This was the first of my two scheduled Jepson Herbarium workshops for 2009, and the location could hardly have been more desolate or more exotic. A "clothing-optional" campsite, warm springs, wild burros braying in the night, fantastic scenery, highly knowledgeable participants, a superb trip leader in Dana York, and great vegetation all combined to make this one of the best of the ten Jepson workshops I have attended. The Saline Valley is on the inland or eastern side of the Inyo Mountains (which are shown in the picture above) and is bordered on the east by the Saline and Last Chance Ranges. It is accessible only by a fairly rough dirt road either from the 395 at Big Pine or from the 190 to the south. The washboard surface of this road is hard on cars and I had a tire blow-out soon after leaving the valley and had to have all four of my shock absorbers replaced. This is not an area to be entered casually as it is a long way from any services and can often be isolated in wintertime by snow in the passes. Previously administered by the BLM, it has been since 1994 part of Death Valley National Park. The Saline is an endorheic valley with no outflow, and if filled with water would be some 4000' deep. It contains a dry lake, a salt marsh, a sand dune system and the remains of a borax mining operation and aerial tramway that carried the borax up 7500' over the Inyos and down to the Owens Valley. Silver, talc and salt were also mined there. Low-flying military aircraft frequently roar overhead. Paiute and Shoshone peoples once occupied the valley, and it was supposedly also a hangout for the murderer Charles Manson. It's an incredible place if you're brave enough to go there. A few of the species displayed here were photographed along the Saline Valley Road and not in the Valley proper. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip.

Cima milkvetch ^
Astragalus cimae var. sufflatus
Fabaceae

Desert indian paintbrush
Castilleja angustifolia
Scrophulariaceae
[Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793]

Gilia
Gilia sp.
Polemoniaceae

Cottontop cactus ^
Echinocactus polycephalus var. polycephalus
Cactaceae

Checker fiddleneck
Amsinckia tessellata var. tessellata
Boraginaceae
[Named for Wilhelm Amsinck, 1752-1831]

Rosy apricot mallow ^
Sphaeralcea ambigua var. rosacea
Malvaceae

Wild burros

Columbine
Aquilegia formosa
Ranunculaceae

Beavertail cactus
Opuntia basilaris var. basilaris
Cactaceae

Desert fivespot
Eremalche rotundifolia
Malvaceae

Wild heliotrope
Heliotropium curassavicum
Boraginaceae

Arrowleaf
Pleurocoronis pluriseta
Asteraceae