vol. 37, no. 2

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JOURNAL OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY

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VOL. 37, NO. 2 • APRIL 2009

FREMONTIA

THE CEDARS: SONOMA COUNTY’S

HIDDEN TREASURE

PARK STEWARDSHIP IN AN URBAN

LANDSCAPE

A NEW BRODIAEA SPECIES

“HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT”

THE CEDARS: SONOMA COUNTY’S

HIDDEN TREASURE

PARK STEWARDSHIP IN AN URBAN

LANDSCAPE

A NEW BRODIAEA SPECIES

“HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT”

F R E M O N T I A V O L U M E 3 7 : 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9

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CONTENTS

THE COVER: Falls Gorge. This steep multiple cascade series is in the upper Main Canyon on the BLM parcel. The presenceof water is restricted to winter and spring months. Photograph by R. Raiche.

THE CEDARS: SONOMA COUNTY’S HIDDEN TREASURE by Roger Raiche ... 3

Roger Raiche has been fascinated by The Cedars, a little known serpentine canyonsystem in northwestern Sonoma County, since he first visited in 1981. Combiningrare geology, an other-worldly look, and unusual and unique plants, Roger has spentseveral decades exploring, documenting, and attempting to secure preservation ofthis fragile ecosystem. He and his partner, David McCrory, bought a 520-acre parcelin the heart of the area in 1998. There they continue to promote education and scientific research, whileworking with several conservation organizations to further the preservation of this unique area.

NATIVE BY DESIGN: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THE CREATION ANDSTEWARDSHIP OF A NATURE PARK by Barbara Eisenstein .......................... 16

Southern California’s urban landscape is noted for its dearth of parkland. Restoringland along flood control channels of what were once free-flowing and unruly riversis being considered as a possible remedy. This article chronicles the efforts of a smallcommunity group to preserve and heal a parcel of such land along a tributary ofthe Los Angeles River. The author shares both the successes and dreams, and the

challenges and lessons of the project for others to interpret and apply to similar situations.

THE SANTA ROSA BASALT BRODIAEA: A NEW SPECIES “HIDDEN IN PLAINSIGHT” by Wayne P. Armstrong, Tom Chester, and Kay Madore ......................... 20

The Santa Rosa Basalt Brodiaea (Brodiaea santarosae) is a newly described species that“pulled off” two amazing masquerades for 45 years. First, its species nature washidden because some of its flowers superficially appear as B. filifolia, other flowers asB. orcuttii, and still others as hybrids between those species. Second, even thoughbotanists are highly sensitive to endemic plants, it managed to hide its nature as a basalt endemic even afterit was recognized as a species. Armstrong, Chester, and Madore describe how this species and its endemicnature was unmasked.

BOOK REVIEW: Nature’s Operating Instructions: The True Biotechnologies. Kenny Ausubel with J.P.Harpignies (editors). Reviewed by Norden H. (Dan) Cheatham ........................................................ 28

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THE CEDARS:SONOMA COUNTY’S HIDDEN TREASURE

by Roger Raiche

This roughly 7,500-acre blockof serpentine—used loosely here torefer to rocks and soil of ultramaficorigin, i.e., high magnesium and iron(Coleman and Jove, 1992)—locatedin the northwestern section ofSonoma County is as unexpected asit is unique. Even life-long residentsof the county find it hard to believeit exists. Indeed it is hard to seefrom any public road unless youknow precisely when and where to

look. Though remote and obscure,The Cedars is an area of greatbotanic, geologic, and scenic mag-nificence.

Part of the Outer North CoastRanges, it is nine miles by air toTimber Cove on the coast. Itsrounded ridges are 1,700 to 2,200feet in elevation, thus only as highas, or even lower than, many of thesurrounding ridges in that vicinity.But within this area is a complex

love of the California land-scape and its plants is acommon thread unitingnearly every CNPS mem-

ber, and millions more. Yet each ofus has one place that touches us farmore vividly than all the others, aplace we might return to again andagain to take in the special connec-tion we have established, much likerenewing a friendship. The Cedarsis the place that captured me.

Looking west-northwest into the Main Canyon, a rare morning fog is retreating into the Gualala River side of the divide. Cypress treesare exceptionally effective at condensing fog into rain. All photographs by the author.

A


system of deeply cut canyons whosecreek beds are about 1,000 feetlower than the ridgetops. These can-yons feed two different river sys-tems, the Russian River via two dis-tinct branches of Austin Creek, andthe Gualala River via the WheatfieldFork. The two branches of AustinCreek, Big (or West) Austin Creek

and East Austin Creek, have theirheadwaters in The Cedars but travelfor over 12 miles apart before join-ing again two miles up from theRussian River. Cazadero, a smallcommunity, is the only nearbytown. (When viewed on GoogleEarth, or other topographic pro-grams, the approximate center is at

038°37'37.53"N, 123°07'21.51"W.)It is still unclear when the name,

The Cedars, was applied to this dis-tinctive landscape. It was probablyin the 1920s or 1930s when the areawas mapped by the USGS. Earliercounty maps labeled the area RedSlide. Today Red Slide is the specificname for the largest talus barren onthe east side of The Cedars and asecondary drainage behind this bar-ren. The Cedars’ name is a botanicalmisnomer, as the “cedars” referredto are actually Sargent cypress(Cupressus sargentii). [California’scypresses are currently the subjectsof differing taxonomic innovationsthat may result in a change in thegenus name. Ed.] In popular usage,“cedar” is applied to many needle-leafed plants (including Calocedrus,Juniperus, Thuja, and Tamarix).

FIRST CONTACT

The Cedars has been an obses-sion since I first walked into whatwe now call the Main Canyon on alate July morning in 1981. In 1980,on a backroad trip to Salt Point withfriends, I had spotted it from theupper section of King Ridge Road. Icommented on its rockiness, its red-dish coloration, and the flat-toppedtrees that I correctly assumed werecypress. These clues indicated ser-pentine, a substrate I already foundfascinating. In July, as I hiked in, Ihad hopes of finding something in-teresting and unusual. Yet I was un-prepared to experience a canyon sounique, beautiful, pristine, vast, andfascinating in its flora as I experi-enced that day. I can almost remem-ber each footstep, each gasp ofamazement as the landscape un-folded before me. There were banksdripping with huge colonies of Cali-fornia lady slipper orchid (Cypripe-dium californicum), bizarre mineral-ized formations, stunning barrens,and fascinating and rarely seenplants. I had been given permissionto explore the canyon by a neigh-boring ranch owner, Bette Campbell,

Mineral Falls, a 20-foot waterfall, is coated with multiple layers of calcium carbonatereleased from ultrabasic (pH greater than 11) springs near the top. Older gray depositsvisible to the left have been dated to be 5,000 years old.


who had described it as a “moon-scape.” Indeed it was that, but it wasmuch more.

Truly massive barrens and talusslopes, hued silver, tan, and red,shimmering in the summer heat werejuxtaposed with ancient Sargent cy-press woodlands, dark and thick witha rich understory of shrubs andherbs. This visual interplay was con-founding but aesthetically exhilarat-ing. After several hours exploringthe canyon bottoms I climbed one ofthe knife-back ridges and saw can-yon after canyon branching off intothe distance. I realized this place wasgoing to take some time to get toknow, and this day’s 11-hour explo-ration was merely a tease. I returnedagain and again during the next 15years when I could get permission,not always a certain thing. I neededto explore each branch of each can-yon over different months and overmultiple seasons to be sure I wasseeing and documenting everything.The Cedars did not disappoint me.There were undescribed species, odddisjunctions, and a number of spe-cies never collected in the countybefore.

PREVIOUS BOTANICALEXPLORATIONS

The Cedars have been visited byother botanists since at least the early20th century, but due to its remote-ness and access issues, most of theearly collecting had been spotty andincomplete. The California lady slip-per orchid specimen collected by A.L. Graff in 1928 from “the head-waters of Austin Creek” is certainlyfrom The Cedars (Best et al., 1996).School teacher, orchardist, andbotanical artist from nearby Guerne-ville, Freed W. Hoffman (Morrison,1960), had a passion for serpentineareas and plants. He did the mostextensive collecting in the 1940s and1950s, collecting over 100 specimensfrom The Cedars (Jepson Online,2008). He published two new taxa

Mineral Spring, also know as the Wedding Cake, is a calcium carbonate structure thatroutinely gets destroyed each winter yet rebuilds in almost exactly the same form eachsummer.

of jewelflowers (Streptanthus) fromThe Cedars—Morrison’s jewelflower(S. morrisonii) and Dorr’s Cabinjewelflower (S. morrisonii spp. hir-tiflorus) (Hoffman, 1952). Thesewere named in honor of his goodfriend and Streptanthus expert, JohnMorrison who lived in nearby MonteRio. Hoffman referred to his ex-plorations as “strep-trekking.” ArtKruckeberg, the authority on Cali-fornia serpentines—he literally wrotethe book (Kruckeberg, 1986)—vis-ited in September 1966 to study theStreptanthus and later included sev-eral pictures from The Cedars in hisbook, which is dedicated to FreedHoffman. Philip Wells, an authorityon manzanitas (Arctostaphylos) vis-ited in the 1970s and later publisheda new subspecies, The Cedars man-zanita (A. bakeri ssp. sublaevis).Lawrence LaPre, a botanical consult-ant, also visited The Cedars in the1980s to compare the jewelflowersat The Cedars with those to the eastat The Geysers area on the Sonoma/Lake county line. The most com-mon interest has been with jewel-flowers and their perplexing tax-onomy.

