2015 DeDecker Botanical Grant Progress Report
3 December 2015
Following in Mary’s Footsteps:
Updating the Crooked Creek Station Vascular Plant Checklist and Creating an Herbarium Collection
Calochortus bruneaunis Herbarium Specimen
Click for slideshow
As a five-year volunteer at the UC White Mountain Research Center (WMRC), Crooked Creek Station in Mono County, it became apparent to me that the time had come to update Mary DeDecker’s 1990s-era vascular plant list for the area in the vicinity of the station. Therefore, this past summer, with the permission of the Inyo National Forest, I embarked on a project to press, mount, and database specimens of all of the subalpine taxa within a two-mile radius of the buildings (ca. 265 taxa equaling ca. ¼ of the White Mountains flora).
Despite the dry winter, late precipitation enabled me to collect the vast majority of species on my list. I was even able to add several new taxa that were hitherto unknown to occur in the area and documented a number of new rare plant populations for taxa including Botrychium ascendens, Potentilla concinna var. proxima, and Carex idahoa (all CRPR 2B). All in all it was a great learning experience!
The approximately 700 mounted sheets will be used as vouchers for a photographically illustrated annotated checklist to be made available to researchers, students, and the public. The specimen data will be made available online through the Consortium of California Herbaria (CCH). Many thanks to the Bristlecone Chapter and the state CNPS for providing grant money that went toward purchasing herbarium supplies. Thanks, too, to Steve McLaughlin of Big Pine for the beautiful herbarium cabinet he donated to WMRC and to Michele Slaton for her help in identifying specimens.
Slideshow of some sample herbarium specimens:
- Calochortus bruneaunis (pictured on this page)
- Linum lewisii
- Penstemon heterodoxus var. heterodoxus
- Penstemon speciosus
- Aquilegia formosa
- Oenothera cespitosa ssp. marginata
