Hey, all — I thought I would share with you that my recent manuscript with colleagues (Diana D. Jolles and Heath A. Bartosh) describing a new species of Silene (Caryophyllaceae) has finally been published! You can access our article here, or the whole issue is here. It is a very special issue for the California Fish and Game Journal, #100, and the first ever all botany issue for the journal — some really GREAT articles in there that are worth reading, including an introduction by Governor Jerry Brown. Neat Stuff!
As always, I am interested to know what you think about this topic — the Silene verecunda problem is VERY complex, but fortunately the taxonomy isn’t.
Above, two members of the genus Claytonia from different Sections — C. “serpenticola” (an undescribed species in Section Claytonia) on the left, and C. rubra (Section Limnia) on the right. The two occur in close sympatry in the Lassic Mountain Wilderness, practically high-fiving their cauline leaves. This was a highly productive trip to the north, but before I get to that…
I want to say THANKS to all who supported my recent fundraising endeavor with Dr. Ingrid Jordon-Thaden on Experiment.com — we are going to be able to do some much needed fieldwork and conduct fundamental biodiversity research with the money you have all helped us to raise! Thanks so very much, and stay tuned for updates (Lab Notes and Blog Posts) on this ‘open access’ alpine research.
OK, back to talking about my recent trip to Oregon and California — I was on the hunt to find locations where multiple Claytonia occur in close sympatry, particularly areas where species may be hybridizing. I am interested in knowing just how well species can maintain their identities in these situations…
I started the trip by meeting up with Larry Crawford for some botanizing in the Sierra Nevada — we found Claytonia sessilifolia (Torrey) Henshaw(pictured above) flowering profusely near Carson Pass in an area that Larry had previously scouted. This plant was featured in the recent Spring Beauty Pageant hosted on my website — it isn’t too late for you to cast a vote for your favorite(s)! In this population it seems like there is only one species present (C. sessilifolia), but this taxon occurs in an interesting habitat (pictured below, with Diana Jolles and Larry Crawford). It also occurs next to some other fantastic spring ephemerals, such as Dicentra uniflora (pictured below) — the hike was well worth it!
Larry Crawford and Diana Jolles enjoying the habitat on Meiss Ridge
Following some rest and recovery at Larry’s house (thanks, Larry and Suzanne!), my colleagues and I continued north to Lassen Volcanic National Park, catching a wonderful view of Mt. Lassen (pictured below) — this was my first time taking in such a beautiful sight. I also have never (knowingly) been this close to a stratovolcano. I can’t say that I was nervous that the mountain might erupt, but it actually hasn’t been long since something like that happened (click here to read more about the geologically recent eruption of Lassen Peak). Unfortunately we didn’t find any Claytonia in this area, but we might have also been a tad on the early side for the area we looked — several feet of snow in some drifts. It has been a bit of a whacky weather year…
Having been thwarted by a lack of Claytonia at Lassen Volcanic National Park and lower elevation sites in Lassen National Forest, I decided to book it northward to Crater Lake National Park in an attempt to catch up with a rapidly fading spring. Many of the areas in California where Claytonia have previously been reported as abundant are looking quite parched — the Spring Beauties are apparently less than pleased about it. At Crater Lake, though, we found C. sessilifolia plants blooming where else but in the parking lot (pictured below)!Snagging a few quick pictures of the cinder cone “Wizard Island” (pictured below) in the middle of Crater Lake was just a bonus of doing fieldwork in the area. 😉
We found some more plants a few miles north of Crater Lake NP on the Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest, and I also happened to snap a quick picture of the BEAUTIFUL Mt. Thielsen (pictured below) on my way out of Crater Lake National Park — this is another place I’ve got my eye on visiting. I’ve heard the Claytonia on Mt. Thielsen are quite interesting…
Next was Abbott Butte (west of Crater Lake National Park) — I ABSOLUTELY had to visit that area this year, as it is the type locality for Claytonia obovata Rydberg. Ray Davis chose to sink this taxon into synonymy in the 1960’s — it has been treated as C. lanceolata since that time. Ray mentioned in his 1966 North American Perennial Species of Claytonia that he collected plants answering the original descriptions of C. obovata, C. multicaulis, and C. chrysantha, as well as C. lanceolata at Abbott Butte. Although he didn’t recognize C. obovata, tubers he collected of that taxon from around the type locality that he grew in a ‘common garden’ retained their rounded leaf shape. What did I find at Abbott Butte? Claytonia lanceolata (pictured below, lacking bifid petals), but not any C. obovata — did it not come up this year? I’ve certainly observed this happening before with C. “peirsonii” in southern California… at least Julian (pictured below) found some delicous black morels (Morchella elata-M. angusticeps-M. conica complex). = YUMMY.