Peter Warner of Mendocino dida plant survey of the southwest cor-ner of The Cedars in the vicinity ofthe Campbell Ranch (Warner,1994). I have combined his obser-vations and Hoffman’s with mine toproduce a plant list of just over 200taxa, at all levels, of natives growingin or marginal to The Cedars and itscontiguous serpentine extensions.

GEOLOGICALEXPLORATION

The Cedars has been of consid-erable interest to miners and geolo-gists. Back in the late 19th centuryboth chromite (FeCr2O4) and mag-nesite (MgCO3) were discovered inthe area and a number of mines ex-ploited these deposits until afterWorld War II. In the 1960s the areawas investigated by both Ivan Barnes(USGS) and Dr. Robert Coleman(professor emeritus at Stanford Uni-versity and authority on the geologyof serpentines). Ivan Barnes’s nowfamous paper on the proof of realtime, low temperature, and nearsurface serpentinization utilized


A solitary Sargent cypress (Cupressus sargentii) marks the confluence of two forks of the upper section of Azalea Creek, a local name forone of the primary branches of Big Austin Creek within The Cedars.


samples from one of the calcium car-bonate springs (now named in hishonor) in The Cedars (Barnes et al.,1964). Serpentinization is the pro-cess where igneous ultramafic mantlerock (peridotite) is metamorphosedinto secondary serpentine minerals.Calcium bicarbonate is a byproductof this process. Rock from The Ce-dars was used to create PCC1, Peri-dotite Cedars Cazadero 1 (Fanagan,1986), an analysis of all the mineralsand their percentages in the peridot-ite at The Cedars. It serves as a stan-

dard to which all other peridotitesare compared worldwide.

A current ongoing project bygeobiology graduate researcherOrion Johnson at the University ofSouthern California (USC) is focusedon determining the types of microbesand how they survive in the ultra-basic (pH greater than 11) watersemerging in certain spots. Low so-dium, ultra-high pH springs are rareon Earth, yet provide an intriguingmodel of how primitive microbiallife may evolve on planets.

ENDEMIC TAXA TO THE CEDARSCommon Name CNPS Rarity* Comments

Arctostaphylos bakeri ssp. sublaevis The Cedars manzanita 1B.2 Hybridizes with A. manzanitaon periphery of The Cedars.Type locality.

Calochortus raichei The Cedars fairy lantern 1B.2 Strict endemic. Type locality.

Epipactis gigantea f. rubrifolia Purple-leaf stream orchid None Strict endemic but variable leafcolor. Type locality.

Erigeron serpentinus Serpentine fleabane 1B.3 Strict endemic. Type locality.

Eriogonum cedrorum The Cedars buckwheat None This recently described taxon isstrictly endemic to The Cedars.Restricted to three limited areas.Type locality.

Holodiscus sp. nova The Cedars creambush None This undescribed taxon is strictlyendemic to The Cedars, foundgrowing only on serpentine.Distinct from nearby H.discolor; characters “hold” incultivation.

Streptanthus glandulosus ssp. hoffmanii Hoffman’s jewelflower 1B.3 A regional endemic, but TheCedars represents most knownplants. Another subspecies of S.glandulosus occurs nearby withwhite flowers (ssp. sonomensis).

Strepthanthus morrisonii ssp. hirtiflorus Dorr’s Cabin jewelflower 1B.2 This subspecies is currently notrecognized but is a good segre-gate. Very limited distribution.Still tracked for rarity. Strictserpentine endemic, the rarest ofall the published S. morrisoniisubtaxa. Type locality for boththe species and this subspecies.

* (CNPS Online, 2008).

PLANTS

The Cedars is a classic exampleof a “floristic island,” where manyof the plants have no close relation-ship with those in the non-serpen-tine areas that surround it. The mostinteresting group is The Cedars’endemics, plants that only occur onThe Cedars’ contiguous serpentines.I currently consider eight entities tofall into this category, but one is notcurrently recognized botanically.This is a creambush (Holodiscus) that


has not been named, but which isthe most visually distinct shrubthroughout The Cedars.

The Cedars fairy-lantern (Calo-chortus raichei) is a perfect exampleof a strict endemic here. It occursthroughout all the interior can-yons—though not everywhere—andeven to the margin of serpentinerock, but never beyond. In manystretches it even avoids the margins,where it might be replaced by thewidespread Diogenes’ lantern (C.amabilis), though the two never seemto overlap. It is extremely late flow-

ering for a low elevation species,typically blooming in early June tomid- or late July. Freed Hoffman firstcollected it in 1947 as the Mt. Diabloglobe-lily (Calochortus pulchellus).At that time, the name C. pulchellusalso included the now distinct C.amabilis.

I first saw the plant in flower in1983, though I had puzzled over thelarge waxy-blue strap-like foliage theprevious season. After several yearsof exhausting explorations to deter-mine the range, collecting herbariumspecimens, and comparing featuresof related species, I convinced Calo-chortus experts Stan Farwig and VicGerard that this was a completelynew species. I was much honoredwhen they named it for me in 1987,linking my name with the amazingCedars.

The purple-leafed race of streamorchid (Epipactis gigantea f. rubri-folia) is another odd Cedars’ en-demic. At its most extreme, the plantemerges with almost black-purplefoliage with a silvery iridescence thatgradually fades to a dusky burgundy-green by flowering. The purple leafcharacter is variable. This is the onlyplace in the entire extensive distri-bution of stream orchid where

purple foliage has appeared. It prob-ably deserves a taxonomic upgrade.‘Serpentine Night’ is a very deep col-ored selection I made in 1982.

Serpentine fleabane (Erigeronserpentinus) is a low herb spreadingunderground to form lacy colonieswith wiry stems less than eightinches tall with thread-like foliage,and sparse-looking daisies composedof 9 to 13 pale lilac ray flowers ar-ranged imperfectly around a yellowcenter—thus looking odd or dam-aged. It prefers shady, damp, orricher soils, particularly in old cy-press woodland. Small marble-sizedgalls on the upper stems are oftenmistaken as buds.

CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Closeup of serpentine columbine (Aquilegia eximia), a serpentineseepage endemic that flowers from June into September on four-foot-tall plants. • Purple-leaf stream orchid (Epipactis gigantea f. rubrifolia), an endemic. The burgundy foliage isalready showing shades of green as is typical at flowering. • Closeup of a flower head ofserpentine milkweed (Asclepias solanoana), a lovely prostrate-growing plant of serpentinebarrens. • Closeup of endemic Cedars’ fairy-lantern (Calochortus raichei), a late- and few-flowered bulb. Best flowering seasons depend on both early and late rains. • UnnamedCedars’ creambush (Holodiscus sp. nova). Both larger cane leaves and much smaller secondarybranchlet leaves are shown. The combination of bright ruby-red juvenile growth, glabrousupper leaf surface, and leaf margins with teeth well below the middle is unique in California.

Solitary flower of serpentine fleabane(Erigeron serpentinus), an endemic to TheCedars. The ray petals are typically irreg-ularly arranged.


Serpentine endemics (plants thatonly—or almost always—occur onserpentine, but may also exist onserpentine beyond The Cedars) formanother category of plants here.Sargent cypress, Jepson musk brush(Ceanothus jepsonii), serpentine col-umbine (Aquilegia eximia), andbearded jewelflower (Streptanthusbarbiger) are four good examples ofthis restriction. Some can also besaid to be disjunct, i.e., disconnectedfrom or beyond a plant’s normal geo-graphic range. Some are also extra-limital, i.e., are at an extreme intheir range. Most of these extra-limital plants are at either theirsouthern or western extremes. Somenotable southern-limit entities aresticky manzanita (Arctostaphylosviscida ssp. pulchella), cotton grass(Eriophorum criniger), Californialady slipper orchid, and showy phlox(Phlox speciosa ssp. nitida). Thosesignificantly west of their primaryrange include Pringle’s bird-beak(Cordylanthus pringlei), Brewer’s wil-low (Salix breweri), green deermint(Monardella viridis), Venus maiden-hair fern (Adiantum capillis-veneris),foxtail muhly (Muhlenbergia andina),hoary coffeeberry (Rhamnus tomen-tella), and Morrison’s jewelflower.Serpentine milkweed (Asclepias sola-noana) is at both its southern andwestern extremes. Only the cloverTrifolium buckwestiorum is repre-sentative of a northern disjunction.

From a county perspective thereare four plants not mentioned in AFlora of Sonoma County (Best et al.,1996) but which occur here.

Widespread species, which dooccur in the general vicinity, oftenoff of serpentine, also occur in TheCedars. Chamise (Adenostoma fasci-culatum), mountain mahogany (Cer-cocarpus betuloides), wavy-leaf cea-nothus (Ceanothus foliosus), andbuckbrush (C. cuneatus) fit into thiscategory.

