Observaciones de tchester

This young plant doesn't look very happy. Nearly all the ocotillo plants we saw on this trip had at least some leaves present.

This was a repeat observation of a plant measured four months earlier, in December 2023. It was unchanged from then, with no new growth.

Repeat observation of a plant called #2 in our webpage on ocotillo recruitment:

https://tchester.org/bd/species/fouquieriaceae/recruitment.html

The post from 3 December 2023:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/193559424

Observations from this 16 April 2024 trip:

2 flowering stems.

stem 1 has a new segment 3 3/4" long plus an infl of length 8". Segment #2, the one below the new segment was 19", segment 3 was 8", segment 4 was 5.5". The measurements for segments 2, 3 and 4 were the same as measured in December 2023, confirming that the new growth occurred in the last four months.

stem 2 youngest segment 10.5", then 7", 9.5", 9.5", with 8.5 inches of infl. These are roughly the same as measurements made in December, but with some variance apparently due to exactly where we judged a segment to end. We had a similar discrepancy for this stem on another December trip. When we returned to this stem on the second December visit, we found it was not abundantly clear where the segments began and ended.

There was new growth on other stems of 7.5", and 5.5".

This plant had ten stems total, including short ones.

Repeat observation of a young plant photographed four months earlier on 8 December 2023 and in December 2022. The only measurements taken in those years were just the total number of stem segments.

We took more detailed measurements this time:

stem 1 length 16" including new growth of 4.5" that had newish petioles but also baby growth in axils.

stem 2 length 11" with no new growth.

stem 3 length 11" with no new growth.

stem 4 length 12" with possible new growth of 3.5" (we weren't sure about whether that was new growth on that stem).

A young ocotillo, probably a teenager, estimated to be 9 to 10 feet tall. It had 21 long stems.

One long stem had new stem growth of 8" that had newish petioles with leaves, but also had axillary growth in that segment. 2.5" of that new "new growth" had no axillary growth.

A mature ocotillo with many flowering stems. The infl are above stem segments produced previously since there are no primary leaves still present on them.

I did not observe any new stem growth on this plant.

Another mature ocotillo with many flowering stems. The infl are above stem segments produced previously since there are no primary leaves still present on them.

One shorter stem did produce a new stem segment with primary leaves present, shown in the first and second pix.

A mature ocotillo with many flowering stems. The infl are above stem segments produced previously since there are no primary leaves still present on them.

One shorter stem did produce a new stem segment with primary leaves present, shown in the first and second pix.

A young ocotillo with new stem growth that has both primary leaves still present and axillary leaf growth.

This plant has 10 stems, with new stem growth on 3 of them.

Measurements on longest stems:

Stem 1 length 28"; no new growth.
Stem 2 length 24", including new growth of 6".
Stem 3 length 19"; no new growth.
Stem 4 length 18", including new growth of 6.5".

This obs contains examples of basal rosettes that six days earlier had their leaves dead flat on the ground.

Survey of the first 2.0 miles of the PCT north of S22 for Plagiobothrys and Cryptantha species. For details, see:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207865948

Don Rideout and I did a special survey of the first 2.0 miles of the PCT north of S22 for Plagiobothrys and Cryptantha species. We had seen plants that looked much like P. tenellus six days earlier here, so we were specifically looking for P. tenellus to verify that determination from the nutlets.

However, despite careful surveying, we only found P. arizonicus and C. intermedia. The plants that had looked like P. tenellus six days earlier, from their small basal rosettes, no longer looked like P. tenellus! The basal rosettes of those plants were mostly no longer present, as the plants withdrew energy from their basal leaves for flowering.

We checked a lot of plagios, and all had circumscissile calyces. Out of the dozens we checked, we have posted seven of them at iNat from this trip. All of our iNat posts from this trip:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?on=2024-04-16&place_id=any&taxon_id=49139&user_id=tchester,lagoondon

I speculate that these plants of P. arizonicus had unusually-small basal rosettes because of the unusually-cold weather during their growing season.

The last pix in this post was supposed to show a circumcised calyx, but the camera decided to focus on my thumb instead of the calyx. With some imagination, you might be able to see two developed nutlets, and two aborted nutlets.

Alas, the developing bud now makes it clear that this was not a Caulanthus, and is almost surely H. glabra. I was hoping for something more interesting.

I've never seen H. glabra in chaparral like this area.

Don found another location with this species farther along the trail that looks more like H. glabra:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/207829278

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.

I photographed 29(!!) young ocotillos seen in a 1.6 mile hike on the northwest side of Harper Flat, and I'm sure I missed a number of young ones farther from my path. This area clearly had good recruitment in the last decade.