Julian enjoys yummy morels…
What do you do when you can’t find a species at its type locality? You write a paper about it — look for Stoughton et al. (in prep.) coming to a Madroño near you. Fortunately, I have seen C. obovata previously with Heath Bartosh at Hull Mountain — this area is also mentioned in the protologue for C. obovata Rydberg. I did find C. obovata with Diana Jolles and Julian Roberts later during our trip near Cory Peak and Mount Eddy on the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in the Klamath Region of California, but I want to tell you first about the next stop on our road trip at the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon — Observation Peak (pictured below) is an area where C. “serpenticola” (pictured below, and at the beginning of this post) is known to occur.
After seeing C. “serpenticola” (pictured above) more or less ‘alone’ in the Siskiyou Mountains of southern Oregon on serpentinite and peridotite, we next saw C. obovata (pictured below) similarly secluded in the Scott Mountains of California near Cory Peak — I now had my search images for a hike that was a major part of the trip. The two species occur in sympatry at Deadfall Lakes just below Mount Eddy, which is where we were headed next. I REALLY want to measure levels of hybridization in this population on Mount Eddy — obvious intermediates exist in the area in seemingly marginal habitats.
What do hybrids between C. obovata and C. “serpenticola” look like? They probably look something like the pictures below — the two species occur in very close proximity in this area…
SUCH A COOL SPOT — I will revisit this area next year when there is hopefully a bit better snow pack (which generally = many happy Claytonia). Who is coming with me?! I’m climbing up to the top again for sure. Claytonia “serpenticola” (pictured below) grows very near to the summit, and the view of Mount Shasta (pictured below) from atop Mount Eddy is SPECTACULAR.
After poking around Mount Eddy with Dana York and Julie Nelson, and a much needed night of rest (Thanks, Dana and Eva!), Diana and Julian headed with me south to the Lassic Mountain Wilderness (Six Rivers National Forest) and Anthony Peak (Mendocino National Forest) to see C. “serpenticola” (pictured below) and C. obovata (pictured below) at additional areas where they occur in allopatry — plants were pretty crispy in northern California, but they were still identifiable!
I am VERY excited to see how things shake out in the molecular phylogeny I am developing for this group… Stay Tuned!!!
Hey, all — I’m following up on a popular blog post from last year, ‘which is the cutest?‘, where I pit some of the cutest Claytonia I know against each other in a winner-takes-all Battle Royale… C. saxosa came out on top with about twice as many votes as the other contestants.
I feel the cards may have been stacked during the last contest, the only logical explanation for how C. saxosa could claim victory in a battle o’ cute by such a large margin of victory, right? I have decided to re-run the analysis, this time with denser sampling and a better explanation of how the voting works: There is a poll at the bottom of this post. You can vote for more than one, but you can only vote once!
(Above) OK, starting it off with the ‘reigning’ champion of cute, Claytonia saxosa standing proud on Anthony Peak in northern California — it is a REAL winner. Definitely a reasonable choice but so many options…
(Above) This is a tough one for me — Claytonia lanceolata var. peirsonii from thenorth slope of Bertha Ridgein the San Bernardino Mountains still holds a place near and dear to my heart. It was my first introduction to the Claytonia lanceolata species complex, and the yellow blotches at the base of its otherwise mostly white flowers are just enough to give some glimmer — pink venation of petals is weak in this population. Southern California might be a little over-represented in this new poll, but please bear with me — they’re cute!