A profound dichotomy existsbetween the plants within The Ce-dars (the core species) and a differ-ent group that grows on the periph-

ery. The contact zone—where theserpentine rock/soil meets other non-serpentine substrates, results in a mixof serpentine and nonserpentine spe-cies. Ancient landslides that slid offof the main block of serpentine havecreated a number of peripheral ser-pentine meadows and chaparralswhich have plants that cannot befound inside the core area. Star bro-diaea (Brodiaea stellaris), Sonomajewelflower (Streptanthus glandulo-sus ssp. sonomensis), goldfields (Las-thenia californica), hog fennel (Loma-tium dasycarpum ssp. tomentosum),and squirreltail (Elymus elymoides)are just a few examples.

One plant that perfectly illus-trates this inner/outer Cedars floraldichotomy is the Sonoma subspe-cies of bristly jewelflower, S. glan-dulosus ssp. sonomensis that has awhite flower. Outside of the mainCedars the ssp. sonomensis is com-mon in sparse serpentine grasslands,whereas the lilac-pink flowered ssp.hoffmanii occurs not far away on therock and talus of the main block ofThe Cedars. More than a simplecolor difference, the two performdifferently in the same season. Forexample, in 2007 the ssp. hoffmaniihad a very bad flowering season, butthe ssp. sonomensis had a spectacu-

Looking down Laton Gulch to the creekbed about 800' below. Laton Mine, one of the fewtopographic names, is near the bottom above the forest of Sargent cypress.

1 0 F R E M O N T I A V O L U M E 3 7 : 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9

lar flowering season.Here are two subspe-cies that are closely re-lated, but which haveaccumulated a capacityto grow in differentsites and respond to dif-ferent environmentalclues. This is evolution.

HABITATS

A good way togroup the plants of TheCedars is to considerwhat habitat(s) theygrow in. Natural habi-tats tend to blur oneinto another, so delin-eations are not abso-lute. However thereare several primaryhabitats that repeatthroughout this area.

Sargent cypress woodland is themost extensive habitat of The Ce-dars. It covers at least several thou-sand acres, and is often character-ized by dense stands of small treesgrowing closely together. The cy-press also occurs as tiny, dwarfed,bonsai-like specimens at the edge ofbarrens or as individuals pepperedthrough chaparral. Primarily it formsa woodland with other trees, shrubs,and herbs. In richer sites, the cy-press trees can be quite old and huge,and are often mixed with Douglasfir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), bay lau-rel (Umbellularia californica), andleather oak (Quercus durata). Inthe richest zones, canyon oak (Q.chrysolepis), tanoak (Lithocarpusdensiflora) and madrone (Arbutusmenziesii) may be present in limitednumbers. These lush zones occurmost commonly along the ripariancorridors or on shady north-facingslopes or protected gullies. They arethe most park-like of the habitats,and are especially inviting to hu-mans. Typically, a surprisingly richsoil has developed due to hundredsof years of humus accumulation anda lack of catastrophic fires, though

ground fires may haveoccurred. Understoryshrubs are rare in theolder woodlands, butThe Cedars creambushis almost always pre-sent. This is the onlyhabitat where poison-oak (Toxicodendrondiversilobum) occurs,though infrequentlyand dwarfed. The un-derstory herbaceouslayer is perhaps themost interesting fea-ture and is a complexmix of sedges, grasses,bulbs, annuals, bien-nials, and perennialsgrowing tightly to-gether, though oftenutilizing different sea-sons of growth. Overtwo dozen plants can

be found together in many sites aspart of this forb layer. Nearly omni-present in all canyons are the fol-lowing plants that are listed in se-quence of bloom: toothwort (Car-damine californica var. sinuata),woodrush (Luzula comosa), Indianwarrior (Pedicularis densiflora), starzigadene (Zigadenus fremontii),short-stem sedge (Carex brevicaul-is), bedstraw (Galium californicum),long-tube iris (Iris macrosiphon),milkwort (Polygala californica),

morning glory (Calystegia sp.; thisplant has affinities to both C. sub-acaulis and C. collina ssp. oxy-phylla), Torrey’s melic grass (Melicatorreyana), Indian pink (Silene cali-fornica), narrow-petal piperia (Pi-peria leptopetala), The Cedars fairylantern, and green deermint.

Where the cypresses are morescattered, two manzanitas are com-mon along with the leather oak.Sticky manzanita and The Cedarsmanzanita may be as abundant asthe cypress. Given enough time, themanzanitas die out and the area tran-sitions to cypress woodland.

Serpentine chaparral is also com-mon, both with and without Sargentcypress. It is frequently dominatedby the two manzanitas mentionedabove with leather oak as a shrub.Jepson’s musk brush and buck-brush are frequent constituents, asis toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia).On mesic or north-facing chapar-rals, red berry (Rhamnus illicifolia),bush monkey flower (Mimulus aur-antiacus) and Cedars’ creambush areprevalent. Several distinct chapar-ral variants occur. One has manycompact forms of coast silktassel(Garrya elliptica); another an un-derstory of serpentine reedgrass(Calamagrostis ophitidis); yet an-other only sticky manzanita. Un-derstory elements are identical butfewer than in cypress woodlands

Not in A Flora of Common Name Habitat andSonoma County Abundance

Adiantum capillus-veneris Venus maidenhair fern Carbonateseepages, rare.

Eriophorum criniger Cotton grass Seepages,common.

Moehringia latifolia Wide-leaf moehringia Mesic woodlands,uncommon.

Muhlenbergia andina Foxtail muhly Seepages,uncommon.

Hoffman’s jewelflower(Streptanthus glandulosusssp. hoffmanii) is found onrocky areas throughout TheCedars, though populationsvary enormously from yearto year from nearly non-existent to colorful displaysof thousands.

ADDITIONS TO THE FLORA OF SONOMA COUNTYFROM THE CEDARS

F R E M O N T I A 1 1V O L U M E 3 7 : 2 , A P R I L 2 0 0 9

This cliffside grotto formed by calcium carbonate deposits provides an ideal site for many serpentine columbines (Aquilegia eximia).


and vary considerably. Diversity de-creases toward the ridgetops.

Vast serpentine barrens, talus,and acres of bare rock are anotherprimary habitat within The Cedars.Visually quite impressive, they ac-count for the moonscape descriptionso frequently employed by visitors.A group of scientists working withNASA who visited The Cedars foundsome barrens to be quite reminiscentof pictures received from Mars!

The barrens are the most extremehabitat at The Cedars, yet they arenot without plants. The biennialMorrison’s jewelflower might befound alone in the most extremesites, but bearded jewelflower canalso occur by the thousands in latewinter/spring. Serpentine phacelia(Phacelia corymbosa) is the most fre-quent perennial plant here. Twoother perennials only occur on somesites. One is a new species of buck-wheat (Eriogonum), and the other isserpentine milkweed, a startlinglygorgeous plant in flower. The Ce-dars creambush is the only largeshrub that tolerates this habitat,where it is mostly restricted to deep

talus slopes. Other annual, peren-nial, and bulb (or corm) constitu-ents of this hostile habitat may oc-cur by the tens of thousands, yet arevisually overwhelmed by the amountof rock or talus except when theseplants are in peak flower and theymay create a mist of color.

Perennial water habitats can besubdivided in various ways, but flo-ristically there are essentially twotypes, creekside and seepage. Insome areas the creeks pass throughold Sargent cypress woodlands thatform an upper level riparian corri-dor. But, due to the enormous quan-

A new species of wild buckwheat (Eriogo-num cedrorum) is located in only a fewsites within The Cedars, especially con-sidering the vast amount of rock and talusavailable. Its botanical affinities are withternate buckwheat (E. ternatum) of theKlamath Range and Snow Mountainbuckwheat (E. nervulosum) of the InnerNorth Coast Range.


tity of water that flows through thecreeks in winter (Cazadero averagesover 65 inches of rainfall per year,often in huge storms of five inchesor more), there are only four shrubsthat tolerate the fluctuating water

levels and the powerful scouringaction of the peak flows. They areBrewer’s willow, Western azalea(Rhododendron occidentale), hoarycoffeeberry, and Western spicebush(Calycanthus occidentalis) in decreas-

ing order of frequency. In the EastAustin Creek headwaters there is along riparian stretch that also hascommon riparian trees such as whitealder (Alnus rhombifolia), ash (Fraxi-nus latifolia), madrone, and canyon

Red Slide, the tallest serpentine barren, is located on the southeast side of The Cedars. This barren is one of the few obvious land featuresvisible from miles away.


oak that line the margins, but thefirst two do not occur at all withinthe serpentine canyon of Big AustinCreek.

The primary creeks also producetwo distinct secondary habitats. Oneis alluvial gravel bars composed ofgravel, rock, and boulders. For manydecades these are very sterile andhave a flora paralleling the barrens,but over time shrubs and cypresseswill move in. The other unusualhabitat is the large stretches of

mortarbed, where the creek bottomis a solid pavement of cementedsand, gravel, cobbles, and rocks,which are far more resistant to ero-sion than the highly fractured bed-rock. These are formed from thecalcium carbonate-rich waters thatooze up through the alluvium dur-ing the drier summer months toharden as cement. Brewer’s willowis the only plant capable of seedinginto these pavements and survivingthe winter scouring.

