Mimulus Memo California Native Plant Society — Kern County Chapter May 2011 Glenn Harris Talks about Sierra Crest Trail Join us Tuesday, May at our May meeting (see below for meeting plaee & times). Glenn Harris from BLM, Ridgeerest will be speaking to us about the Sierra Crest Trail. We will learn what plants have been listed (found and verified) there; what might be there - still to be diseovered; and what areas are not yet even explored! This presentation ties in with our (most likely) June 7th and 8th overnight Field Trip, whieh he is inviting us to attend. Glenn will be leading people from the BLM, as well as from our ehapter up into the high eountry. During the next few weeks we will post more speeifies on our ehapter website: www.kerncnps.org - eheek there for information. Start working baek into shape. Please email Luey Clark, Iucyg391@gmail.com if you are interested in attending. That way, we ean send out email notiees for you to eheek the website as info beeomes available. Come at 6PM for Plant Identifieation/ Keying! As a reminder, always check the website to confirm if there are last-minute location changes, or other notices. We meet on the third Tuesday of most months, from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Meetings are most often at 1300 17th Street, at the Superintendent of Schools Building (1st Floor, with the tables). Our alternate meeting location is the University Square Building, at 2000 “K” Street. This building also has parking on the back side, and we meet on the 1st floor, too. Refreshments are served! Dorie G. California Native Plant Society Wfidflower Show a Success! Our second ever Wildflower Show appeared to be a great success! Second, you ask? Yes, as we were setting up the show, Ellen Cypher informed us that about 25 years ago, she and Randi McCormick presented a Wildflower Show at CALM. This year we were at the Beale Library’s atrium, which received many compliments as our setting. About 185 adults and children came through to view Kern’s wildflowers. 144 species in 39 families were collected by Laura Stockton, Richard Spjut, Denis Kearns, Debby Kroeger, Clyde Golden, Dorie Giragosian, Lucy Clark, and Ellen Cypher. Many thanks to these people who traveled far and wide, and to their gardens, to find this gorgeous bounty! We also appreciate all of the help of Jesus Rosendo and his mother, Dominga Rosendo, Dorie, Ellen, Laura, Clyde, Lucy, and Dinah Campbell in setting up, many of those in taking down and toting all out of the library by 6pm! Dinah created a sign for the entrance to the library, and Debby created word and art activities for children, which were very well received by the kids, as well as some adults! Please go to www.kerncnps.org to see photos of cute kids in cute flower crowns! Many thanks to all who helped, and to those who came to visit Kern’s wildflowers. I think we did ourselves proud with this effort, as well as learned things to improve our presentation next time. We hope it will be sooner than 25 years in the future! Lucy Clark Also In This Issue Natives of the San Joaquin Valley Field Trip 2 EVENTS & FIELD TRIPS 5 Chapter Couneil Meeting 6 Contaet Info 6 Carrizo Plain N.M. Field Trip 7 Treasure Hunt 9 CNPS Mission & Vision 10 1 Natives of the San Joaquin Valley Field Trip Memories by Don & Yvonne Turkal April 2 2011: Stephen Laymon, PhD is Projeet Manager at the BLM Atwell Island and Pam Williams, PhD is Biologist at the Kern and Pixley National Wildlife Refuges. Both Stephen and Pam lead us to some speetaeular natives of the San Joaquin Valley even though it began with the roads being elosed - they knew their way AROUND the elosed road. We were able to explore Pixley’s newly aequired eastern half that has not been botanized. What a treat! ! ! Atwell Island was our next stop, where Ameriean Land Conservaney is partnering with the Bureau of Land Management to aequire unproteeted pareels and restore the sites to native habitat that ean support threatened and endangered speeies. We ate luneh at Ceei's Mexiean Restaurant where we eould eompare notes and just relax sinee we were so overwhelmed by what we saw this morning. On our way to the Semitropie Ridge Preserve we stopped at the Kern National Wildlife Refuge’s restoration site. This projeet is under the direetion of Stephen Laymon and is a HUGE sueeess. We were exeited to see the utilization of native vegetation. The aeeess