Claytonia lanceolata var. peirsonii at the head of Furnace Canyonin the San Bernardino Mountains (above), on the other hand, has quite a bit of pink in the veins of the flower petals. In addition, there is a proliferation of the pink in the veins in place of the yellow blotches typical of many other Claytonia — this is another serious CUTIE Claytonia!!! I’m not giving my vote(s) away this time, but I’d say that this little bugger has a good shot. Still others, still others…
One such other Claytonia worth mentioning is C. lanceolata var. peirsonii from the Panamint Mountains (above), Death Valley National Park — these plants are truly SPECTACULAR! They have similar flowers to those of the plants on Bertha Ridge in the San Bernardino Mountains, but these plants have much more pink in their petal veins, and they seem to have slightly wider petals. Still other members of the C. “peirsonii” complex (= C. lanceolata var. peirsonii) from southern California deserve mention…
(Above) The REAL owner of the epithet ‘peirsonii’, this is Claytonia lanceolata var. peirsonii from the San Gabriel Mountains (where the variety was first described) — this taxonomic group will see some changes soon (if you didn’t notice already), witha systematic study of the C. “peirsonii” complex representing a serious thrust of my dissertation. I’m working, I promise, but there is a significant problem in that these plants make REALLY awful herbarium specimens… the beauty is almost entirely lost, let alone the diagnostic characters, so remember to soak it in while out in the field!
Rounding out members of the Claytonia “peirsonii” complex represented in this contest, C. lanceolata var. peirsonii from the southern Sierra Nevada is pictured above. I thought this cutie would have done better in the last contest — I’ve thrown in some props this time to help boost its score. These Claytonia have continued to stun me year after year with their beautiful floral displays, but there are Claytonia outside of the C. “peirsonii” complex that are certainly contenders in the cutest contest we’ve got going here…
The Claytonia umbellata species complex is yet another difficult taxonomic group that ranks high on the cuteness scale — it has not yet been a contestant in this little experiment of mine! Pictured above is C. umbellata from the Pine Nut Mountains at Minnehaha Canyon, Nevada. It has pretty awesome flowers and grows in a series of very fascinating habitats from talus to fully stabilized rock cracks and ledges — a HIGHLY variable group indeed!
The population of Claytonia umbellata at Peavine Peak (above), Nevada, is another fabulous population worth mentioning — oh, so CUTE! I tried to show these plants to Jeff and Jane Doyle when they came out west, but it didn’t work out when a late storm rolled through the weekend of their trip… they saw mostly cold, non-flowering Claytonia, but suggested that they had a good time anyhow.
(Above) More Claytonia umbellata species complex from the Pine Nut Mountains at Bismark Peak, Nevada — thanks to Larry Crawford for the two photos above from this location. These plants knocked my socks off when I saw them for the first time — they grow in a very bizarre habitat of frost heaved ‘shingles’ of a sedimentary rock unlike anything I’ve seen for members of the complex. I’m still trying to work out the relationships (part of my dissertation research), but I suspect that C. umbellata is rather closely related to the C. “peirsonii” group.
Speaking of close relatives, I’m hoping to figure out this year just where Claytonia sessilifolia in the central Sierra Nevada (above) fits into the picture — it has remained unsampled in previous molecular studies but I’ll be visiting this population later this week and incorporating it into my dataset. Currently, this taxon is not recognized as anything different from C. lanceolata, but I suspect this may be a stretch. Time (and molecular tests!) will tell, but morphology suggests something unique here, and it already has a name in the literature… Thanks to Larry Crawford again for contributing more photos to the most recent edition of the annual Spring Beauty Pageant.Continuing with more northerly taxa in the state of California, Claytonia obovata from the northern Californiaand Oregon Mountains (above) is another heavy hitter in cutest Claytonia contests past — this is blooming in northern California RIGHT NOW! Although this taxon is currently subsumed under a very broad circumscription of C. lanceolata, it is highly divergent both genetically and morphologically. I’m writing up a manuscript right now about this taxon, arguing why it should be recognized and included in the keys in the Jepson Manual. It will DEFINITELY be in my treatment of Claytonia for the Flora of Oregon Project, which I am collaborating on with Dr. Robin O’Quinn at Eastern Washington University.