Seepages, the other perennialwater habitat, are common on thecreekbed margins but also can beperched high on cliff faces. Someare formed from the ambient watersthat flow from fractures and have anormal pH range of 7 to 9. The morespecialized seepages with calciumcarbonate-saturated water have a pHfrom 9 to 12+; these have the mostspecialized plants. These sites rep-resent yet another extreme anomaly.Surrounded by thousands of acres

Sargent’s cypress (Cupressus sargentii) in the Azalea Creek drainage, part of the BLM lands.


of calcium-deficient serpentine hereis a habitat with an overabundanceof calcium. Most commonly re-stricted to these seepages are Venusmaidenhair fern, with only six sitesnoted so far, and California lady’sslipper orchid. The lady’s slipper or-chid has about four dozen popula-tions; several are quite old with over100 flowering stems per colony.Their size and numbers have in-creased slowly over the last 27 years.

Other seepage-identified plantscan occur in either type of seep-age and include the four creeksideshrubs mentioned above. These maybe accompanied by the followingcommon associates: serpentine col-umbine, Mendocino sedge (Carexmendocinensis), foxtail muhly, grass-of-Parnassus (Parnassia californica),purple-leafed stream orchid, andcotton grass. Closer to the mouth ofthe canyons are five-finger maiden-hair (Adiantum aleuticum), whitewool hedge-nettle (Stachys albens),blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bel-lum), and leopard lily (Lilium par-dalinum). As with water, the num-ber of species decreases as one movesupstream.

CONSERVATION

The core serpentine area is cur-rently owned by about two dozenlandowners, and most are large hold-ings. Over 1,500 acres in the centeris a land-locked Bureau of Land Man-agement (BLM) parcel that cannotbe accessed by the public. In 2006,BLM designated this as an Area ofCritical Environmental Concern(ACEC), which is the strongest pro-tection that BLM can offer its lands.

David McCrory and I bought a520-acre parcel in 1999 after failingto interest conservation groups inacquiring the site. We removed acentury of trash and constructed asimple trail to access various featuresand remote areas. I have been advo-cating for a Cedars’ preserve since1983, hosting dozens of field tripsand lecturing on the values inherent

in this special place. This was longbefore owning any of it, but owner-ship has facilitated this outreach.

In 2006, The Sonoma Land Trust(SLT) convened a series of planningmeetings and field trips, bringingtogether a spectrum of agencies andbotanical authorities to produce—with a grant from the Coastal Con-servancy—a Conservation Plan forThe Cedars (SLT, 2008) and sur-rounding areas. This document aimsto guide future conservation effortsin this region. These conservationefforts would further the goals andobjectives of over 11 federal, state,regional, and local plans (SLT,2008). The core serpentine zone isenvisioned primarily for conserva-tion, education, and to promote sci-entific investigation. As a first step,a 40-acre parcel was acquired by theSonoma Land Trust at the entranceto the primary canyon.

The Cedars is an other-worldlylandscape that most visitors find as-tonishing and visually compelling.It is raw and wild, a Western land-scape where rocks and plants arepositioned in an exhilarating dy-namic tension, much like the higharid mountains. The deep canyons,stark terrain, picturesque trees, wel-coming pools, waterfalls, and re-markable calcium formations makethe surrounding Sonoma Countyseem quite distant. It is a treasurefor the county, the state, and theworld.

Dr. Susan Harrison of the UCDavis Natural Reserve System, whohas used The Cedars in variousstudies of serpentine plant diver-sity, concurs. “I cannot think ofany other site I would consider moreessential to conserve in its presentpristine state for the sake of its out-standing contribution to California’sflora.”

REFERENCES

Barnes, Ivan, V.C. LaMarche, Jr., andGlen Himmelberg. 1967. Geochemi-cal Evidence of Present-Day Serpen-

tinization. Science 156 (No. 3776):830-32.

Best, Katherine, John Thomas Howell,Walter & Irja Knight, and MaryWells. 1996. A Flora of SonomaCounty: Manual of the FloweringPlants and Ferns of Sonoma County,CA. California Native Plant Society,Sacramento, CA.

California Native Plant Society, Inven-tory of Rare and Endangered Plantsof California. (Accessed Aug. 21,2008). http://cnps.web.aplus.net/cgi-bin/inv/inventory.cgi/home.

Coleman, Robert G. and C. Jove. Geo-logical Origin of Serpentinites. 1992.In The Vegetation of UltramaficSoils:Proceedings of the First InternationalConference on Serpentine Ecology,Andover, Hampshire, UK: InterceptLtd. Page 3.

Fanagan, F.J. 1986. U.S. GeologicalSurvey Standards, Peridotite PCC-1,The Cedars. In: Reference Samplesin Geology and Geochemistry. U.S.Geological Survey Bulletin v. B 1582:70.

Harrison, Susan. 2006. Personal Com-munication: Letter to Raiche in sup-port of conservation efforts (Oct 5,2006).

Hoffman, Freed W. 1952. Studies inStreptanthus: A New StreptanthusComplex in California. Madroño 11:221-29.

Jepson Online Interchange of Califor-nia Floristics, Consortium of Cali-fornia Herbaria. May 25, 2008. (ac-cessed Aug. 21, 2008). http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/consortium/.

Kruckeberg, Arthur R. 1984. Califor-nia Serpentines: Flora, Vegetation,Geology, Soils, and Management Prob-lems. University of California Press,Berkeley, CA. Page 12.

Morrison, John. 1960. Freed Hoffman1880-1959. Madroño 15: 178-180.

Sonoma Land Trust. 2008. The CedarsConservation Plan. (Draft, unpub-lished internal planning document,March 2008).

Warner, Peter J. 1994. Vascular PlantList for the Campbell Ranch, adja-cent BLM including The Cedars. Un-published, California Native PlantSociety.

Roger Raiche, 3485 Old Lawley TollRd., Calistoga, CA 94515. [email protected]


NATIVE BY DESIGN: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT IN THECREATION AND STEWARDSHIP OF A NATURE PARK

by Barbara Eisenstein

n the morning of the sec-ond Saturday of themonth I load up my carwith garden tools and

head to our city’s newest park, theArroyo Seco Woodland and WildlifePark, more commonly known as the

nature park. On good days there areas many as a dozen of us, on mostdays there are about four. Happy tobe there, we put on gloves and startpulling weeds, picking up litter, andinspecting the area. We have beendoing this for the past three years.

HISTORY

The history of the park begins inthe late 1990s. Word got aroundthat the city of South Pasadena wasplanning to sell for development asmall piece of land next to the Ar-

O

Mature trees, including coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), western sycamore (Platanus racemosa), and California black walnut (Juglanscalifornica), provide structure in the South Pasadena Nature Park. A retention basin, on the right side and foreground of the picture,collects urban runoff, allowing it to infiltrate the soil rather than flowing directly into the Arroyo Seco. All photographs by the author.


royo Seco. A group of interested citi-zens mobilized to convince the cityto convert the property into muchneeded parkland. Through theirhard work and tenacity, the areawas preserved, continuing a regionaltrend to maintain green space alongthe Arroyo Seco.

Volunteers put in countlesshours attending meetings, makingphone calls, and writing letters toprevent the sale of the propertyand to raise money to convert itinto a park. A letter writing cam-paign directed at the office of then-Senator Adam Schiff resulted in anappropriation of $250,000 for thenature park. Concurrently, the citycouncil, yielding to public senti-ment, approved the concept of anature park. The money was allo-cated to the Santa Monica Moun-tains Conservancy (SMMC) for parkimprovements. The Conservancygranted the funds to the Mountainsand Recreation Conservation Au-thority (MRCA) to implement theproject. In accepting the grant, thecity agreed to assume the costs forongoing maintenance and to pre-serve the area as passive open spacein perpetuity.

MRCA worked with a volunteercitizen’s task force to design the park,continuing the public involvementthat has been a trademark of thepark. Discussions with MRCA overa period of more than a year re-sulted in a landscape plan that re-flected the community’s desire tomake this a place amenable to bothpeople and animals.

MRCA graded the park, removedweeds, and added some new nativeplants. They created an entryway,signage, and a gathering area usingattractive river rocks. They also builta water retention basin to preventurban runoff from the street abovefrom flowing into the Arroyo Secoflood control channel. A trail runsthrough the park, connecting it withparkland along the Arroyo to thenorth in Pasadena, and to the southin Los Angeles. In October of 2004

the efforts of many were rewardedwith the official opening of the park.But this only marked the beginningof what can be described as a storyof perseverance and optimism.

STEWARDSHIP

The three-and-a-half-acre prop-erty is adjacent to a concrete floodcontrol channel of what was once amagnificent tributary to the Los An-geles River. Beyond the channel liesanother corridor, the 110 Freeway,also known as the Arroyo Seco Park-way. The disturbed and weedy landwas primarily used as an encamp-ment for the homeless, though walk-ers, joggers, and equestrians tra-versed the land on the existing trails.Throughout much of Southern Cali-fornia, places like this are the onlyareas available for hiking, walking,bird watching, and generally inter-acting with nature.

Some see these forgotten areasas wasteland that can only be im-proved through commercial devel-opment. Others have a different vi-sion. They see places within a vasturban area that can be shared bybirds, coyotes, butterflies, lizards,and people. And in moments of ex-treme hopefulness and optimism,they see a time when the adjacentconcrete flood controlchannel will be re-moved and our water-way can once again re-gain some of its ear-lier beauty and gran-deur. When I go tothe park, I am re-minded how fragilethis vision is. Withoutcontinued attention,the small park is inconstant danger of re-verting to its previouscondition. Unless thepublic engages withthe park, the homelesswill return, graffiti willspread, and the weedswill take over.

