AZ, Sonoran Desert, 20060403
Tucson, Wasson Peak, flowers etc.
Camino del Cerro or Sweetwater trail up to Wasson Peak.
Ambrosia ambrosioides
Very common shrub in washes and low aluvial fans.
| | ST | | glistening from exudate, long wavy hairy, dk brown |
| | LF | | lance, sl cren, sl crinkly, 1-3-veins v raised bel and sunken ab, shiny exudate, rough both sides, d sh to long wavy hairy, greyish, 40x15+10mm, no stips |
| | INFL | | term rac of pendant heads, pedicel 7mm, whole is a d narr lance thing, 70x15mm, hairy |
| | SEP | | 5 lobes, gland hairy, yellish bel, redish lobes, lobes delt, total 2mm or so |
| | STAM | | 5| fil | | broad, glab, 0.5mm, yell, att at base of calyx |
| anth | | 1.5mm, open by long slit, yell |
|
| | STYLE | | 1, 1.5mm, stig small head |
Thought it was
Asteraceae at first blush, but upon examination became very unsure. Keyed family out using colby.edu page, but never got
Asteraceae!! Tried all the others and failed. Finally perused an informal Tucson wildflower page and found it. A picture at U of AZ finally clinched it. (
JM description is not very useful.) Seems I can't say it has 1 carpel or colby.edu fails to find
Asteraceae; likes this: 4-5 perianth segs alike, 4-5 free stam, anth basifix opening via long slit, 1 style, infl head or complex, actinomorphic, unisex, ov inf, leaf stuff, etc.
Senecio lemmonii?
| | LF | | alt, lance, acute both ends, v sp clear strig ab, clear gland bel, midvein raised and white strig bel, 70x12+3mm |
| | PHYL | | 1 eq row, 12x1.5mm each, dark acum, erect, clear strig |
| | DISC | | sev, yell, corolla 10mm |
| | PAP | | 10mm, cap bristles, v sl barbellate, white, straight |
Has to be
Senecio, and this is the only perennial one listed in the UA Herbarium list. My sample seems much too large...
Abutilon abutiloides [voucher]
| | LF | | oc, cord, acute, sl acum, 1-4-veins raised bel and sunken ab, soft, lt silvery green ab, v lt whitish bel, finely biserr, v d short-stalked stell and some long fine simple hairs |
| | INFL | | 1-2 in axils, pedicel 30mm+ |
| | SEP | | 5, join, 5mm, lobes 3x2mm, d short stell, fine simple clear gland hairy |
| | PET | | lt yell to peach, 5, free, 9x8mm, widely ellip to obov, sh sbrupt acum, spread 80deg |
| | STAM | | many, joined around styles, 5mm total, yell, radiate from single point at top |
| | STYLE | | 9+, > stam, stig min reddish head |
| | FR | | 5 segs, segs sep from each other and axis, few-sev seeds per seg, 7x8mm |
| | SEED | | 1.2x1.5mm, cyl to box, min puber, lt brown |
JM keys it to
A. palmeri but that has orange fls. Fireflyforest.com suggests this. UA Herbarium list rules other possibilities out.
Anisacanthus thurberi [voucher]
| | LF | | oblong-oblance, round tip, 15x2.5+0mm, sp short soft bristly and esp cil, 3 veins from base (lat two faint), fascicled |
| | SEP | | 5, mostly free, 15x1mm, short gland bristly, glands clear yellowish and wider than tall, also some longer fine simple clear bristles, clear strig inside |
| | PET | | 4, joined, red-orange, beautiful, lobes curling back, lobes 20x6-8mm, throat ~10x5-6mm, tube ~10x2mm, v short orange bristly inside tube |
| | STAM | | 2, v excl, 25mm, att base of throat on bottom side, glab, yell-orange |
| | ANTH | | 4mm, dorsifix, long slit, yell to dk orange-red-brown (bicolor) |
| | OV | | 1, sup, 3 lobes, 2mm, pear-shaped, glab, green |
JM doesn't even have the genus. Fireflyforest.com suggests this. UA Herbarium list shows this is only species in these mtns.