Of course, in northern California there is also Claytonia “serpenticola” (above), an endemic to ultramafic substrates in the Klamath Region (including Oregon). It has alternate leaves, a different petal shape, and different leaf venation compared with closely sympatric C. lanceolata and C. obovata, so it shouldn’t be confused with either! Yet another taxon that will creep into my Flora of Oregon Treatment… just have to get it into the literature first! Boy, that one is yet another CUTIE — helps that it grows in particularly beautiful areas, too!
And who could forget the eastern United States and Canadian Claytonia virginica complex (above), photographed here in North Carolina — this is a CHALLENGING group that has perplexed many a botanist before me… I’m treading lightly — but its pretty stunning, and amongst the first to flower in this region, so it is worth a shout out! As I can recall (its been a while since I dug into this) Claytonia virginica exhibits the longest aneuploid series on record for ANY living organism, 2n = 12 to ca. 190 — wow, that is A LOT of chromosomes!
Another representative of the eastern United States and Canada, Claytonia caroliniana complex (above) is yet another contestant on this torturous ‘cutest’ contest — these plants were photographed by Mary Jolles in New Hampshire. Thanks, Mary! This group is a bit less troublesome than C. virginica, but it is still a HIGHLY variable group of species with chromosomal ‘problems’ reported similar to those of C. virginica — the two species even hybridize in close contact… Showy, nonetheless.
Rounding it out, Claytonia lanceolata from northern California (above) — enough said!
Well, I think I’m running out of pictures, and memory on my website here, so I should probably post already… Don’t forget to vote! There is a poll at the bottom of this post. You can vote for more than one (up to 5), but you can only vote once!
I wanted to take this opportunity to give you a brief overview of my dissertation research, hopefully explaining a bit better how my own research relates to the AWESOME project I’m flying for a limited time only on experiment.com in collaboration with Dr. Ingrid Jordon-Thaden — I know you’re interested in supporting a good cause, so check it out! See the project here.
Many of you may think that you have seen Claytonia lanceolata some time during one of your forays out into the field, but have you REALLY seen it, or just something that looks like it?! Where were you when you saw it? If your answer isn’t Sweetwater, Idaho, than I’ve got some news that could make you want to reconsider what you think you saw — it is possible that you’ve been duped by a lance-leaved imposter!!! Don’t worry, you’re not the only one…
Above is an illustration of Claytonia lanceolata from the original description published in the Flora Americae Septentrionalis (Pursh 1814). The illustration is putatively drawn from the type material collected by M. Lewis, although one cannot be entirely sure given how poorly Claytonia seem to make the transition from live plants in the ground to becoming flattened museum specimens — their succulence does not do them any favors in terms of preserving diagnostic morphological characteristics.
Did your plants look like the one in the above illustration from the original description? What about the plants below photographed in the Klamath Region of northern California, last year, growing very near to North Trinity Mountain — did your plants look like these? As far as I can tell, this is the REAL Claytonia lanceolata,or at least something VERY closely related, the best proxy I’ve got (for now) for C. lanceolata sensu stricto.
I mention these might be only very near C. lanceolata sensu stricto because these plants have entire petals — C. lanceolata is described as having bifid petals, probably more similar to something like what you see on the flowers of C. sibirica. The basal leaves are also lacking in the plants pictured above from northern California (only observed to be associated with non-flowering individuals in the population), but the sessile, triple-ribbed, ovate cauline leaf pair and the lax, elongate, solitary inflorescence is a dead ringer for C. lanceolata Pursh. The plot thickens when you step off of the granite and onto ultramafic substrates…
Wait a second — is that a second raceme I see? Lance-linear cauline leaves with a single vein? And are those leaves ALTERNATE?! Surely this is not the same as C. lanceolata sensu stricto — this is one of many lance-leaved imposters masquerading as C. lanceolata Pursh. For better or for worse, the Operational Taxonomic Unit (OTU) above is treated as C. lanceolata in the recent monograph for Claytonia (Miller and Chambers 2006) as well as in current treatments in the Jepson Manual and the Flora of North America. The following plants photographed in populations from throughout California also are ALL treated as C. lanceolata under the current circumscription by Miller and Chambers (2006):
Whoa — I feel like this kind of variation might not ALL be related to ‘plastic’ responses to a heterogeneous environment… and preliminary molecular data seems to agree thus far.