FRIENDS OF THE NATUREPARK

For several years the city’s Natu-ral Resources Commission (NRC)sponsored cleanup and educationalevents in the nature park on EarthDay. As an NRC commissioner, Idiscussed with others the need foradditional ongoing park steward-ship. With help and support frommembers of the city council and theNatural Resources and Park Com-missions, the public was invited to aspecial meeting to discuss ongoingpark maintenance. A short article inthe local newspaper informed thecommunity of the meeting. It wasattended by approximately 35 peopleincluding educators and studentsfrom the high school’s environmen-tal club, individuals who had beenactive in saving and improving thepark, government representatives,and interested citizens. We agreedthat I would oversee communitystewardship activities.

In March of 2006, Friends of theNature Park was created throughthe Department of Public Works(DPW) Adopt-A-Park program. Asgroup leader it was my responsibil-ity to notify the DPW of all upcom-ing cleanup events. Each year Isigned an agreement form and sub-

The entry way is constructed of attractive river rock andwelcomes visitors to the nature park.


mitted an annual schedule of cleanupsessions. Park stewards were askedto sign participation agreements thatI delivered to the city.

SATURDAY MORNINGCLEANUPS

Each month the public is in-formed of cleanup events throughnewspaper and email announce-ments. An email list of approxi-mately 100 addresses has grownfrom the attendees of the initial or-ganizational meeting to include any-one who expresses interest. A smallcadre meets monthly in the park.The number is sometimes as high as40, when scouts, classes, and envi-ronmental clubs participate. Therehave also been times when I havefound myself working alone. Thegroup, though, is usually small,numbering less than ten.

Volunteers come equipped withgarden gloves, garbage bags, shov-els, and rakes. As group leader, Ibring extra equipment, supplies, andbottled water. We remove litter and

TOP TO BOTTOM: Jimson weed (Datura wrightii) is one of the few nonweedy perennials tonaturalize in the park. Its showy flowers provide welcome color in open, sandy areas. •California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum) planted during park renovation has thrivedand is reseeding itself. The white flowers that are followed by rich rusty maroon seedheadssoften the urban scene across the Arroyo Seco. • Coyote brush (Baccharis pilularis), deergrass (Muhlenbergia rigens), western sycamore (Platanus racemosa), and a volunteer blackwillow (Salix gooddingii) provide habitat, shade, and refreshing green vegetation in thispreviously hot and dry area.

Two years after the start ofFriends of the Nature Park, I wasconsidering discontinuing the pro-gram due to limited community par-ticipation. A city council memberand devoted park steward suggestedthat we end our official Adopt-A-Park status so that we would nothave to commit to dates a year inadvance. We simply agreed to meeton the second Saturday of the month.July, August, November and De-cember are excluded, the summermonths being too hot and the win-ter months too busy. In an effortto further engage the community Ialso created a blog (www.nativebydesign.blogspot.com) on which I an-nounce upcoming workdays, and af-terwards I report on what we foundand did. For the past year I havecontinued to act as de facto groupleader, though I no longer have anyofficial city designation.


weeds, and take note of larger prob-lems for the city to address. We walkthe trails looking for interesting wild-life. Although litter degrades thepark making it ugly and unpleasant,it is the return of the invasive weedsthat is of greatest concern. We haveapproached this problem with helpfrom the city. Following the initialweed removal, the city continues tocontrol weeds using chemical andphysical methods. Our monthly vis-its allow us to notice and easily pullunwanted seedlings before they canflower and reseed. Currently we aretargeting castor bean (Ricinus com-munis) and milk thistle (Silybummarianum). We will need to be vigi-lant for many years since there is anabundance of weed seeds in the soil.

But not all is bad. Walkingthrough the park, we marvel at thelocal native trees. Huge old westernsycamores (Platanus racemosa) andcoast live oaks (Quercus agrifolia)shade much of the park. Inconspicu-ous flowers of the California blackwalnut (Juglans californica) developinto large, ornamental walnuts.Holly-leaved cherry (Prunus ilicifo-lia), mulefat (Baccharis salicifolia),manroot (Marah macrocarpus), vir-gin’s bower (Clematis ligusticifolia),golden currant (Ribes aureum var.gracillimum), datura (Datura wright-ii), and miner’s lettuce (Claytoniaperfoliata) all bloom and go to seed.If we can keep the invasive weeds atbay, these plants will have a chanceto reestablish themselves, creating afriendly habitat for local animals. Theflood control channel is a far cryfrom a natural waterway, but it doesprovide essential water, making thisa good birding spot.

FUTURE PLANS

The park slopes down from abusy street to the flood control chan-nel. The slope is well vegetated withnative plants, many mentionedabove. The central part of the parkis fairly flat and was intended to begrassland with low-growing native

perennials and grasses. Unfortu-nately weeds got the better of thisarea and within a year it was noth-ing but a field of weeds. The citydeposited urban green waste in thearea to smother the weeds. Throughcity and community efforts, that cen-tral area is no longer choked withweeds, but it now presents an unap-pealing barren look.

In the next few years, we hopeto beautify the area and providecover for birds and other animals byintroducing low-growing coastalsage scrub plants. These will includeblack sage (Salvia mellifera), Cali-fornia buckwheat (Eriogonum fasci-culatum), bush sunflower (Enceliacalifornica), arroyo lupine (Lupinussucculentus), and deerweed (Lotusscoparius), among others. This fall,with a small grant from the city, wewill purchase and transplant abouta hundred new plants. A volunteeris working on a planting plan, andwith help from local scouts, we arepreparing the site. Signage will edu-cate visitors on what is being done,and will identify the new plants. Inthis way we will slowly move acrossthe central mound, hopefully able

to meet the challenges presented bygophers and weeds.

IN IT FOR THE LONG HAUL

The nature park is a reflection ofmany of our urban problems andchallenges. It is a target for graffiti,broken glass, and litter. Weeds arealways ready to reestablish them-selves, crowding out the local nativeplants. Through much of the year,urban runoff—polluted with fertil-izers, pesticides, and other toxins—flows through the concrete-linedwaterway. This is the reality of ourenvironment, yet each month a smallgroup of citizens refuses to accept it.As we work, we see another possi-bility, one in which nature can beseen and enjoyed. Each month whenwe visit the park, we are on the look-out for interesting plants and wild-life, and we are rarely disappointed.The seeds of improvement are here;they just need to be nurtured.

Barbara Eisenstein, 1852 Monterey Road,South Pasadena, CA 91030. [email protected]; www.wildsuburbia.

blogspot.com

Scouts and parents clean up glass and litter in Sycamore Circle. Local youths involved inscout programs, environmental clubs, and other school related projects learn about theurban environment while serving their community.


THE SANTA ROSA BASALT BRODIAEA:A NEW SPECIES “HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT”

by Wayne P. Armstrong, Tom Chester, and Kay Madore

Then, about ten million yearsago, an oceanic spreading center wassubducted under the North Ameri-can continental crust here. This be-gan the process of mountain build-ing in Southern California, includ-ing formation of the San AndreasFault, migration of the Baja Califor-nia peninsula away from mainlandMexico, the loss of our summer rain-fall, and the diversification of spe-cies for which California is famous.

In a dying gasp, one of the seg-ments of the oceanic spreading cen-ter repeatedly covered what is nowsouthern Orange County, north-western San Diego County, and

southwestern Riverside County withlava (Kennedy, 1977). This floodbasalt, called the Santa Rosa Basalt,completely covered the nearly flatlandscape, killing all the plants for-merly present, and providing a freshsurface that eventually became readyfor colonization by pioneer plants.

However, basalt soils, like thosederived from serpentine and gab-bro, are not well tolerated by mostplant species. These soils are defi-cient in some nutrients required forplant growth such as calcium andpotassium, and they contain largeamounts of minerals such as mag-nesium and iron that are toxic to

THE FASCINATINGHISTORY OF THE SANTAROSA BASALT BRODIAEA

efore roughly ten million yearsago, the landscape of South-ern California was as flat aseastern Kansas is today, a land

of low rolling hills. There were nomountains, no frequent earthquakes,no San Andreas Fault, and fewerhabitats for plant species, resultingin much less diversity. Furthermore,due to the absence of great moun-tain chains like the Sierra Nevadaand Peninsular Ranges, SouthernCalifornia received summer rainfall.

Aerial view of the Santa Rosa Plateau showing three vernal pools on the Mesa de Colorado. Populations of the rare Santa Rosa BasaltBrodiaea (Brodiaea santarosae) are found almost entirely on outcrops of Santa Rosa Basalt that date back ten million years. All photographsby W.P. Armstrong.

B


many plant species. This is a strongstimulus for the evolution of newspecies that can thrive on such soils.Some plant genera, such as Brodiaea,have genes that make them moreadept than others in being able toevolve species that can tolerate diffi-cult soils. Two species in northernCalifornia, B. pallida and B. stellaris,have adapted to serpentine soils.

