This gallery is the result of two recent field trips that I decided to combine because they were in the same general area. First, I went on Mickey Long's annual desert field trip with Walt Fidler, Cliff and Gabi McLean and others to Saddleback Butte State Park, and then two days later, thanks to the excellent scouting of Walt Fidler and my longtime desire to see desert candle, I joined a group consisting of Walt, Tom Chester, Jane Tirrell, Nancy Accola, Bob Allen and Harry Spilman, to do a car botanizing trip in the western Mojave. We started at US395 north of Adelanto, and drove across a vast expanse of Mojave terrain covered in places with goldfields and creosote bush, on Shadow Mountain Road to the intersection of E. 240th St., which was a dirt road then paved south of Ave. J. We turned right on Palmdale Blvd. and drove a half mile west to its intersection with E 235th St., where we turned south again on E. 235th St. which merged into Black Butte Basin Road, then a left turn on Largo Vista to Pearblossom Highway (SR378). Along the way we stopped in eight or nine locations to see specific plants or just to explore the surroundings. It was a fantastic day, sunny and remarkably pleasant for the desert, with the snowy San Gabriels always in our view, and we saw a tremendous number of species including some that we didn't expect. It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable and fruitful days I've ever spent in the field. And I got to see desert candle which I had only previously seen once about 20 years ago! The picture above is of the great masses of Parry's linanthus (Linanthus parryae) that covered dozens if not hundreds of acres in one area. An asterisk next to the common name is for an introduced species. |