This is where the Experiment Project is a TREMENDOUS help — It’d be great to get more samples from outside of California… expanding onto more substrates from across the distribution of C. lanceolata sensu lato, which ranges from Canada to Mexico. Idaho, Montana, and Yukon Territory are on this bill…
The REAL kicker? Check out the last line in Pursh’s 1814 description of C. lanceolata below: “In the collection of A. B. Lambert, Esq. I found a specimen collected by Pallas in the eastern parts of Siberia, perfectly agreeing with the present species.”
Did you see my post about going to Siberia? I’m working on a grant for that right now… I’m really eager to see more plants in the field — as I mentioned previously, these plants don’t preserve all that well! 😦
(1) I passed my qualifying exams… wow! Next step, actually writing my proposed dissertation. I am thinking something along the lines of this FUN title:
Circumnavigating the Claytonia lanceolata Species Complex: Systematic Studies of Claytonia Section Claytonia (Montiaceae).
(2) If you haven’t heard already — I am involved with another crowd-sourced fundraising effort in collaboration with a colleague at Bucknell University, Dr. Ingrid Jordon-Thaden. This is the type of fundraiser where EVERY contribution counts! Even if you were to pledge $1, you would help to demonstrate just how much interest there is in research projects like this one.
Hopefully, we’ll be successful in raising funds to conduct field research this summer in Idaho, Montana, and the Yukon Territory (Canada)! Show your support today — you’re NOT CHARGED ANYTHING unless we meet our full fundraising goal!
Ok, so you may remember this recent post, where I asked for interested people to send me pictures of as many flowers as they could photograph…
The premise is simple: How much variation is considered the ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ amount of variation for a species? How much is typical in terms of petal shape, size, and color for individuals in a given population of tuberous perennial Claytonia?! My collaborators and I have noticed quite a bit of variation among populations of different species, but what may be even more interesting is the amount of variation within populations. It might bend your brain the next time you kneel down and take a look around at the tuberous perennial Claytonia blooming in your area (right now!!!)… Better yet, take a picture of 50-100 different flowers from directly facing the flowers (trying to center the gynoecium in the flower as best as possible). Compare all your photos, or send them my way. We’ll get to the bottom of this!
Enter stage left as ‘proof of concept’, a member of the C. “peirsonii” complex from the southern Sierra Nevada — all of the below pictures are from different flowering individuals within a single population, taken on the same day within about 45 minutesNote the visitors above: an ichneumonoid wasp (likely a parasitoid braconid) on the left, and a soft-winged flower beetle (Melyridae) on the right. We saw these same beetles last year, and I’ve also mentioned them in the ‘who’s pollinating Claytonia?‘ series — special thanks to Dr. Emile Fiesler for help with the identifications!The variation is crazy, right?!
I really need to get a new ‘cutest Claytonia‘ contest going soon…
Although the variation in the Pyrola dentata species complex still breaks my brain, we have no more excuses for mis-ID of Pyrola — Revised key to the wintergreens of California.
What’s new in the key? Well, I added some information on how to identify P. dentata, P. aphylla, and P. cryptofolia, species that are currently missing from The Jepson manual: vascular plants of California (2nd edition) treatment by Gary D. Wallace & Erich Haber. Check it out!
Genus Pyrola (Ericaceae)
Habit: Perennial subshrub, evergreen, rhizomed. Leaf: ± basal, reniform, ovate, ± round, elliptic, or obovate, ± entire to crenate or dentate, generally petioled. Inflorescence: raceme, ± erect, not 1-sided, elongate; scape smooth, glabrous, bracts generally 1–several, deltate or lanceolate; flower bract 1 per flower, < to >> pedicel. Flower: radial, ± closed or subradial or bilateral, ± open, parts in 5s, free; petals without tubercles, upper 2 generally forming hood over upturned stamens; stamens 10, filaments generally widened at base, smooth, glabrous, anther generally with tube-like constrictions subtending pores; nectary 0; ovary superior, style ± included, straight, or exserted, downcurved, stigma peltate, with 5 spreading…
Remember the above, beautiful plants photographed flowering a little over two weeks ago in Nevada? If not, see my previous blog post, ¡Holy frijoles!
