ABSTRACT: The Sonoran and Mojave Deserts meet just north of the Whipple Mountains, which are situated along the Colorado River adjacent to Arizona. This location makes the area potentially biologically diverse. Recent plant collections in the area have yielded primarily California Sonoran plants, but also several Mojave and Arizona plants. Although no Flora has been written for the area, a number of herbarium specimens have been found, most of them collections from roadsides. Areas within the mountains remain to be explored, a top priority for collections in the fall of 2004. Midden and climate data will hopefully provide us with some understanding of the factors influencing plant distributions in eastern California.
KEYWORDS: biogeography, Colorado River, floristics, woodrat midden, San Bernardino County, Sonoran Desert, Whipple Mountains.ABSTRACT: Allium parishii is nearly endemic to southern California. It occurs at a few well documented sites in the desert foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains and Joshua Tree National Park. There also are a few scattered records elsewhere in the California deserts and two sites in Arizona. It has been on the California Native Plant Society's "Watch List" since at least the 4th Edition of their Inventory (Smith and Berg 1988). I reviewed herbarium specimens at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and UC Riverside, and reviewed online data bases for several other herbaria, to clarify the known distribution of A. parishii.
How Common are the Mistletoes, Anyway?ABSTRACT: Within the family Viscaceae, twelve species of Arceuthobium, and seven species of Phoradendron are reported to occur within California, plus subspecies of Arceuthobium abietinum and A. tsugense, for a total of 21 taxa (Hickman 1993). All are parasitic on trees and shrubs among a wide range of genera. All the Arceuthobium are parasitic on conifer species (e.g. Abies, Calocedrus, Juniperus, Pinus). Furthermore, most species are wide-ranging, and presumably they are common. None have been considered rare enough to be included on any of the California Native Plant Society's lists (CNPS 2003), nor are any considered sensitive species by the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG). Nonetheless, just how common are they? An examination of voucher collections made of Arceuthobium and Phoradendron species within Ventura County shows a different picture about the commonness of mistletoes. This is also supported preliminarily by statewide voucher records , which show relatively few occurrences of many of the mistletoe species in California counties.