Published by Daniel Mosquin on September 6, 2018
Although first collected in 1894, Adiantum shastense wasn’t described as a distinct species until 2015. It is native to the “mesic forests of the Eastern Klamath Range, close to Shasta Lake, on limestone and metasedimentary substrates”, where a number of locally-endemic species have been recognized in the past few decades.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on August 31, 2018
Ragged-leaf liverwort is a widely-distributed liverwort of forests and bogs. The Encyclopedia of Life entry for Schistochilopsis incisa (now a synonymous name) displays a map with collections across the Northern Hemisphere from Arctic regions to near the equator in South America. It also uses the common name jagged notchwort.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on August 1, 2018
The low-growing Thompson’s beardtongue is native to Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California, associated with pinyon-juniper and subalpine habitats. It grows in a relatively narrow elevational band (1500m to 1900m (5000 ft. to 6700 ft.)) and is associated with calcareous soils.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 30, 2018
Ignored or disdained as a “weed tree” for many years by forest industrialists, Pacific or western yew received an unsustainable amount of interest in the last few decades of the 20th century due to the presence of paclitaxel in its bark.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on July 6, 2018
Widely distributed in the Mexican parts of the Chihuahuan Desert, Thelocactus bicolor‘s range elsewhere is restricted to two counties in adjacent Texas, Brewster and Starr.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 8, 2018
Frankenia is the sole genus within the Frankeniaceae, or the sea heath family. This flowering plant family has a distribution that covers warm, dry areas of most continents, though the majority of species are Australian. Typically, plants in this family are associated with soils that are either saline, calcareous, or gypsum-rich.
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Published by Daniel Mosquin on June 6, 2018
Over eighty percent of Sugarloaf Ridge State Park burned in October of last year. Perhaps the opportunity to see post-fire wildflowers in the stark landscape is what enticed today’s photographer, Sandy Steinman, to visit the area in early April.
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