road was lined with beautiful Lasthenia and there was atriplex as far as the eye eould see. Here are some of Don’s pietures 2 3 These final pietures are from the Semitropie Ridge Preserve. See how many of the listed beauties you reeognize. A big THANK YOU to Stephen and Pam for letting us take a peek into nature at its best! 4 EVENTS a FIELD TRIPS As a reminder, always check the website to confirm if there are last-minute location changes, or other notices. We meet on the third Tuesday of most months, from 6:00 pm until 9:00 pm. Meetings are most often at 1300 17th Street, at the Superintendent of Schools Building (1st Floor, with the tables). Our alternate meeting location is the University Square Building, at 2000 “K” Street. This building also has parking on the back side, and we meet on the 1st floor, too. Refreshments are served! Dorie G. May 14, Saturday - Kern River Parkway Festival 9:00AM to 6:00PM at Hart Park May 17, Tuesday - Membership Meeting - 6-9PM Sierra Crest Trail presented by Glenn Harris (see page 1) May 21, Saturday - Cedar Creek Wildflower Hike Join us for a walk along a favorite trail with Pink Fairy Lanterns, Calochortus amoenus, 5 speeies of Nemophila, the only barberry native to Kern, Berberis aquafolium, and many other beautiful taxa on this level and lovely trail. We will look for the listed Greenhorn Fritillary, Fritillaria brandegei, although no guarantees, as its life is short, due to grazing. Ahem, there is a ereek erossing at the first part of the trail, but we will get you aeross! Meet at the Rite-Aid on Airport, at Olive at Sam for earpooling, leaving at 8:10am, at the latest. Please park away from their doors. We drive up Granite Road to HWY 155 at Glenville, then farther on, park at the sign for Cedar Creek Campground. We will start walking about 9:30, or when all who have RSVPed arrive. Bring water, snaeks, luneh, flower books, eameras, binoes, and dress in layers and your boots. Please RSVPto Luey Clark at Iucyg391@gmail.com, by 8pm on Friday 20, if you plan to attend. June 4 and 5 - CNPS Chapter Council Meeting (see page 4) June 6, 7 Monday, Tuesday - Wildflower Survey from Walker Pass to Owens Peak Trek along the Sierra Crest Trail with our May speaker, Glenn Harris, of the BLM, for 1 1 miles, perhaps with a paeker along to earry our gear. This is a one night baek paek trip, and weTl sleep at the base of Morris Peak. There are 6 speeial status plants along the way that we will be searehing for, along with anything else that eatehes our eyes. Some of those listed are the Walker Pass Milkveteh, Astragalus ertterae, Charlotte’s Phaeelia, Phacelia nashiana, Ninemile Canyon Phaeelia, Phacelia novenmillensis, Owen’s Peak Lomatium, Lomatium shevockii. More information will be given at our May 17* meeting by our leader, Glenn. Also, please eheek our website www.kerncnps.org for developing info. We are hoping some of the members of the Chapter Couneil will stay over to survey with us. If you intend to partieipate, for part of the trip, or to bail out midway, or to go all the way to Owen’s Peak, please RSVP to Luey Clark at Iucyg391@gmail.com, and you will be eontaeted re time, equipment, food, transportation, ete. June 21, Tuesday - Membership Meeting - 6 to 9 pm 6pm-Plant Identifieation/Keying One of our most important, loeal, landseape photographers is Greg Iger. He has been taking pietures throughout Kern County environments for years. He has produeed two beautiful "eoffee-table" books, Buena Vista and Buena Vista II. His original volume is no longer available, but we will be able to offer eopies of his seeond book at our meeting June 21st, in either hardbound, or paperbaek. He will also be signing them for us. These would make great gifts, or wish-lists of plaees to go see. The best part of the evening is that he will be giving us a presentation on different teehniques for sueeessful elose-up photography, and will show us slides as examples, while he talks. Come join us at the start of summer, so you will be ready to praetiee taking photos of the plants you find during your summer outings. As usual, attendanee is free to the publie. Bring along friends. See you there! (continued next page) 5 June 29, Wednesday- Field Trip - Rancheria Road North and Sunday Peak Meet at the Rite- Aid on Airport, at Olive at Sam for earpooling, leaving at 8:10am, at the latest. Please park away from their doors. We drive up