Well, almost two weeks later Claytonia umbellata is apparently no longer flowering atop Peavine Peak outside of Reno — more snow has come (see below). These poor little guys are now packing on the pounds (and buds) getting very little exercise while they sit and wait for the warmth of a spring (beauty) day. It will come soon. In fact, I’d wager those little monsters are blooming now, as I’m writing from the comfort of my home in southern California. After all, the photographs below are from April 2nd, 2014, and these plants (desert Claytonia) are über-ephemeral. I’m so cold, I couldn’t possibly think of flowering right now…
Dr. Jeff Doyle (Cornell University) trying to stay warm while searching for the elusive flowering Claytonia.
Well, this disappointment came AFTER a morning of heartbreak — searching seemingly suitable habitat without finding plants. Do I really have a good idea of what suitable habitat is? Are they even capable of dispersing here? Let’s back up for a second…
Above is a picture of a location where I collected another population of Claytonia umbellata in the Pine Nut Mountains at Minnehaha Canyon on my spring break trip nearly two weeks ago — the talus I know and love, seemingly characteristic of the Desert Southwest Claytonia. Bearing that in mind, when I see a habitat like the one above, or the one pictured below, and I am very near the type locality of Claytonia umbellata in the area of Mt. Davidson Pass (Nevada), I have to stop and take a look, right? WRONG! There aren’t any Claytonia there (above), not even a C. rubra or C. parviflora ssp. viridis to cheer me up for making a bad call — Nothing! But it looks so good, and the rocks are the same as at Minnehaha Canyon… sample size of one strikes again with these guys. Ever heard the phrase, to each his own? Well, I’m beginning to think these Claytonia take that to the extreme. They are not very good at getting around (dispersal), or they have very picky palettes… or both.
We have just GOT to find some flowering Claytonia, I promised Jeff and Jane! The Doyles joined me for this trip (and to give a seminar at RSABG later), flying all the way out from New York. The Doyles have A LOT of experience with eastern Claytonia, but this western stuff was pretty new for them. We sat in the car on top of Peavine Peak thinking (and not eating) — what were we going to do? That’s it! I know another place we can try, but its further north…
Pictured above, a talus slope of volcanic rocks in the Pah Rah Range near Pyramid Lake, Nevada. Oh no! The sun will be setting in a few hours! We can try to climb that slide and run the risk of not finding any plants, or we can try to race up the canyon to get to a known locality before dark sets in… Jeff and Jane agree, it’ll be worth giving this hillside a good look over before we continue up the canyon.
And thank goodness we did — this area of talus was rich with numerous plants of Claytonia umbellata! We found a new locality for Claytonia umbellata, approximately one mile away from another known locality in the Pah Rah Range AND it was the large-leaved plants, like those seen in the Pine Nut Mountains at Minnehaha Canyon. Compare those to the plants from Peavine Peak (top of page), which happen to grow on different volcanic rocks!
Déjà vu — a feeling of having already experienced the present situation, independent of whether you have or have not experienced the situation or something like it… No idea what I’m talking about? See my “Claytonia rocks!”post — click here for more background information.
I still was unable, though, to fulfill my promise to Jeff and Jane Doyle — we had not yet found flowering Claytonia. There was one more chance to find flowering plants while in Nevada looking for Claytonia umbellata.This was a revisit for me, to a site in the Pine Nut Mountains where I was unable to locate a population on my previous visit. This population is near Bismark Peak, and as far as I can tell, it has not been documented by any herbarium specimen. I found out about the population by scouting CalPhotos for pictures of Claytonia — this population had been photo documented but never vouchered. I want to give a shout out to Larry Crawford, for giving me enough information to find some plants! I was not able to relocate Larry’s ‘secret patch’ of Claytonia umbellata atop Bismark Peak, but the Doyles and I were able to find a new population along the same ridgeline!
