Published by Daniel Mosquin on January 16, 2019
Calocedrus decurrens, or incense-cedar, has broad habitat requirements. Within its range from Oregon to Baja California, it is most often found in hot and dry sites with poor soils. However, the tallest individuals typically occur in “sunny, well-watered sites such as riparian areas in canyons or near subalpine lakeshores“.
Read More | 9 Comments
Published by Daniel Mosquin on December 19, 2018
The common name–worm moss–is an appropriate name for Bryoandersonia illecebra, as the resemblance is uncanny. Bryoandersonia illecebra is endemic to eastern North America. Although it has a wide distribution across this part of the USA (especially in the southeast), it is quite rare in Canada and “expected” in northeastern Mexico (from link above). Worm moss, […]
Read More | 2 Comments
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.
Read More | 12 Comments
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.
Read More | 5 Comments
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.
Read More | 23 Comments
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.
Read More | 5 Comments
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.
Read More | 6 Comments