| | GEN | | subshrub, ascending to erect |
| | LF | | alt, 25x20+30mm, d stell, deeply lobed to within 4mm of petiole, lobes further lobed, those lobes also toothed| term | | lobe 16x15, obov in outline, 3 teeth (cut 3mm) each 3 toothed(cut 1mm) |
|
| | INFL | | peduncle 45mm, sev in loose pan in axils, pedicels 4mm |
| | SEP | | 5, joined for 5mmd stell |
| | PET | | 5, free, 16x13mm, apricot or lt orange-red, fan, spread 70deg |
| | STAM | | whole 7mm tall, head 5x3mm |
| | STYLE | | incl in anth head, purp, min 2-lobed |
JM doesn't key well. Fireflyforest.com suggests this. UA Herbarium list rules other possibilities out.
Cirsium neomexicanum
| | GEN | | tall, erect, few br'd at top |
| | LF | | oblong, shallow pin lobed, spiny, wh vill both sides, sl decur |
| | INFL | | open br'd lfy pan, head 40x60mm? |
| | PHYL | | many, imbr, tips spreading, evil spine at tip, vill ab and esp cilspreading tip 10x3mm, body to 15mm |
| | DISC | | lilac, lobes 8mm, style excl 8mm |
| | PAP | | 18mm white long-appress-plumose bristles |
Keys with
JM, it belongs in Tucson, and web pix verify.
Lycium berlandieri longistylum
| | ST | | brs straight and stiff and sharp but not thorny |
| | BARK | | dk brown w conspic thin narr white parallel lines in elongated network pattern |
| | LF | | fascicled, oblance, rounded tip, sess, simple, entire, 7x2.2mm, v sp min bristly 1-few per lf total, sp whitish dotted |
| | SEP | | 4-5, joined, 3x1.5mm, cupglab, green |
| | PET | | 5, white, joined, 6x3mm total |
| | STAM | | 5, alt petals, excl 1.8mm, d stell puber at base and at base of corolla where they attach |
| | ANTH | | ochre, 1.2mm, dorsifix, lat slit |
| | OV | | 1, sup, ov| green | | ab, red inside at base(!) |
chambs 2, ovules many |
I had a hell of a time keying out family. Not sure why
Solanum didn't show up (or why I was ignoring it if it did!). But in the end this is clearly the right genus (I even thought it looked like one up front!), and UA Herbarium list and other descriptions on the web narrow it to this one, based largely on flower characteristics.
Janusia gracilis
| | GEN | | delicate vine climbing in shrubs, appears to die back to the ground |
| | INFL | | bifurcating pan, sev fls, pedicels >> fls |
| | SEP | | 5, barely joined at the base in the middle of a dense tuft od strig hairs, tw large ellip glands at base outside each |
| | STAM | | 5, att bel ov, arch out then up |
| | FR | | 3 samaras joined at the base| wings | | strig, ascending, ~7mm long |
1 seed per seg |
Did a search on "vine" in UA Herbarium list and jumped at
Malpighiaceae because of dolabriform (or Malpighiaceous) hairs, and sure enough the pictures and description matches perfectly well.
Zinnia acerosa
| | GEN | | subshrub, dense ascending erect sts |
| | LF | | opp, lin-thread, wh tom, 10x0.5mm, lt whitish-green |
| | PHYL | | imbr, wide, tom marg at broad rounded tip, appress, 6x5mm total, each 2mm wide or so, sp clear gland esp near tips |
| | RECEPT | | chaff 6mm, enfolding ovs |
| | RAY | | 5, showy, dries white, lig 8x8mm, spreading to reflexed |
| | FR | | tick-seed-like, 3mm, concave on one side, short cil, black |
Web description of genus matches very well; and this is the only
Zinnia in the UA Herbarium list.