The authors recently discovereda new Brodiaea species that simi-larly adapted to the Southern Cali-fornia basalt. We named it Brodiaeasantarosae, the Santa Rosa BasaltBrodiaea (Chester, Armstrong, andMadore, 2007a). Amazingly, thisspecies had been seen by numerousbotanists in the last half-century,yet it had gone unrecognized be-cause it is superficially similar totwo other Brodiaea species, B. filifoliaand B. orcuttii. Even more surpris-ing is that the confinement of thisspecies to basalt soils only becameapparent after we determined that itwas taxonomically distinct from allother Brodiaea species and were writ-ing our paper.

In addition to the probable ori-gin of Brodiaea santarosae discussedabove, this species has a number ofother fascinating stories connectedto it. We discuss two of them be-low. First, how this species was “hid-den in plain sight” until its mas-querade was uncovered. Second,how it was finally determined thatthis species was a basalt endemic,and how that led to the discovery ofan ancient valley that was filled withbasalt and has been recently uncov-ered by erosion.

A SPECIES “HIDDEN INPLAIN SIGHT”

Brodiaea santarosae was first col-lected at the Santa Rosa Plateau in1960, with the specimen determinedas B. orcuttii by none other thanTheodore F. Niehaus, who would11 years later write what still re-mains as the definitive monograph

on the genus Brodiaea. In 1985, an-other specimen of B. santarosae wasdetermined as B. filifolia. In 1992,another specimen of B. santarosaewas determined as a possible hybridbetween B. filifolia and B. orcuttii. Inall, we found a total of nine collec-tions of B. santarosae, from six dif-ferent botanists, determined as oneof these three possibilities.

The confusion here stems froma remarkable variation in the stami-nodes of B. santarosae. Staminodesare flower parts that appear some-what similar to stamens, hence thename, but do not contain pollen.They are often crucial in distinguish-ing species, such as some orchidsand penstemons, in many plant fami-lies. Brodiaea staminodes range fromthread-like to petal-like. From 10-50% of the flowers of B. santarosaehave no staminodes at all, as do allflowers of B. orcuttii. The other 50-90% of the flowers of B. santarosaehave thread-like or tapered stami-nodes, a property also shared by B.filifolia. It was not surprising thatbotanists mistook B. santarosae asone of these two other species; boththe authors had also done so in thepast when we had seen individualspecimens.

Steve Boyd, Timothy Ross, Or-lando Mistretta, and Dave Bramlet

were the first to realize that thispopulation of plants was distinctfrom previously known species. Intheir 1995 Flora of the San MateoCanyon Wilderness Area, they re-ported that most of the plants foundthere appeared to be specimens in-termediate between B. filifolia andB. orcuttii, and reported them as hy-brids, or a hybrid swarm, betweenthose two species.

In late May 2006 at Clay Hill, asmall hill just to the west of theMesa de Burro in the Santa RosaPlateau, Kay Madore found a Bro-diaea population that looked differ-ent to her. When Kay showed thispopulation to Wayne and Tom, ourjaws dropped wide open. We hadnever seen a Brodiaea populationlike this in the four years we hadbeen studying Brodiaea species inSouthern California. We were likekids in a candy store, going fromone flower to the next in a delightedtrance. We were shocked by the vari-ability in the staminodes, and keptcalling to each other, “Look at thestaminodes of this flower!”

We quickly realized that thesehad to be members of the same popu-lation reported by Boyd et al. fromSan Mateo Canyon, and could hardlywait to begin studying samples athome. By coincidence, Tom had

Santa Rosa Basalt Brodiaea (Brodiaea santarosae) on Miller Mountain.


gathered samples of B. filifolia else-where at the Santa Rosa Plateau ear-lier that day, in order to begin tryingto understand why those seemingly-pure plants of B. filifolia were sodifferent from the descriptions of B.filifolia and hybrids from San MateoCanyon. To study Brodiaea speciesin detail, fresh flowers are requiredsince the staminodes and other im-portant small flower parts are oftenlost to study when the flowers arepressed. Those parts are usually ob-scured by the petals and often de-stroyed by attempts to remove thepetals in fragile, dried specimens.

The first step of the analysis wasto split open the flowers and te-diously measure 14 characteristics,most to the nearest 0.1 mm using amicroscope, from each of 26 flow-ers, a total of 364 eye-straining mea-surements. We also gathered therange for each of those characteris-tics reported by Niehaus (1971) inhis monograph for B. filifolia and B.orcuttii. We then took the measuredcharacteristics two at a time and plot-ted them against each other, alongwith the Niehaus range for each.

The plots stunned us, since they

contradicted our expectation fromthe field and from the San MateoCanyon report that these were hy-brids between B. filifolia and B.orcuttii. Kay’s plants seemed to be anew species very different from B.filifolia, B. orcuttii, or a hybrid be-tween those species. (See sidebar,“How is a Plant Species Defined?”)In particular, despite our seeingplants in the field that we thoughtwere B. orcuttii, no member of thispopulation came close to B. orcuttiifor many of the measurements.

By comparison, the specimensof B. filifolia gathered elsewhere onthat same day were nearly perfectfits to the Niehaus range for thatspecies, without any resemblance toB. santarosae except for the shape ofthe staminodes.

Thus B. santarosae was finallyunmasked. We, like previous bota-nists, had been misled by the varia-tion in the staminodes and had failedto see characteristics that in hind-sight stood out like a sore thumb.For example, the style of B. santarosaeis much longer than any other South-ern California species of Brodiaea;on average, it is twice the length of

the style in B. filifolia and 40% longerthan the style in B. orcuttii.

However, a lot more work wasnecessary before we could be confi-dent that B. santarosae was a newspecies. We needed to gather andanalyze much more data on manydifferent populations to make surewe weren’t being misled by any num-ber of different possibilities. For ex-ample, it was possible that B.santarosae and B. filifolia separatedout well only here at Clay Hill, andthey were indeed intermixed else-where as part of a hybrid swarm.Also, the true range of characteris-tics for both B. filifolia and B. orcuttiicould be larger than reported byNiehaus.

With the help of Steve Boyd intelling us where he had found pop-ulations of plants similar to onesat San Mateo Canyon, as well asAvenaloca Mesa locations from ZachPrincipe, we quickly collected andmeasured specimens from all otherknown populations of B. santarosae.We also used the Consortium ofCalifornia Herbaria online databaseto find locations of both B. filifoliaand B. orcuttii, and we measured

Foreground: Flat grassland with Santa Rosa Basalt boulders on Avenaloca Mesa. Background: Elsinore Peak (with antennae). Ten millionyears ago, the entire area shown in the picture was nearly flat and covered by basalt. Today, erosion has left basalt remnants in this pictureonly in the foreground and on Elsinore Peak. This picture shows nearly the full north-south current extent of both the Santa Rosa Basaltand Santa Rosa Basalt Brodiaea (Brodiaea santarosae), about 11 miles, with both existing only in the same small remnant patches.


specimens from many known loca-tions of both species. We also hadthe good fortune to find two speci-mens that turned out to be true F1hybrids of B. filifolia and B. orcuttiiat the vernal pools in San Marcos,the only location where those twospecies coexist (Armstrong, 2007).We also measured samples of B.terrestris ssp. kernensis, since it isthe only other Brodiaea that occursin the range of these three species.This work created a database of freshspecimens of all Brodiaea taxa foundin this area that could be objectivelyanalyzed to determine how separatethese species were, as well as anypossible relationships between thosespecies.

We visited the three majorSouthern California herbaria, locatedat the San Diego Natural HistoryMuseum, Rancho Santa Ana BotanicGarden, and the University of Cali-fornia at Riverside, and measured asmany characteristics as were pos-sible on their specimens determinedas B. filifolia, B. orcuttii, and B. filifoliaX B. orcuttii.

The final dataset from our field-

work consisted of16 characteristicsmeasured on each of132 flowers (a totalof 2,112 measure-ments!), along withadditional measure-ments on the entireflowering stems forthese samples, andmeasurements fromherbarium speci-mens. These flowers

came from 14 different locationsspanning a distance of 50 milesnorth-south and 33 miles east-west.

ANALYSIS OF THEDATASET GAVEUNEQUIVOCAL RESULTS

1. Four separate species existed,each virtually equally distant fromthe other species in our analysisplots. In particular, B. santarosae was

no closer to B.filifolia or B. or-cuttii than it wasto B. terrestrisssp. kernensis.

2. The SanMarcos hybridsof B. filifolia X B.orcuttii were al-most exactly in-termediate to the

HOW IS A PLANT SPECIESDEFINED?

n botany, a species is a population ofplants whose members have at least one,

and usually many, recognizably distinctcharacteristics, along with a geographicrange that is generally unique. Such apopulation consists of members that in-terbreed freely with each other, but notwith other species, under natural condi-tions, and hence forms a closed gene pool.Species generally result when a popula-tion acquires some trait that prevents themfrom sharing genes with other closely re-lated populations. Such changes are oftendue to geographic isolation, an ancienthybridization event, or a sudden mutation that results in differentflowering times or acquiring different pollinators.

We have identified 11 characteristics of B. santarosae that distin-guish it from the two other species with which it has been confused,B. filifolia and B. orcuttii. B. santarosae has a very distinctive rangethat corresponds to the current locations of the Santa Rosa Basalt. B.santarosae is completely geographically isolated from populations ofB. orcuttii, and only a few populations of B. filifolia come within therange of B. santarosae. B. santarosae is isolated from B. terrestris ssp.kernensis by a failure to form fertile hybrids; we found only one hybridbetween those two species, and it produced no pollen.