Granite Road to HWY 155 at Glenville, then on to the top at Alta Sierra (6700 feet elevation) for a drive north on Raneheria to the Sunday Peak trailhead. We hope to see Dogwood in bloom and many penstemons. The hike to the top (8300‘) and baek is about 3 miles, with a 1000’ elevation gain and loss. We will take it very slowly, as there are many flowering plants along this trail, as well as the “southernmost Shasta Red Fir in N. Ameriea.” (Twisselmann, 1967) The views from the top, north and south along the Sierras, are the best this far south in the Sierra Nevada range. We plan to leave at 3-ish pm, or when your earload is ready. Bring water, hat, sun sereen, luneh, walking stieks, plant books, binoes, and wear layers of elothes. Please RSVP to Luey Clark at Iucyg391 @gmail.com so we know how many and whom to expeet at the ear- pooling loeation. Deadline for RSVPs is 8pm Friday, June 10. July 3-9 - Golden Trout Wilderness Botanical Workshop (see www.KernCNPS.org or the January newsletter) TENTATIVE, if interest is shown: Last weekend of both July and August, we may have eamping trips to Horse Meadow Camp Ground off the Sherman Pass Road. There is a small stream that has a ehanging array of speeies along its banks (Gentians in August!). Close by is Big Meadow, with more variety. Some might go on Friday afternoon to save spaees, and others may eome early Saturday to eamp or just for the day‘s trip. This is a trip that our ehapter has irregularly taken sinee Jaek Zaninovieh led it way baek when. We would like to revive it, as several long-time members have requested we do so. If you would like to be eontaeted about these trips, please send your email address to Luey Clark at Iucyg391@gmail.com, NOW, before it slips your mind! You will be eontaeted if even 5 people are interested. (There will not be another Mimulus Memo before these trips.) Chapter Council Meeting June 3-5, 2011 Bakerseield, CA It is a ehanee to show off our Kern loeal plants and diverse field trips, as well as letting the State representatives know that we are more than just a hot spot on the freeway, with lots of oil wells. Chapter Couneil is made up of the Presidents or Chapter Representatives for the thirty-plus different State Chapters. There will be a banquet, with guest speaker, as well as awards and great food. The whole eommunity is weleome to attend the banquet, (as well as Chapter Members are weleome to sit-in on the meetings) and I hope we ean use the event to eelebrate together our Kern Chapter. Please mark the dates on your ealendars. The meeting is June 3'^'^ thru 5*, with the banquet on June 4*. Field trips will also be seheduled around that time, and all are weleome to attend those, too. The only event whieh has a eost will be the banquet, and the eost has not yet been established, but we will work hard to make if affordable. We aeeepted the responsibility for hosting this event last June, and have begun the planning proeess. If you are interested in working on one of the many eommittees needed for this to turn out a great event, please eall me (Done, again). Hours and depth of partieipation are flexible. Please give it a try! CONTACT INFO president: Dorie Giragosian dorenairaaosian@peoplepc.conn past-president: Lucy Clark Iucyg391 @g mail .com newsletter/website: Stephen Cooley mimulusmemo@bak.rr.com 6 Carrlzo Plain National Monument Field Trip Notes by Don and Yvonne Turkal Christina McNeal is working on her master’s under Dr. Polly Sehiffman at Cal State Northridge. She is trying to figure out why there seems to be so little Ephedra reeruitment in the Carrizo. We see mature shrubs, but very few small ones. She is gathering data on predation by ground squirrels, germination rates, and eompetition between Ephedra seedlings and non-native grasses (greenhouse studies). Here are a few of the pietures taken by Don. March 12, 2011 Denis Kearns, PhD (Kern CNPS member and BEM Botanist) hosted a field trip to the Carrizo Plain National Monument's botanieal hot spots. (Seeond from left in the white hat) We enjoyed Denis’ expertise in spotting some great flowers, plus meeting Christina MeNeal. Wild Parsley Lomatium utriculatum Hill Sun Cup Camissonia gracilliflora 1 Email us if you can correctly ID the plant below from Carrizo Plain (Picture taken in a dry creek wash). Please email tloveanimals@bak.rr.com and put “MM plant ID” in the subject line. Winner(s) will be recognized