Believe it or not, and I’m sure to Larry’s delight, the plants here occur in a really unique habitat — I’m still working on the rock identification (volcanic, or sedimentary?). Crazy thing is, this Claytonia umbellata population consists of only a few plants scattered about in the cracks of the vertically oriented rocks (presumably oriented as such due to frost heaving) — they don’t seem to occur with the other rocks oriented horizontally.
Isn’t that just bizarre! but there were STILL no flowering Claytonia to be found… I was running out of options — a revisit to the population near the Devil’s Punchbowl County Park on Saturday before Jeff and Jane’s departure seemed the most obvious choice. Rather than visiting the Devil’s Backbone (where recent snows may have set plants back from flowering), I decided we should visit a lower elevation site. Would there be flowering Claytonia hanging on at the Devil’s Punchbowl, where I observed plants flowering on February 15th, 2014? (click here to see post, “Yep, it’s Claytonia time…”)
NOPE, it’s not Claytonia time here, at least not really anymore. There were some plants around with buds, but most of the C. lanceolata var. peirsonii here has dispersed its seeds and are beginning to wither back to their underground tubers. We did not find any flowering — I guess the Doyles will have to come back again next year, or meet me somewhere northward in a few more weeks!
We did at least find some flowering Claytonia rubra there, just in the nick of time. It was time to send Jeff and Jane back to New York. Although they may not have gotten to see (much) flowering Claytonia, at least they got to see some flowering California!
Spectacular wildflower bloom in the Mojave Desert near Piñon Hills, highway 138.
OK, so I might just have a new favorite Claytonia after my most recent trip into the desert in northwestern Nevada. Let me just tell you something — in the Desert Southwest, spring has sprung! Just like my collaborator at Eastern Washington University (Dr. Robin O’Quinn), I think I am falling in love with the tuberous perennial ‘Great Basin Spring Beauty’ (C.umbellata) — photographed here on March 21st, 2014.
As Stevie Wonder might say, isn’t she lovely?!
It gets better… Also photographed on March 21, 2014, below are some pictures of plants from another population of C. umbellata that occurs on a different substrate in another mountain range nearby in Nevada.
There’s something funny going on here, and I’m going to get to the bottom of it…
Question for readers out there: Who thinks the above plants look similar to the below plants from southern California? Just wonderin’ about evolutionary relationships 😉
Oh yes, I think it is finally here… Spring Beauty time!!!
Pictured above is an emerging Claytonia “yorkii” plant, found growingin the southern Sierra Nevada at Cross Mountain (Jawbone Canyon) in Kern County almost two weeks ago.
Unfortunately, I didn’t find any plants flowering on this windswept ridge (all were emerging or in bud), so I tried my best not to disturb the ones I did find as I proceeded to dig up a few tubers. I managed to safely transport a few plants to their new homes at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden (where I am conducting my research). To my surprise (I don’t have a green thumb by any means), the buds continued to develop and the first flowers are just beginning to open!
Now if I can just manage to get a few more species into the greenhouse in the near future, I might be able to try a crossing study or two. What I’m really interested in is whether or not these ‘strongly out-crossing’ tuberous perennials are capable of self-pollinating like many of their close relatives (such as in the Claytonia perfoliata complex).
So why should you care, exactly, whether or not it is Claytonia time?!
Well… you can help me study something really fascinating about Claytonia, that’s why! Send me your pictures so we can get to the bottom of this — How much variation is typical in terms of petal shape, size, and color for a given population of Claytonia?! My collaborators and I have noticed quite a bit of variation among populations of different species, but what may be even more interesting is the amount of variation in petal morphology within populations of a species. It might bend your brain the next time you kneel down and take a look around at the Claytonia blooming in your area. Better yet, take a picture of 50-100 flowers from directly facing the flowers (trying to center the gynoecium in the flower as best as possible), and then compare them (or send them my way). Crazy, right?
This could turn out to be a very interesting experiment indeed 😉
…but only if you can get out into the field, and remember to send me your pictures of Claytonia!!! Eastern or Western species of North America, Northeastern Asian species, it doesn’t matter — show off your Spring Beauties!
As always, I am interested to know what you think about this topic — the Silene verecunda problem is VERY complex, but fortunately the taxonomy isn’t.
Claytonia.org 