BELOW LEFT: Upper: The six Brodiaea species of SouthernCalifornia at roughly their correct relative sizes. Clockwisefrom upper left: B. orcuttii, B. filifolia, B. santarosae, B. elegansssp. elegans, B. kinkiensis, and B. terrestris ssp. kernensis.Lower (in circles): Magnified view of the staminodes forthese six species. Staminodes are modified sterile stamensthat appear just inward from the petals, and are useful inseparating many Brodiaea species. • BELOW RIGHT: Santa RosaBasalt Brodiaea (Brodiaea santarosae). Note the long stamensand long, thread-like staminodes.

A sterile hybrid Brodiaeafound growing on the SantaRosa Plateau. The parentsare presumably B. santaro-sae and B. terrestris ssp. ker-nensis which have differentchromosome numbers.

I


two parent species, precisely as ex-pected of F1 hybrids in wild plants,and were just as distant from B. san-tarosae as were its parent species.

3. All populations of each of thefour species were consistent witheach other, with no evidence of geo-graphic variation.

Details of the characteristics ofthese four species, and the analysis,are given in our Madroño paper andonline (Chester et al., 2007a, b).Here are two brief examples of theuniqueness of B. santarosae:

1. The average value for thelength of each of seven flower parts(flower tube, flower lobes, filament,anther, style, ovary, and staminode)varies significantly between the spe-cies. Each species has a characteris-tic signature in how many of its partsare significantly smaller or largerthan those of at least one other spe-cies (see Table 1). In particular, B.santarosae has six parts that are sig-nificantly larger than at least one ofthe other species; i.e., all but itsstaminodes are larger than at leastone other species. This demonstratesclearly how distant it is from the

two species with which it was previ-ously confused.

2. The leaves, flowering stem,and the stalks connecting the indi-vidual flowers to that stem are sig-nificantly longer for B. santarosaethan for any of the other three spe-cies. The common name of B. filifo-lia is thread-leaved brodiaea for itssmall very narrow leaves of typi-cal length 30 cm (12 inches) withwidths of one to two mm. The leavesof B. santarosae are so large thatthey can easily be mistaken for thoseof Mariposa lilies (Calochortus), withlengths of 60 cm (24 inches) andwidths of up to six mm.

The flowering stem for B. san-

tarosae can be up to four timeslonger than the stems of B. filifoliaand B. orcuttii, and is also longerthan stems of the B. filifolia X B.orcuttii hybrid. The upper right pho-tograph on page 26 shows plants ofB. santarosae and B. terrestris ssp.kernensis grown in identical condi-tions in pots containing soil derivedfrom San Marcos Gabbro, whichis chemically similar to basalt. Thelongest observed flowering stem ofB. santarosae was 76 cm (30 inches).During a one week period in June2007, the stem grew 18 cm. This isroughly one inch per day or onemillimeter per hour!

If B. santarosae did not have suchvariable staminodes, it would havebeen recognized as a separate spe-cies long ago.

B. SANTAROSAE LEADS TOGEOLOGIC DISCOVERIES

Plant species often grow differ-ently on soils derived from differentrock types. Sometimes the differ-ence is so marked that aerial photo-graphs can indicate geologic bound-aries due to a change in vegetation.Some species are even confined tospecific soils, especially the basalt-serpentine-gabbro soils that, as men-tioned above, present challenges toplant colonization. For more infor-mation on this interesting subject,see Kruckeberg, 2006.

We are botanists, not geologists,and get most of our geologic knowl-edge from detailed geologic maps.We were very aware of the Santa

TABLE 1. COMPARISON OF LENGTHS FOR SEVENFLOWER PARTS

B. filifolia B. orcuttii B. terrestris B. santarosaessp. kernensis

# parts smaller 6 6 3 0

# parts larger 0 1 4 6

# parts not smaller 1 0 0 1 or larger

Tom Chester is standing on Clay Hill in the foreground, the type locality for Brodiaeasantarosae, with the Mesa de Burro in the background. Basalt caps the mesa, Clay Hill, andalso extends in a narrow finger from the left edge of the mesa down to the bottom of theroad in the distance. Santa Rosa Basalt Brodiaea grows only in these basalt areas, and notin the seemingly identical surrounding areas.


Rosa Basalt, which is clearly markedon geologic maps and could hardlybe missed in the field since it formsthe flat-topped mesas that define theSanta Rosa Plateau. We knew therest of the Santa Rosa Plateau Eco-logical Reserve contained mostly twoother rock formations: granodioriteplutonic rocks producing obviousexposed whitish boulders, andmetasedimentary rocks that wereeasily weathered and hence pro-duced few obvious exposures.

The first specimens we saw ofB. santarosae were at Clay Hill, 0.3miles west of, and 100 feet below,the nearest mapped basalt on theMesa de Burro. That location ismapped as metasedimentary rock,and since there was no flat-toppedbasalt layer there and no obviouswhitish boulders nearby, that seemedreasonable to us. Hence at the verybeginning of our analysis, we had noinkling that this species was con-fined to basalt.

All subsequent specimens butone were found on Santa Rosa Ba-salt. The exception was at ElsinorePeak, which contains no flat-toppedarea, was not mentioned as beinga location of Santa Rosa Basalt(Kennedy, 1977), nor was it mapped

as basalt in Kennedy’s map. Thus atthe end of our field and herbariumwork, we had found B. santarosae atsix locations, four of which were onbasalt, and two of which we thoughtwere not.

One necessary detail for our pa-per was to give the rock type foundat Elsinore Peak. By luck, instead ofconsulting Kennedy, 1977, we con-sulted the Geological Map of Califor-nia: Santa Ana Sheet, 1966. We wereshocked; it was mapped as basaltwith the same geologic age as theSanta Rosa Basalt!

Suddenly it became clear to usthat the soil at Clay Hill either mightstill be influenced by basalt—sincethe Santa Rosa Basalt had only re-cently geologically been strippedfrom that surface—or B. santarosaehad simply persisted there for a shortgeologic time after the basalt van-ished. This meant that B. santarosaewas actually a basalt endemic, ornearly so.

We revised the draft of the pa-per to make the important claimthat B. santarosae occurs only on orvery close to the Santa Rosa Basalt,and thought we had properly ad-dressed that issue.

Fortunately, one of the Madroño

reviewers of the scientific paperasked us if we had done any chemi-cal soil analysis to understand whyone population grew on non-basaltsoil. As a result, we revisited ClayHill and for the fourth time weredumbfounded by this species: therewas unmapped basalt at Clay Hill!This meant that every voucheredpopulation was found on basalt soils,and B. santarosae was a true basaltendemic. We revised our paper ac-cordingly and it was published inOctober 2007.

Little did we know that B. santa-rosae had two more surprises for us.The surprises came when we re-turned to the type locality of ClayHill in November 2007 to map theextent of the basalt in that area. Notsurprisingly, our mapping revealedjust how faithful B. santarosae is tothe basalt. There are 1.72 miles ofroad surrounding Clay Hill that werecompletely surveyed both for B.santarosae and for basalt. In our2006 plant survey, made withoutany suspicion that B. santarosae wasconfined to basalt, we found twolocations of B. santarosae, at mile0.26 and mile 0.73. In our 2007basalt survey, we found basalt onlyat precisely the B. santarosae loca-

Remaining areas of Santa Rosa Basalt (black lines) and areas of Santiago Peak Volcanics (red lines), along with locations of Brodiaeasantarosae (crosses). LEFT: Area map. RIGHT: Detail map of Clay Hill area.


tions. Yet to the eye, there is noobvious difference at all betweenthe habitat on and off the basalt.

The first surprise came when welooked at Mesa de Burro from ClayHill and suddenly realized we wereseeing an ancient valley from 10 mil-lion years ago that was still pre-served in its west face. This ancientvalley had not been noticed beforebecause it is very broad and shal-low, about 2,000 feet wide at its top

POSSIBLE FUTURE OF B. SANTAROSAE

NPS is proposing to place Brodiaea santarosae on List 1B.3; rare, threatened, or endangered, but withoutcurrent significant human threats to the population. However, the greatest threat to this species may be

the natural loss of its habitat.B. santarosae is primarily associated with the Santa Rosa Basalt. At least 97% of the basalt has been eroded

in the 8-11 million years since it formed, with most of that erosion probably coming in the last three millionyears in which the Santa Ana Mountains were uplifted.

It will take much less than another 30,000 to 300,000 years (3% of the previous erosion interval, using twodifferent estimates of the erosion interval) to erode the remaining basalt since the basalt has now been brokenup into small areas and is now being eroded on all sides. Thus B. santarosae is doomed to go extinct in the wildin the near geologic future (about 100,000 years or so) unless it can adapt to non-basaltic soils, or unless viablepopulations are found to be present on basalt soil not derived from the Santa Rosa Basalt.

With the recent discovery that B. santarosae can at least persist for some time on the basalt of the SantiagoPeak Volcanics, there is hope of finding such populations in the San Mateo Canyon area, where there areextensive exposures of that formation. We plan future surveys there in order to untangle the previousconfusion with B. filifolia, and to examine the geologic formations on which B. santarosae grows.

