This photo gallery is composed of pictures taken during a couple of two-day visits in 2004 to Short Canyon in Kern County which is about 20 minutes northwest of Ridgecrest and west of Inyokern off Highway 395 at the eastern end of the Owens Peak Wilderness. After a wet enough winter the canyon comes alive with a fantastic display of wildflowers in shades of yellow, orange, red, purple, white and blue. The flora of more than 300 identified species is extremely diverse with rich botanical resources that are unusual in the Eastern Sierras which loom to the west grading up to 8,400' Owens Peak. Within the span of less than an hour, you may be able to experience three distinct ecotones, the Mojave Desert, Great Basin, and Sierra Nevada, all in an area covering less than 1,200 acres. Vegetation includes a creosote desert scrub community on the bajadas, with scattered yuccas, cacti, annuals, cottonwood, and oak trees in the canyons and valleys, and a juniper-piñon woodland with sagebrush and digger/grey pine on the upper elevations. One of the more unusual plants is Parry’s nolina. Every 7 to 10 years, just the right weather conditions allow the dramatic flowering of the nolinas and they are one of the most spectacular plants to be found here, especially since the rocky and scrubby environment would not seem amenable to such life. This is definitely an area that is high on my list to return to when and if Southern California has a wet winter. Anyone who is interested in this area should avail themselves of Naomi Fraga's The Vascular Flora of the Owens Peak Eastern Watershed, Southern Sierra Nevada, California published in Aliso, 25:1, 2008, or her A Short Flora of Short Canyon, Kern County, California, published in Crossosoma, 32:1, 2006.

Acton encelia
Encelia actoni
Asteraceae
[Named for Christoph Entzelt, 1517-1583, who Latinized his name to Encelius]

Yellow-frocks
Eriophyllum ambiguum var. paleaceum
Asteraceae

Weston's buckwheat
Eriogonum nudum var. westonii
Polygonaceae
[Named for Edward Roy Weston, 1885-1966]

Desert parsley
Lomatium mohavense
Apiaceae