Vol. 41 No. 6 July 2015 Northern Nevada IN SEARCH OF the rare carson valley See NVNPS.org for updated meeting details. monkeyflower American Penstemon Soc. July 10-13 – The Penstemon Society’s annual meeting in Chico, California, includes field trips to the Feather River, Lassen Peak, and the Weaver Bally Lookout. Registration limited to APS members. For more information go to apsdev.org. Eriogonum Society July 24-27 – NNPS is co-sponsoring the Erythranthe carsonensis annual meeting of the Eriogonum Society in July. It is open to NNPS and Eriogonum n Sunday, April 12th, members of Society members only. Othe Nevada Native Plant Society met Details are on the Eriogonum Society behind Western Nevada College (WNC) website, eriogonum.org in Carson City to explore the habitat and to conduct a census of the rare Carson Valley monkeyflower Erythranthe( Southern Nevada carsonensis). Our leader, Janel Johnson, as part of her ongoing professional work Southern Nevada Meetings are monitors the various populations of the suspended while we search Carson Valley monkeyflower in our area. for a new program coordinator. Equipped with cameras and GPS devices Please contact Cayenne Engel at (provided by Janel), participants walked to help organize the area and documented the location [email protected] meetings and get our group out in the of as many Carson Valley monkeyflower field again. plants as possible. NNPS NEWSLETTER VOL. 41, NO. 6 JULY 2015 1 Camissonia pusilla Cryptantha circumscissa Gilia inconspicua Carson Valley monkeyflower habitat, northwest Carson City he Carson Valley monkeyflower is year in a row of extreme drought in our Ta rare species that inhabits an area area. The plants that we saw were much surrounding Carson City, Nevada. It smaller and had fewer flowers than is is also found at one location in Alpine typical under wetter normal conditions. County, California. Making its home in sagebrush and bitterbrush scrubland, Other plants seen include: it grows on coarse soils composed of • Balsamorhiza saggitata “arrowleaf decomposed granite. Carson Valley balsamroot” monkeyflower has a distinctive yellow • Calochortus bruneaunis “Bruneau mari- flower with a large red spot on the lower posa lily” (not in flower) limb. Its leaves are linear to spatulate. • Camissionia pusilla “little wiry suncup” Unfortunately, this pretty little flower • Cryptantha circumscissa “sand is seriously threatened by agriculture, cryptantha” development, and off-road vehicle traffic. • Gilia inconspicua “shy gilia” During the Society’s census of the • Mentzelia albicaulis “whitestem slopes behind WNC, we found only a blazingstar” handful of scattered small plants, the • Paeonia brownii “Brown’s peony” most prolific of which had only three • Prunus andersonii “desert peach” flowers. This is a result of the fourth • Purshia tridentata “bitterbrush” NNPS NEWSLETTER VOL. 41, NO. 6 JULY 2015 2 Zotstein, a biology teacher at Truckee Meadows Community College. The trip was organized by Emily Gibson, the tribe’s environmental specialist. Emily, a Southern Paiute, grew up in Washington and is a graduate of Washington State University. Upon arrival in Reno with AmeriCorps, she was not impressed with the area. In time, though, she began to see the charms of Nevada. When the job came up with the Summit Prunus andrsonii - desert peach Lake Tribe, she applied and soon began her new career: preserving the natural resources of the tribe. The work involves a lot of travel to the reservation, located in Humboldt County, 140 miles north of Reno. he reservation’s 12,157 acres include TSummit Lake, a terminal lake fed by small creeks and home to Lahontan cutthroat trout. Before the arrival of Europeans, the tribe, currently 120 members, once controlled a much larger Purshia tridentata - bitterbrush area extending north into what is now Oregon and west into what would become Let’s hope we get some real moisture California. From 1867 until 1871, a military next year so that we can return to the installation known as Camp McGarry site to witness a healthy monkeyflower occupied tribal land. When the camp was population and a glorious floral display! abandoned, the land passed from the Our thanks go to Janel for planning and military to the Department of the Interior leading this trip. and, finally, back to the Paiutes when by Ray Fletcher the reservation was established in 1913. Members of the tribe do not, for the most part, live on the reservation, but visit to Summit Lake Survey engage in traditional activities. The tribe requested the survey in n April 24th, six volunteers met at preparation for construction of a new road Othe Summit Lake Paiute Tribe’s to access the reservation. It will replace office in Sparks to journey to the Summit an existing road that is rocky, steep, Lake Reservation for a