting us use the deck, to Lori Hubbart and Membership in Northern California Botanists is Mario Abreu, who grew most of the plants, to very inexpensive--$25 for an individual, $15 for Ken Montgomery of Anderson Valley Nursery for a student, and you get a break on cost of donating plants for the sale, and to Mary registration for the meeting. Registration is now Hunter, Lynn Tuft, Mario, and Lori for being open at http://www.norcalbotanists.org . great salespersons. Support your local botanical networks! Some of you know (actually, anyone who asked The year will draw to a close at our annual me to do anything else in the days preceding potluck December 15. I’d like to thank the team the meeting!) that I was pretty consumed with who put so much effort into the Dorothy King getting a talk ready for the 39th Annual Young Chapter, both for serving this past year Southern California Botanists symposium in and for being willing to serve again next year: Claremont on October 21. My talk was titled Mario Abreu, Vice President; Lori Hubbart, "Natural History of Nemacladus: Campanulaceae Secretary and Conservation Chair; Mary Hunter, in California--Patterns of Diversity". Treasurer; Bob Rutemoeller, Membership Chair; Julia Larke, Calypso Editor; Lynn Tuft, posters; The focus of this symposium was whether the Ramona Crooks, mailings; and Mindy Eisman, ideas put forth in the seminal publication “Origin Webmaster. There are many other members and Relationships of the California Flora,” by who do a lot for our native plants, but these Peter Raven and Daniel Axelrod, were still valid folks are who make the chapter work month in in light of what has been learned since 1978 and month out. Thank you all. about the evolution and relationships of California’s plant species and plant communities. Their theories have held up well, but it is likely that rather than having markedly more speciation in California than in other regions, for some groups instead (or in addition) there may have been less extinction because species could Volunteer, our chapter needs you! persist in areas in California that were, and are, Volunteer, our chapter needs you! buffered from changing climate. Our Mendocino Coast is one of these places, and it is likely that 2 Nov-Dec 2013 A team of local residents, working with land CONSERVATION NEWS preservation groups, has been lobbying to have by Lori Hubbart the Stornetta Lands made part of the California State Parks Ten Mile Dunes restoration Coastal National Monument. Our efforts to The appeal by opponents of the restoration arrange a visit by Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell, finally paid off. project will be heard by the California Coastal Commission at its November meeting. Ms. Jewell visited Point Arena on November 8, Unfortunately, the meeting will be held in and was taken on a hike of the entire length of Southern California, and most local conservation the Stornetta Lands. Accompanying Ms. Jewell, activists will not be attending. in addition to her own entourage, were The Coastal Commission Staff Report Congressman Jared Huffman, State recommended a finding of “No Substantial Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro, several people Issue” – meaning that the appeal would end and from the Bureau, Ann Cole, Director of the the project could move forward. Maybe by the Mendocino Land Trust and some local residents, time you read this, there will be a decision. including Lori Hubbart representing CNPS. New transfer station in pygmy forest The weather was splendid, the seabirds were A small group of local residents are working to out in force, and a pod of humpback whales keep the City of Fort Bragg’s new waste transfer offshore breached spectacularly. The Stornetta station from being built on a pygmy forest site Lands’ dramatic rock formations have a clear along Highway 20. The waste from the transfer ecological connection with the Monument’s station would have to be shipped to Willits offshore rocks and islands. (hence the name “transfer station”). The ability The hike was followed by a public meeting at to use Highway 20 for these regular shipments Point Arena City Hall, attended by some 300 was a big factor in choosing this site. The local people. Secretary Jewell was feted with dancing residents group would like the waste to be by people from the Manchester Pomo Band, and shipped not by truck, but via the Skunk Train. poetry reading and singing by local children. The The County Supervisors might not even support crowd heard from a number of visiting this plan, since the waste would still have to be dignitaries, including Supervisors Hamburg and trucked from the transfer station to the train McCowan, and representatives of agencies and station. Using a passenger train for hauling conservation groups. The public question and waste would bring up other issues like public comment session brought up other issues like health and impacts to tourism. fracking and the specter of oil rigs offshore. Secretary Jewell was calm, articulate and Conservationists are still looking for ways to gracious throughout. persuade the Supervisors that their choice of location was a poor one. If we cannot get the Secretary Sally Jewel said of her visit, “Today I transfer station moved to another, less had a chance to hike this spectacular coastline environmentally sensitive site, then we will push and to see first-hand how important this area is for really good mitigations for the project’s for the community and for its economy – from impacts. tourism to outdoor recreation. And this afternoon I heard from a community who is Stornetta Public Lands proud of their incredible landscapes and proud There are varying estimates on the length of the of the work they’ve done over the years to Stornetta Public Lands, but this coastal strip of protect them for current and future generations.