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------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was at Saddle Junction by 9:45 and I realized that I had already
gone by the location for several of the things I needed to photograph,
so I decided to keep going and get them on the way back. The first thing
I was looking for along the PCT was the beautiful hulsea (Hulsea
vestita ssp. callicarpha) but unfortunately none of us have been
able to find it where Tom saw it a couple of years ago. It was interesting
to me that all the way up to Saddle Junction the red penstemon along
the trail had been beaked penstemon (Penstemon rostriflorus)
with the anthers that look like a little pair of pants, and yet beyond
Saddle Junction it was San Gabriel beardtongue (Penstemon labrosus)
with the somewhat larger flowers and different-looking anthers. Some
of the things we had seen before in good bloom were done, like the San
Jacinto lupine (Lupinus hyacinthinus), but other things were
in much better shape like the San Jacinto Mountains keckiella (Keckiella
rothrockii var. jacintensis). The San Bernardino rubber rabbitbrush
(Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. bernardinus) was just beginning
to develop, but what I really wanted to see was the San Jacinto buckwheat
(Eriogonum apiculatum).
I hadn't gone far enough along this trail with Richard at the end of
June, and it may not have been blooming then anyway, but this time it
was, and I was delighted to see an amazing profusion of it in just one
area. It is a short and delicately-stemmed plant that by itself would
almost disappear from sight, but when there are hundreds of them growing
together they create a lovely sight. Between Chinquapin Flats and Saddle Junction, I saw a goosefoot along the trail that might have been what Tom had on his list as meadow goosefoot (Chenopodium pratericola). I am waiting on a confirmation for this but the leaves seemed to be at least 3 times as long as wide and densely mealy below which fits pratericola better than the fairly similar atrovirens. I reset my gps at Saddle Junction and headed down the trail to the place where Tom and James had found little-leaved mock orange (Philadelphus microphyllus). I found a single small shrub which had some very nice blooms on it, quite different from the much larger, non-native mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii) that is seen often in planted situations or botanical gardens. In that same area there was also some western polypody (Polypodium hesperium) and quite a few of the San Jacinto prickly phlox, but these like the one on the other side of Tahquitz Peak were either not in bloom or had finished blooming some time ago. I got back to the parking area around 6 pm. It had been another excellent
outing, perfect weather, some good finds, and my frozen bottle of water
had remained cold all day. The Leptodactylon I will have to look
for again next year earlier in the season, and the Ivesia can
be reached by ascending the South Ridge Trail from the bottom which
I will probably do next week. Two other things I will also look for
there are the short-flowered monardella (Monardella nana ssp. tenuiflora)
which I saw once in the James Reserve after its bloom time, and the
erect variant of Wright's buckwheat (Eriogonum wrightii var. membranaceum). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Tom had originally thought the buckwheat at the trailhead was Eriogonum fasciculatum, but quickly realized that it was actually Eriogonum wrightii var. membranaceum, which he could tell from the inflorescences. Once you get E. wrightii as an identification, it's easy to pin it down as var. membranaceum because it's not matted like the other San Jacinto variant, subscaposum, and the leaves are strongly rolled under not flat. It was not blooming yet, so I will go back next month. The area near the bottom of the trail is much more like chaparral than the Devils Slide Trail with all its different conifers, and it's much drier. Its common large shrubs are pink-bracted manzanita (Arctostaphylos pringlei ssp. drupacea), chamise (Adenostema fasciculatum), hollyleaf redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia), chaparral whitethorn (Ceanothus leucodermis), coffeeberry (Rhamus californica) and several oak species. I photographed some pine dwarf-mistletoe (Arceuthobium campylopodum) which I had only seen once before at Mt. Hillyer in the San Gabriels. Most of the flowering plants were done by this time of year, but there were some lingering southern mountain woolstars (Eriastrum densifolium ssp. austromontanum), San Jacinto buckwheats (Eriogonum apiculatum) and San Bernardino rubber rabbitbrushes (Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. bernardinus). I found the first plants that Tom had identified as beautiful hulsea (Hulsea vestita ssp. callicarpha), which I had looked for several times with no luck around Saddle Junction, and then saw many more of them as the trail ascended. Unfortunately they were well past the blooming stage so I will have to return next year to photograph them in flower. At mile 0.41 I entered the San Jacinto Wilderness, which was the reason for the permit, and there soon began a series of many switchbacks. At some points the trailside vegetation opened up and afforded me wonderful views of Garner Valley, Lake Hemet and Palomar Mt. Just after passing the one-mile point, I found a lovely patch of short-flowered monardella (Monardella nana ssp. tenuiflora), which I had photographed once before in the James Reserve. Then it had finished its bloom, but these were still in good shape, and they were the only ones I saw along the trail. The switchbacks continued, and there wasn't much else floristically to be of interest so I tracked my progress with my GPS as I approached the point which was my goal today, a particular switchback at about 2.30 miles up the trail. A boulder-strewn gully came down to the trail, and after hiding my backpack behind some rocks I began climbing up a fairly steep and rocky slope covered with pine needles and loose gravelly sand. I was looking for the rare Tahquitz ivesia (Ivesia callida) which only grows around this one location. Tom's GPS coordinates put me within about 20' of one of the plants, so it was easy to find. Once I knew what to look for, I found many more plants, all in cracks and crevices in the granite boulders. It was exciting to photograph a plant as rare as this one, and I commend Tom and James for their good work in finding it! That was the turnaround point for me, and after a nice long drink of icewater (I've been carrying a frozen 1.5L bottle of water with me lately and it stays cold all day), I headed quickly back down the trail. From the point where I turned around, it is about another 1.7 miles to Tahquitz Peak. I noted that there was at least one further taxon, limber pine dwarf-mistletoe (Arceuthobium cyanocarpum), toward the top of the trail that I will want to go back for sometime soon since I have never seen that. My wife and I will be leaving in a week or so to take our daughter
back east where she will be attending Vassar College in Poughkeepsie,
New York, and we have a lot of things to attend to so this will be my
last trip log for August. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |