Andreas Canyon

My folks and I trekked into Palm Springs to visit Palm Canyon and Andreas Canyon. It is amazing that such a hot desert has ready access to water, which seeps to the surface through earth quake faults. This year Palm Canyon was fairly dry compared to previous years, and Andreas Canyon was lush and full of water. Palm Canyon and Andreas Canyon are on the Agua Caliente Indian Reservation.

Picnic under the skirted fan palms.

Mom and I were surprised how cool it was inside the rounded wiki.

Ingenious construction using available material.

The woven palm fronds provide an airy interior.

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We ate our picnic lunch in the shade of native fan palms (Washingtonia filifera). Nearby, we explored several wikis constructed of wood frames and covered with dried palm fronds. It is surprising how well the structures blocked the sun, and remained relatively cool and aerated. In late afternoon we hiked the trail that winds by the stream and is surrounded by palms. The afternoon was warm but cooled by a breeze; the golden palm skirts and green palm fans were backlit by afternoon sun; the air was rich with bird song; and lizards basked on warm rocks.

Hiking the lush palm oasis.

We regrouped in Palm Springs at the Maracas Restaurant for Mexican food and conversation.

Colorado Desert Wildflowers

A favorite book to take to the desert is Colorado Desert Wildflowers, by Jon Mark Stewart, published in 1993. It is a guide to flowers in the low desert, including Joshua Tree National Monument and Anza-Borrego Desert. The book is organized by flower color, with a special section for cactus. The text includes the common name, binomial name, family, and a short description of the plant. The photography is exquisite.

The book is slim and portable, and easy to throw into a day pack. The author does not intend to include all the plants you will find, but those included are representative. I like this concise practical approach.

Whitewater Preserve

My folks and I visited Whitewater Preserve again this year, this time sharing it with Borregos and Boy Scouts. We watched a herd of 11 Borrego sheep high above us through binoculars and zoom lenses. What a treat to see such a large group grazing in a lush meadow high on the hills overlooking the preserve, and to see the steep, rocky cliffs surrounding them, which they need to navigate routinely. We also enjoyed the youth and vitality of a Webelo scout troop that was breaking camp while we ate our picnic lunch in the cottonwood grove.

Lush vegetation along the river bed.

We hiked up the Pacific Crest Trail a ways, enjoying the bright vistas of rock, sky, and the Whitewater River. Water was moving pretty quickly in the river, but we were able to navigate across the water into the willows that grow close to the water.

Exploring the trail that follows the Whitewater River.

We didn’t see as many spring blooms this year, probably due to being earlier in the year, and a drier spring. But we did see a Yucca whipplei (Our Lord's Candle) just starting to bloom, with many blossoms emerging from between its bracts.

Blossoms are just starting to emerge from between the
bracts. Last year the blossoms were mature.

Dry Gardens

I am always on the lookout for interesting dry gardens when we travel to the desert. Last year I enjoyed the dry garden associated with our hotel—Palm Canyon Resort—in Borrego Springs (near Anza-Borrego Desert Park). This year, I enjoyed the dry garden rest stop off I-10 on the way to Joshua Tree National Park. My folks and I stopped there for a picnic.

Dry garden in the foreground,
shade structure in the distance.

Palo Verde and Bladder Pod beyond the shade structure.

Structures provided shade in the picnic areas, and a cool breeze blew continually through the I-10 corridor. Desert plants, including Palo Verde and Bladder Pod, were used instead of lawn. Curving cement paths provided interest, and irrigation kept the plants looking their best.

Instead of a grass lawn, this rest stop on I-10 uses desert plantings.
Irrigation extends bloom time. 

They also use some plants with which I am not familiar, but they seemed to fit with the desert, water-wise theme. This is a great idea for the California rest stops - to use native plants and light irrigation to reduce costs and still retain the security and benefit of rest stops.

Yellow Bird of Paradise (Caesalpinia gilliesii) from Argentina and Uruguay.
I love the long red stamens contrasting with the yellow blossoms.

Joshua Tree National Park

My folks and I spent a day at Joshua Tree National Park exploring and looking for wildflowers in bloom after the recent rains. The day was beautiful, clear, and a perfect temperature. Our online research (http://www.nps.gov/jotr/planyourvisit/blooms.htm) directed us to the washes south of the Cottonwood Visitor Center for the best flower viewing, so we entered the park from the south and drove north. Especially prominent were purple fields of Salvia columbariae (Chia), and combinations of blue and purple Phacelia distans (Wild heliotrope) and P. campunularia (Desert Canterbury bells). We also saw our first Mentzelia involucrate (Sand Blazing Star), which shimmers like bridal satin in the sun and is difficult to capture in a photo.

Fields of Chia - contrasting with the sage greens and sand.

Discovering Blazing Star shimmering in the sun.

Patches of blue and purple flowers.

North of the visitor center we hiked out on the desert floor to view Fouquieria splendens (Ocotillo) and the Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree) up close. Some of the Joshua Trees were just starting to blossom. This section of the park is at a higher elevation, and the blooms were not as developed as in the south.

Ocotillo

Joshua Tree, with blooms in the upper branches.

At the end of the day, we reviewed our discoveries and compared notes at The Rib Company, near the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, over barbecue ribs and all the fixings. With less seasonal rain, and being earlier in the season, we saw fewer mass bloomings that in previous years, but we still added many new flowers to our lists, and saw a good representation of blooms in smaller quantities. The desert remains an amazing ecosystem – hostile and harsh, yet full of fragile beauty.

Chia	Blazing Star
Joshua Tree	Canterbury Bells and

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Mill Creek

I recently returned from my annual trek to the Southern California desert. My folks and I met up for a long weekend to view wildflowers (they came from Alaska, I came from the San Francisco Bay Area). My folks grew up in Southern California during the Depression and World War II years, so they are familiar with back roads and great places to visit “old California.” They picked me up from the Ontario Airport, and then we set off to visit a few sites.



Mill Creek Ranger Station in the upper
left quadrant, and the Oak Glen Road

We visited the Hermosa Cemetary in Colton, California, where both my mom’s parents (my grandparents) are buried. We also visited the grave site of Deputy Marshal Morgan Earp (the brother of Wyatt Earp) who was gunned down in Tombstone, Arizona in 1852. We drove by the house where my grandparents raised my mom and aunt; the house has changed, but it is rich with memories of lazy summer vacations, and visits during college and early-marriage.

Pinus coulteri near Mill Creek.

From there we headed up Highway 330 to Mill Creek, a place we have hiked and enjoyed in the past. We checked in at the Mill Creek Ranger Station for information. The man who hired my dad at the Forest Service in 1955, Dr. Ray Taylor, once worked at this station. In Mill Creek we saw Pinus coulteri, the Big-cone Pine. We recalled childhood picnics where we collected pine cones; and later hikes and slingshot practice with my son (their grandson) when he was about 7 or 8. We stopped off at the Los Rios Ranch apple farm in Oak Glen, now a preserve, where I visited while on a women’s retreat in the 1980’s as a young mom, and where my son and I visited with his Kindergarten class in the early 1990s. Lots of wonderful memories!

Decomposing cone - the scales are attached to the center core with fibrous strands.

Plants of the Parables - Mustard

In honor of Easter this year, I’m taking a look at one of the plants of the parables – mustard. Jesus frequently used stories and parables to teach his followers. In one parable he likens the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed – its tiny seed yields a much larger plant (Mathew 30:31-32). To an agrarian population, familiar with mustard plants growing wild, this would have been easily understood. From a small start great things can come.

Tiny mustard seeds

According to Old Dominion University, the mustard would have been Brassica nigra or B. alba, both of which grow in the Mediterranean. The plant grows from two to eight feet tall. Its flowers are racemes of tiny, yellow, fragrant flowers, each with four petals. The ground seeds can be used for cooking, as a flavorful condiment, or as a medicinal plaster for respiratory ailments; the flowers and greens can be eaten.

Mustard growing wild in Dublin, California.

Mustard has naturalized in some parts of the San Francisco Bay Area. In the spring, especially after wet winters, the hills and fields are covered with their lacy yellow flowers.

Learn More:

Old Dominion University (plant list):
http://www.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/allbibleplantslist.php

Mustard:
http://www.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/mustard.php

Carl Linnaeus

Carl Linnaeus was born in 1707 at Råshult, Sweden to Nils Linnaeus, the village curate and amateur botanist, and Christina, daughter of a rector. A teacher recognized Carl’s youthful interest in botany and recommended that he study medicine at the University (botany was an important aspect of medicine at the time). Linnaeus transferred to Uppsala University in 1727. While at University, Linnaeus wrote a paper about the sexuality of plants. In 1730, he began to question the current plant classification system, which was to compile a string of Latin adjectives that described the plant, animal, or mineral. As more discoveries were made worldwide, this method was quickly becoming unwieldy.

In 1732, at the age of 25, Linnaeus was commissioned by the Royal Society of Science to travel throughout Lapland to investigate its flora, fauna, and minerals. He spent five months in the field collecting and observing. He reported his finds in Florula Lapponica, his first publication to use his ‘sexual system’ of classification for plants. From 1733 – 1740 he continued studying botany, lived abroad, obtained his medical degree, set up a medical practice, and married Sara Lisa.

Photo of Linnaeus's bedroom taken at the Hammarby Museum
by Swedish photographer Emma Schenson in 1864. The walls
are papered with copies of botantical drawings by Charles Plumier
(French botanist) and Georg Ehret (botanical artist).
This work is in the public domain in the United States, and those countries
with a copyright term of life of the author plus 90 years or fewer.

In 1741, he accepted a medical professorship at Uppsala University. At University he lectured, wrote, promoted his method of classification, and mentored a new generation of botanist. He sent out his “apostles” to collect and classify specimens from all over the world, and promote his classification system. He continued to publish, teach, summer in Hammarby, and correspond with botanists all over the world until his death in 1778.

Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist

I read Linnaeus: The Compleat Naturalist by Wilfred Blunt to learn more about Carl Linnaeus, the “father of taxonomy.” The book is published by Princeton University Press (New Jersey, 2001). It is entertaining and informative; and provides a comprehensive collection of maps, pictures and photos, and writings from those who knew Linnaeus. The reference material, including the bibliography and chronology of Linnaeus, are especially useful.

Linnaeus lived from 1707 to 1778, a time of worldwide exploration and discovery. The new discoveries needed to be classified, and Linnaeus’s classification system and binomial naming system met that need. David Quammen, in his article “Linnaeus A Passion for Order”, observes “you need to recognize that Carl Linnaeus wasn’t simply a great botanist and prolific deviser and memorizer of names. He was something more modern: an information architect.” This book shows how Linnaeus developed his ideas.

Besides learning about Linnaeus's many contributions, I also enjoyed learning about Linnaeus the person. His plant classification was based on a “sexual system” (the number of stamens), something he seemed to take delight in (despite, or because of, the shock it caused). He embraced the creationist view of his time, and felt called to look for and classify God’s natural system in the botanical world. In that pursuit, he was a shameless and effective promoter of his ideas, with just the amount of charm and personality to make it endearing. He was a marvelous teacher and lecturer – skilled at speaking, a mind for detail, and an interest in his students. In the summer, he led botanical field trips from his country house in Hammarby, which were part intellectual pursuit, and part theater and fun.