plant survey. Five badly eroded, and requires 4-wheel-drive were members of the Nevada Native vehicle to navigate it. Plant society: Ray and Rachel Fletcher, The area of the survey is on Bureau of Charlie Duncan, John Weiser, and Bonnie Land Management property from which Larsen. Joining us was Menemsha the tribe hopes to excavate gravel for the NNPS NEWSLETTER VOL. 41, NO. 6 JULY 2015 3 Summit Lake new road. Meeting at the tribe’s Sparks Though the trip description suggested office, we were introduced to the tribe’s primitive accommodations, we were director, William Cowan. Following a short surprised and happy to find we would briefing by Emily, our group proceeded be housed in a modern mobile home to Gerlach via Fernley. Along the way, with electricity, appliances, and indoor we enjoyed views of mist- and cloud- plumbing. No outhouse trips in the shrouded mountains and the Black Rock deteriorating weather! By the time we Desert. Soon after a Gerlach rest stop, arrived around five in the evening, it was we left the paved road and headed down cold and getting colder. The prediction Soldiers Meadow Road. We could not was for rain early the next morning, but take the flat playa road because of recent the cold hinted at something else. rain, and I was expecting to be bounced around a lot. Happily, Soldiers Meadow he next morning we awakened to Road is pretty good and Emily very Tsnow on the ground. Would we see practiced at dodging chuckholes, though any plants at all? We soon were joined by there were a few surprises due to the Renee Aldrich of the Pine Forest Ranch, recent rains. a lady who doesn’t mind camping in the Eriogonum caespitosum - matted wild buckwheat E. ovalifolium var. ovalifolium - cushion wild buckwheat NNPS NEWSLETTER VOL. 41, NO. 6 JULY 2015 4 Members of NNPS near the shore of Summit Lake snow. Lounging about, waiting for the paper while Charlie, Ray, and John told sun to shine did not result in improved them what to write. conditions, so we departed for the survey The sun eventually made a brief site. We hoped going downhill to the site appearance but nobody was giving up would get us below the snow line - it did! their parka. All day, moments of tolerable While we thought we would be looking weather were interspersed with blasts of for several sensitive plants, it developed cold wind from the surrounding mountains that we were doing a general survey. which brought face-stinging little pellets of This was good for a couple of reasons, “corn snow” or hail. one being that if there were any sensitive We covered the flagged area by plants, they were not blooming and lunchtime and were happy to return to therefore could not be positively identified the mobile home to have lunch and warm in the field. Unidentified plants of a up. Thereafter we received a very nice sensitive plant genus will have their DNA tour of the reservation, seeing remnants checked by the BLM. These were few, so of military buildings, checking out the if we hadn’t been doing a general survey, lake, the creeks, and seeing different we would have done very little. plants than on the surveyed site. We also As it was, we proceeded to hike visited the fish facility, which is capable around the flagged area. Rachel and of isolating fish traveling in the creek so Bonnie filled pages of narrowly lined that biologists can net and monitor them. If considered large enough and healthy Ionactis alpina (Aster scopulorum) - lava aster Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi - Lahontan cutthroat trout NNPS NEWSLETTER VOL. 41, NO. 6 JULY 2015 5 enough, the fish are tagged with RFID outing to Slaughterhouse Canyon and chips, weighed, and released. When the Prey Meadows. Right off, one trip leader tagged fish subsequently pass through was lost to a misunderstanding about the the facility, their presence is recorded. meeting place and a subsequent failure to The fish we saw looked very beautiful connect by cell phone. and healthy and inspired inappropriate Despite a late departure from Carson carnivorous thoughts. City, we arrived at our destination in good time and quickly found parking places unday morning found us cleaning up in the desired location. After a minor Sthe mobile home to leave it as we medical emergency and starting down found it, then heading home with various the trail in a steeply undesirable place, stops to check out the flora. So, what we were on our way down, really down, about the flora? Slaughterhouse Canyon on quite a good The majority of the plants seen were dirt road. ones we have seen around Reno or on Along the road, in an area dominated trips to nearby areas of the desert. Near by Jeffrey pines, Pinus jeffrei, we saw Fernley we saw an amazing number numerous shrubs. Wild lilacs, Ceanothus of white evening primroses, Oenothera velutinus and C.