NONPROFIT ORG. U.S. POSTAGE PAID GUALALA CA PERMIT NO.21 the P.O. Box 577, Gualala, CA 95445 $5.00 per year, non-members Volume 2007, July-August 07 CALYPSO Printed on Recycled Paper NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY PROGRAMS at our CNPS outings and Big River Stewards’ works parties is way down. Our chapter takes a hiatus during the summer, when program attendance is low. Starting in the fall, we What might be the reasons for this? Are people hope to offer public programs at various locations in traveling less by car? Is it the aging of our our chapter area. See you there! population? Are people working more hours now? THANK YOU LINDA ANN VOROBIK Too many other activities going on? Are people losing interest in gaining new awareness and Well-known botanical illustrator, Linda Ann Vorobik, knowledge? gave an outstanding program to DKY chapter members and the public at the Mendocino Coast Folks, if you have any theories about this, or Botanical Gardens in May. Linda teaches illustration suggestions about what to do, please let me know. and watercolor workshops: Sept 15-16 she will be at The natural world around becomes even more the Berry Botanical Garden in Portland, Oregon; wonderful when we can share it with others October 21-27 join her for a week on the Big Island of Hawaii painting orchids! Contact Linda Ann at: FIELD TRIPS vorobik@gmail or see her website at: The trip to the Warner Mountains is taking place the www.vorobikbotanicalart.com. first week in July and we hope that Peter Warner will write an article about this “splendidly isolated” mountain range located in the eastern portion of Modoc National Forest. Take a look at a panoramic view from a mountain top in the Warners: http://virtualguidebooks.com/NorthCalif/MountLassen /WarnerSurprise/MountVidaViewpoint.html PRESIDENT’S CORNER by Lori Hubbart Featured Plant Sale Species: Outings – Where Have All the Participants Gone? Coastal Gum Plant, Grindelia Mendocino and Sonoma Counties have had a spectacular wildflower season this year. Southern stricta var. platyphylla Californians mourned the lack of poppies in a by Julia Larke drought-stricken spring, so we are so lucky to be If you are looking for a first-rate native plant here. It is fun and enriching to go out in the wilds groundcover then consider Coastal Gum Plant, with other people, learning and working together, Grindelia stricta DC. var. platyphylla (Greene) M.A. exchanging “news of the trail.” Lane. Plants of this species will be available at the Wildflower hikes, restoration work parties, nature- DKY Fall Plant Sale in October. Also called related classes– All these have been offered in our gumweed, Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla is a area, yet fewer people are showing up. Attendance perennial herb in the Asteraceae that is endemic Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla blooming on the Gualala This photo was taken near the pedestrian bridge on Bluff Trail, June 10, 2007. © Bob Rutemoeller. Gualala Bluff Trail. The Grindelia stricta plants in the foreground may one day overwhelm the low growing to California. It occurs in tidal flats, dunes, marshes manzanitas nearby. © Bob Rutemoeller, 2007. and sea bluffs in Coastal Strand, Coastal Salt Marsh and Coastal Bluff Scrub at elevations of <200 m The Kashaya Pomo used the sticky sap as a glue throughout coastal California and the Channel (Kashaya Pomo Plants by J. Goodrich, C. Lawson & Islands. V. Lawson, 1980). Called indestructible by some, gum plant thrives in A related species, Grindelia camporum, California sun to light shade and can tolerate wind and salt gum plant, was used extensively by the Round spray. It requires moderate to occasional watering Valley Yuki Indians as a medicine. A decoction of the and is a facultative wetland species (FACW) whole plant served as a blood purifier, a laxative, meaning that it usually occurs in wetlands, but and also was used to cure colds and colic. Leaves occasionally is found in non-wetlands. Gum plant were chewed fresh and also brewed as a tea. (V.K. has semi-fleshy leaves and forms prostrate Chestnut,1902. Plants Used by the Indians of spreading mats. Its brilliant yellow flowers bloom Mendocino County, California, contributions from the profusely throughout the summer months. U.S. National Herbarium 7:295-408). Other California tribes used it in a decoction for dermatitis, poison oak, and wounds; fresh buds were used for blood disorders; and fresh leaves and flowers were applied to sore parts of the body. (University of Michigan Native American Ethnobotany database http://herb.umd.umich.edu). Grindelia camporum is the subject of current research as a possible crop plant for its abundant resin production. The resins may be used in inks, adhesives, sizings and other related products. The genus Grindelia is named for David Hieronymus Grindel (1776-1836), a Latvian physician and professor of botany. The specific epithet, stricta, means “upright” and the variety name, platyphylla, Brilliant yellow flowers of Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla refers to flat, broad leaves. There are ± 80 species of blooming in August 1984, along the California coast. Grindelia in c & w North America and South America. © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary's College [CalPhotos]. Sources: (see also, citations within text) The flower buds are protected by a white sticky resin University of Calif. Jepson Manual: that gives the plant its common names of gum plant http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu and gumweed. A skin ointment, which was first used CalFlora: www.calflora.org by coastal Native Americans, is available in some California Plant Names, compiled by M. L. Charters: health food stores according to the California www.calflora.net/botanicalnames Academy of Sciences @ www.calacademy.org. California Flora Nursery: www.calfloranursery.com 2 July-August ‘07 CONSERVATION NEWS Recreation and Park District, is short of money for the project. Is the district planning an extreme re- by Lori Hubbart vamping of the project, or abandoning it altogether? Stornetta Public Lands: These lands are SPECIES PROFILE: administered and partly owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). This federal agency BEHRENS SILVERSPOT decided to include the Stornetta Lands as part of the gateway to its California Coastal National Monument. BUTTERFLY, The offshore rocks and islands are part of this Speyeria zerene behrensii monument. In coastal Mendocino County, we have a number of The BLM was charged with protecting natural federally endangered species, one of which is resources on the rocks and islands, but declined to Behren’s silverspot butterfly, Speyeria zerene take action to protect nesting sea birds from behrensii. This butterfly inhabits coastal terrace fireworks-induced trauma in Gualala. From this, one prairie habitat in southern Mendocino and northern must conclude that the BLM cannot be trusted to Sonoma Counties. It was federally listed as protect plant resources, either. Any memorandum of Endangered in1997 and a Draft Recovery Plan was understanding between CNPS and the BLM should published in January 2004. It is currently undergoing be carefully crafted, rather than using a boilerplate a 5-year review by the US Fish & Wildlife Service. document. It is not even clear how such an agreement would benefit CNPS. The text in this article is compiled from the Draft Recovery Plan and species profile written by Jim Meanwhile, Congressman Mike Thompson plans to Watkins of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Arcata introduce legislation to upgrade the designation of Office. To view entire profile and recovery plan, see: the Stornetta Public Lands to recognize its unique www.fws.gov/arcata/es/inverts/BehrensSS/bss_bfly.html qualities as a valuable open space resource as well as a working ranch. If successful, it might make Description: Behren’s silverspot is a medium-sized more funds available to the BLM for management of butterfly with a wingspan of approximately 5.5 cm the Stornetta Lands. However, more money will not (2.2 inches). The upper surfaces are golden brown help unless the will to do the right thing is also with numerous black spots and lines. Wing present. undersides are brown, orange-brown, and tan with black lines and distinctive silver and black spots. It is Pygmy Forest Update: The Pygmy Forest Working a member of the family of true fritillary, or silverspot Group toured the Little River Airport to assess butterflies, of which 13 species occur in North opportunities for restoration and improved vegetation America. The species Speyeria zerene, sometimes management. We found that the airport land had known as the Zerene Fritillary, includes a number of long ago been altered in ways that constitute outright subspecies, of which eight occur in the Pacific abuse. There are huge trenches around the Northwest and on the California coast. perimeter of the airport, effectively ruining the hydrology of the pygmy forest. In such a compromised situation opportunities for restoration are limited. Then there is the Fort Bragg golf course project. The county and the City of Fort Bragg want to build a huge new refuse transfer station, and have decided that the entrance to the golf course/park project would be the ideal site. The new facility would be right on top of one of the pygmy mitigation areas for the golf course project. CNPS has sent a strongly worded letter to the City of Fort Bragg, objecting to this plan. It calls into question the future of the entire project. The golf course is supposed to be a money-maker, but why Behren’s silverspot butterfly, Speyeria zerene behrensii. would anyone pay to golf on a course dominated by Photograph © Gordon Pratt U.S. FWS. a large, noisy industrial facility? We already know www.fws.gov/arcata/es/inverts/BehrensSS/gallery/behrens the project proponent, the Mendocino Coast Silverspot_gallery.html 3 July-August ‘07 Two other coastal subspecies of Speyeria zerene, that females lay their eggs in the debris and dried the Oregon silverspot (S.