in the next issue of the Mimulus Memo. Again, we wish to express our sincere appreciation to Denis Kearns for sharing his leadership and knowledge. VISIT OUR WEBSITE: K£RA/CNP8, 0/^ 8 iKUJO TREA5URe UUI0TER5/ Here is the latest list of treasure hunts to join this spring and they are taking plaee all over California. If these don't fit your sehedule let us know and we ean work on putting you in toueh with a group in your area that would like to go on a hunt. Also, if you have some experienee with plant surveys we ean send you out on your own. There is so mueh to see this year and if s time to start exploring-every hike ean be a treasure hunt! RSVP to treasurehunt@cnps.ora for more details. Friday to Sunday, May 13-15th Silurian Hills, Valjean Hills and Avawatz Mountains- North of the Mojave National Preserve. We'll look for Desert Bear Poppy (Aretomeeon merriamii), Androstephium breviflorum, Mojave Milkweed (Aselepias nyetaginifolia), Camissonia boothii and Purplenerve springparsley (Cymopterus multinervatus). Join us Friday afternoon/Friday night or even Saturday morning on this ear eamping trip. Saturday and Sunday, May 21-22nd Trip led by Dunean Bell, 2010 Grand Prize winner of the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt into the unexplored areas. Friday to Sunday, May 27-29th Trip to Kingston and Clark Mtns and the Ivanpah Valley We'll look for Mojave milkweed (Aselepias nyetaginifolia) and many others. Overnight eamping trip, eome Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. STATEWIDE TRIPS: Saturday, May 14th Pine Hill Preserve, near Folsom, CA. Help us re-loeate some historie populations of Paekera layneae (Layne’s ragwort) and Helianthmum suffruteseens (Bisbee Peak rush-rose), as well as seareh for new populations in this botanieal preserve. Mid-May (follow-up email will give a firm date) Lyneh Canyon, Solano County. Join the Solano Land Trust and help them perform an initial survey of their Lyneh Canyon site for rare speeies. We'll be on the lookout for Caloehortus pulehellus (Mt. Diablo fairy-lantern), Balsamorhizza maerolepis van maerolepis (big-seale balsamroot), Sidaleea hiekmanii ssp. viridis (Marin eheekerbloom) and others. Mid-May (follow-up email will give a firm date) Sonoma Land Trust, Sonoma County. Join the Sonoma Land Trust and help seareh for rare plants on one of their properties just north of Sonoma. Sunday, May 22nd Join the Mt. Lassen Chapter of the CNPS to visit a part of the Mendoeino National Forest ealled Salt Creek Saddle and nearby China Guleh, where we'll be looking for 8 different rare speeies. Saturday and Sunday, June 11th and 12th Walker Ridge, Lake-Colusa County boundary. About 30 rare plants oeeur on this site proposed for a wind-power generation faeility. CNPS and other organizations have petitioned the BLM to designate this site as an Area of Critieal Environmental Coneern. Help us proteet it by gathering more aeeurate information about the rare speeies found in this area. For photos and more info, you ean visit: www.rareplanttreasurehunt.bloaspot.com or www.flickr.com/photos/rareplanttreasurehunt/ . Danny Slakey, Botanist/Project Coordinator, Rare Plant Treasure Hunt, California Native Plant Soeiety dslakey@cnps.ora 9 California Native Plant Society The mission of CNPS is to conserve Caeifornia native peants and their naturae HABITATS, AND INCREASE UNDERSTANDING, APPRECIATION, AND HORTICUETURAE USE OF NATIVE PEANTS. Our vision inceudes a future where: Californians actively support the Society's mission^ which is accomplished through education ^ plant scienccr advocacy land stewardship and native plant gardening. Californians value native plants^ plant communities and healthy ecosystems as essential to the well being of all living things. Californians can experience native plants throughout the state^ in natural environments and human-made landscapes. California's extensive and interconnected natural habitats are preserved. CNPS IS THE EEADER FOR PROVIDING REEIABEE INFORMATION ON CaEIFORNIA NATIVE PEANTS AND PEANT CONSERVATION. COMPREHENSIVE INFORMATION ABOUT CaEIFORNIA's FEORA AND VEGETATION COMMUNITIES IS AVAIEABEE THROUGHOUT THE STATE FOR CONSERVATION AND EDUCATIONAE PURPOSES. CNPS’S EEADERSHIP INFEUENCES PERSONAE ETHICS AND ACTIONS, AS WEEE AS PUBEIC POEICY FOR NATIVE PEANT PROTECTION. MOiLLiaa LLaMHaLEMi 10 moo •jj'5[Bq@om9msn{niuTm joqpa uoqdoFS J3}di3ii3 X}uno3 - SdMD