Chamaesyce arizonica? [voucher]
| | GEN | | per, mounded to prostrate, v red from distance, on dry rocky slopes |
| | LF | | tiny, to 4x2mm, ov, acute, tom |
| | FL | | | gland | | red, oblong, 0.6x0.25mm |
| gland app | | white, scalloped, wider than gland |
|
Can't decide whether it is this or
C. polycarpa, except that the latter is only supposed to be uncommon and only occur on flats and bajadas and that sort of thing. But then,
C. arizonica is suppoed to have urn-shaped invol, and ov glands...
Chamaesyce pediculifera [voucher]
| | GEN | | per, mounded, v red from distance, on dry rocky slopes |
| | LF | | tiny, to 5x2.5mm, acute, ov, oblique, rounded to trunc base, tom| stips | | sep ab, joined bel, tiny thread |
|
| | FL | | | gland | | black, 0.5mm, oblong |
gland app (none to v narr whitish pinkish) |
| | STYLE | | deeply divided but not all the way to base |
Chamaesyce gracillima? [voucher]
| | GEN | | ann, mounded, decumb to ascend, on dry rocky flat above wash |
| | ST | | sp short strig to curled hairy, mostly descending |
| | LF | | oblique, entire, simple, lance ot ov to oblong, rounded tip, rounded to trunc to subcord base, to 10x3mmsp short spreading to appress (random direction) bristly both sides mequally |
| | FL | | | gland | | dk red, ellip to sl wider outside, 0.8x0.4mm |
| gland app | | rounded, entire (one two-lobed), white, 1.3x0.9mm |
| invol | | sp short strig, cup |
|
| | STYLE | | lobed nearly to base |
| | FR | | deeply lobed, round to sl ov, sp short strig |
Started with UA Herbarium list, ruled out a few obvious ones by picture, others by not ocurring in my particular area, then looked at
JM desc of all but this and one other. This looks most promising, although
C. pediculifera and
C. capitellata have not been ruled out yet. (The former has acute lvs, though.)
Selaginella arizonica
| | GEN | | prostrate, sts turning up at ends, roots from all parts of st, curling up strongly when dry |
| | LF | | | upper | | adnate, lance, widest barely ab base, finely cil| cil | | 0.1mm long, ascending |
lf 2.0x0.5mm, no apic seta |
| lower | | short decur, lance, widest at mid, finely cil like ab, lf 2.4x0.6mm |
v faint midrib imp bel |
| | SOR | | borne in between upper lvs which are undifferentiated |
Notholaena standleyi [voucher]
| | LF | | pentagonal, glab ab, d sulfur yell farinose bel |
I thought this was
Pityrogramma triangularis triangularis until I saw a picture on fireflyforest.com, and sure enough now that I have sporangia, I can verify that these two otherwise identical ferns are in fact different. Sheesh, you gotta be careful!
Notholaena cochisensis [voucher]
| | LF | | lin, 200x10mm or longer| pinnae | | round to barely oblong, 2 shallow basal lobes, about 5x4mm |
sp scaly ab with scales round to sl elongated and white and deeply toothed to about 70%, d scaly below with scales lance and white and v toothed |
| | SOR | | sporangia naked near marg bel mostly hidden by scales |
Notholaena sinuata [voucher]
| | LF | | lance-oblong, 200x25mm or longer, pin-pinfid, pinnae with 3-4 pairs of teeth cut < 50% to costa, v sp scaly ab with scales deeply toothed and main body twice as wide as teeth, v d scaly below with scales brown with dark spot at base and v short cil to toothed |
| | SOR | | sporangia naked along marg bel hidden by scales, lf barely curled under and not protecting sporangia |
Cheilanthes lindheimeri [voucher]
| | ST | | red-brown, terete, rachis with wide lance scales with tufts of v long curly hairs attached to their base (pull off the scales one by one and see that the hairs disappear at the same time) |
| | LF | | lance, trunc to sl rounded base, 3-4-pin, fin segs round and bead-like and rolled under, d vill ab due to long curly hairs protruding between segments from bel (but since the final segs are so tiny it looks like they are joined with vill tufts in the indentations remove the hairs from below and see that there are none left above), d scaly bel, scales straw with dker brown base and some curly cilia (does not have overlapping cordate basal lobes), v d curly white hairy along costae, hairs show conspic from under scales |