ABOVE: Brodiaea santarosae (left) comparedwith the San Marcos B. filifolia X B. orcuttiiF1 hybrid. The hybrid flower is about 40%smaller, and its internal parts have distinctlydifferent relative sizes. • RIGHT: Comparisonof Brodiaea santarosae (left) with B.terrestris ssp. kernensis. Both plants weregrown in San Marcos Gabbro soil. The B.santarosae plant was 76 cm tall, the tallestspecies of Brodiaea in Southern California.

C


and only 100 feet deep. Our basaltmapping revealed about 500 hori-zontal feet of the lowermost part ofthat valley was still covered with thefirst lava flows to fill that area, butwhich had not been noted beforesince the lava was heavily eroded.We also found traces of lava flowsthat covered a portion of the sides ofthat valley another 1,200 feet down-stream. For more information, seeChester et al., 2007c.

The second surprise came whenwe were showing the rocks at ClayHill to a geologist, Norrie Robbins.Due to her insistence on splittingopen the rocks to see a fresh sur-face, we discovered that the basalt atClay Hill itself was actually from theapproximately 150 million year oldSantiago Peak Volcanics! This si-multaneously mortified us, that wehad misidentified the rock forma-tion, and delighted us, that thismeant there was the possibility thatB. santarosae could outlast the SantaRosa Basalt. (See sidebar, “PossibleFuture of B. santarosae.”)

Who would have thought that aplant could lead to finding previ-ously unknown areas of basalt, aswell as a previously unrecognizedpreserved ancient valley?

REFERENCES

Armstrong, W.P. 2007. Brodiaea Speciesin San Marcos. Accessed at http://waynesword.palomar.edu/vernal1d.htm

Chester, T., W.P. Armstrong, and K.Madore. 2007a. Brodiaea santarosae(Themidaceae), A New Rare SpeciesFrom the Santa Rosa Plateau Area ofthe Santa Ana Mountains of South-ern California. Madroño 54(2): 187-198.

Chester, T., W.P. Armstrong, and K.Madore. 2007b. Brodiaea santarosae—The Santa Rosa Basalt Brodiaea.Accessed at http://tchester.org/plants/analysis/brodiaea/santarosae.html

Chester, T., W.P. Armstrong, and K.Madore. 2007c. Ten Million YearOld Drainage at the Santa Rosa Pla-teau Reconstructed by Analysis. Ac-cessed at http://tchester.org/srp/

geologyancient_drainages_by_reconstruction.html

California Division of Mines and Ge-ology. 1966. Geological Map of Cali-fornia: Santa Ana Sheet. CaliforniaDivision of Mines and Geology, Sac-ramento, CA.

Kennedy, M.P. 1977. Recency and Char-acter of Faulting Along the ElsinoreFault Zone in Southern RiversideCounty, California. California Divi-sion of Mines and Geology SpecialReport 131.

Kruckeberg, A.R. 2006. Introduction to

California Soils and Plants. Univer-sity of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Niehaus, T.F. 1971. A BiosystematicStudy of the Genus Brodiaea (Ama-ryllidaceae). University of CaliforniaPublications in Botany 60: 1-67.

Wayne P. Armstrong, Life Sciences De-partment, Palomar College, San Marcos,CA 92069. [email protected]; TomChester, 1802 Acacia Lane, Fallbrook, CA92028. [email protected]; Kay Madore,39400 Clinton Keith Road, Murrieta, CA92562. [email protected]


Nature’s Operating Instructions:The True Biotechnologies. KennyAusubel with J.P. Harpignies (editors).University of California Press, 2004.256 Pages. $16.95 soft cover.

I found this book interesting fortwo reasons: one, because the subjectof “bioneering” is a new concept to me. . . but I may be behind the curve onthis one . . . and two, because the infor-mation is worth thinking about.

I think bioneering is a term thatwill creep into our consciousness astime goes along. It refers to the prac-tice of purposely working with natureas a partner in a problem-solving pro-cess. This concept is not new but theintentional application, as one mightapply the principles of engineering insolving a problem, is not normally inthe forefront of our thoughts. The term,and the book, emerged as practitio-ners began gathering in organized an-nual conferences starting in 1990.

In their own words, bioneers are“ . . . scientists and artists, gardenersand economists, activists and publicservants, architects and ecologists,farmers and journalists, priests andshamans, policymakers and everydaypeople committed to preserving andsupporting the future of life on earth.”They do this by using livingsystems as coworkers, thusemploying nature’s technol-ogy to break down toxinsand waste, to provide eco-logically sound designs forindustries, buildings, andlifestyles by learning andadopting nature’s own op-erating instructions.

This is a book of per-sonal stories broken downinto five parts—Biomim-icry: Working with Natureto Heal Nature; Listening tothe Land: Ecology as the Artof Restoring Relationships;Graffiti in the Book of Life:Genetic Engineering andthe Vandalism of Nature;The Industrial Evolution:Biology Meets Business; andNatural Magic: Spirit, Mys-tery, and Wonder.

A bioneer asks, “What

would Nature do here?” The answersare often amazing and cleverly hiddenuntil the quest is taken on in earnest.Would you have thought of making aclose examination of lotus leaf sur-faces to solve the problem of keepingbuildings clean without the need tospend time, money, and energy onsandblasting? The question asked was,“How does Nature stay clean?”

Tell me, what human-engineeredsolution has solved the problem ofdesalinating water using the energy ofthe sun and membranes manufacturedfrom the surrounding environment?Take a close look at Nature’s solutionin mangrove forests.

And what about underwaterglues manufac-tured from thesun’s energy andthe surroundingsea as a source ofraw materials?

What engineerwould have comeup with the ideaof “eco-machines”powered by thenotion that wasteequals food? InNature, “waste”

simply doesn’t exist. That is certainlythe case when treating wastewater witha concept called “living technologies.”

So, the story goes on.This book is a collection of 26

firsthand essays of bioneering in ac-tion. The essays are short, easy tounderstand, and autobiographical indiscussing problems at hand and howthey were solved. See what can hap-pen when you are a part of Natureinstead of apart from Nature. The ge-nius of Nature is worth investigating.

The back of the book contains use-ful references and further informationon bioneering.

Norden H. (Dan) CheathamEast Bay Chapter

BOOK REVIEW

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CONTRIBUTORS

Wayne Armstrong is a retired botany and biology professorat Palomar College and author of a number of Fremontiaarticles about little-known native plants dating back to 1977.He is author of the family Lemnaceae (Araceae) for The JepsonManual and the popular natural history website Wayne’sWord (waynesword.palomar.edu).

Tom Chester is a retired astrophysicist who got hooked onbotany in 2001 and since then has studied the flora of south-ern California full time, beginning with the plants of theSanta Rosa Plateau. He is currently concentrating on the floraof the San Jacinto Mountains and the Borrego Desert.

Barbara Eisenstein is a research associate at Rancho SantaAna Botanic Garden. When not gardening with Californianative plants she is busy writing, lecturing, and sharing in-formation about them. She initiated and leads a communitypark stewardship program, Friends of the Nature Park, inSouth Pasadena. She openly shares her most successful andnot-so-successful gardening experiences on her blog: WildSuburbia (www.wildsuburbia.blogspot.com).

Kay Madore has her own business as a life and wellnesscoach. She is a longtime docent at the Santa Rosa PlateauEcological Reserve and conducts vegetation surveys for TheNature Conservancy.

Roger Raiche is an extraordinary plantsman and field bota-nist, and is well known for his broad horticultural expertise.He was in charge of the California Collection at the UC Bo-tanical Garden in Berkeley for 23 years, revamping the col-lection and displays, and adding thousands of new plantswhile exploring and documenting many remote areas of thestate. In 2003 he left UC to pursue garden design fulltime athis business, Planet Horticulture (www.planethorticulture.com).

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FROM THE EDITOR

ransitions are an inevitable part of life. For this issue ofFremontia, Bart O’Brien and I are sharing editorial re-sponsibilities, although he completed the lion’s share of

its contents. Beginning with the following issue, I will betaking over as editor.

Bart assumed editorship of Fremontia back in the sum-mer of 2006 when he coedited the July issue with LindaVorobik, who was his predecessor. During his tenure, Bartmaintained the journal’s high standards of excellence. Itcontinued to carry articles on a variety of botanical topicscontributed by some of the best scientists in the state andthe country. The journal also covered many of the mostsignificant conservation issues in California, as well as fea-tures on a host of horticultural topics. Bart was careful toensure that the writing—even on very complex topics—remained accessible to all readers. And with the skillfulassistance of designer Beth Hansen-Winter, the journal con-tinued to captivate all with its stunning photography.

As for Bart, he will continue on as director of specialprograms at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (RSABG). Heis currently working on two book projects. One, with coau-thors Carol Bornstein and David Fross, is on alternatives tolawns; the other is editing a manuscript on the propagationof California native plants at RSABG from 1950 to 1970.Among other activities, he is leading a project to create aCNPS-type inventory for the rare, endangered, and endemicvascular plants of northwestern Baja, California, Mexico.

Both Bart and Linda will be hard acts to follow, but Iintend to do everything possible to ensure that the publica-tion remains highly regarded. To that end, I will be workingclosely with the revitalized Fremontia Editorial Committee,and also welcome suggestions from CNPS members, whichcan be sent to [email protected].

—Bob Hass

T

vol. 37, no. 2

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