| | SOR | | sporangia borne under revol marg of lvs |
This can easily key mistakenly as
C. eatonii due to confusing nature of hairs under lf and on rachis, but note esp that the scales under
C. eatonii are few and inconspic
there is no way to call the scales of
C. lindheimeri inconspic!!
Cheilanthes wootenii [voucher]
| | ST | | red-brown, terete, rachis scaly| scales | | wide, lance, white with brown base and edges of cells bel middle, some min teeth ab and long curly hairs near base, some scales narrower to almost hair-like, loosely appressed, often folded |
|
| | LF | | lance, trun to sl rounded base, 3-4-pin, fin segs round and bead-like and strongly curled under, sp vill ab due to long curly hairs protruding between segments from bel (doesn't do such a good job fooling you as C. lindheimeri does), d scaly bel| scales | | wide lance, white with brown cell edges etc like on rachis, long cil near base with few teeth ab middle, obscuring bot surf of lf completely |
sp hairy bel from long curly cil of scales actually glab ab and bel |
| | SOR | | sporangia borne under revol marg of lvs, spores 55-60um (avg < 62um) |
This is very hard to distinguish from
C. lindheimeri using
Lellinger but it turns out that efloras.org has it... and yet another similar species:
C. yavapensis which is identical except for origin (hybrid) and spores being larger than 65um.
Pleopsidium flavum []
| | GEN | | crust lichen, on granite? | thallus | | bright yellow, contiguous tiny areoles, lobes at marg 1-2x0.3-0.6mm, strongly convex, thick, surface smooth |
algae green, medulla yellow| apothecia | | sunken in areoles looking like lecanorine disks, epihymenium ochre-yellow, hypothecium clear, K- |
| spores | | many, to 3-4x1um, clear, ellip, 1 cell, smooth |
| ascus | | Lecanora-type when young but V-shaped dent flipping inside with age making tip fairly square to even protrude inside, starts narrowly oblong-oblance becoming very swollen just before it bursts |
|
Xanthoparmelia "cumberlandia k plus stays yellow"
| | GEN | | foliose lichen, on rock| thallus | | lt green, black pycnidia, marg black, brown bel, short sp brown unbr rhiz, fairly closely attached, K+ yellowish, KC+ bright yell, C-, no soredia or isidia |
algae green| medulla | | white, K+ yell (and stays yell) |
| apo | | rich shiny brown, curled-up cups, common |
|
Matches
X. cumberlandia best, but medulla K+ yell stays yell; I have another that distinctly changed orange after some time, so this must be different?
Xanthoparmelia weberi
| | GEN | | foliose lichen, on rock| thallus | | lt green, v d isidia, lt brown bel, short sp brown unbr rhiz, fairly closely attached, K+ yellowish, KC+ bright yell, C- |
algae green| apo | | rare, rich shiny brown, curled-up cups |
|
Need PD test to be sure, but this at least matches everything else written.
These are just ones I noticed but did not really study; taken from UA Herbarium list:
Cheilanthes wrightii
Agave schottii
Dasylirion wheeleri
Yucca baccata brevifolia
Carnegiea gigantea
Echinocereus fasciculatus
Ferocactus cylindraceus
Ferocactus wislizenii []
Mammillaria grahamii
Opuntia phaeacantha
Opuntia chlorotica
Larger purplish.
Opuntia leptocaulis
Opuntia bigelovii
Opuntia fulgida fulgida
Opuntia versicolor
Purplish cane.
Opuntia acanthocarpa
Opuntia spinosior?
Supposedly common in bajadas, but I don't remember seeing this.
Ambrosia deltoidea
| | LF | | lance, finely cren, sl to v whitened, petioled |
| | INFL | | well excl term spikes |
Artemisia ludoviciana sulcata
Encelia farinosa farinosa
Fouquieria splendens
Acacia constricta
Acacia greggii
Astragalus arizonicus?
| | GEN | | peren with frs and stalks persisting |
| | LF | | odd-pin, 5+ lflts, d canesc strig, long thin horn-like straight glands between lflts |
| | FR | | long, dehisc, curved up a bit, erect, many seeds, way more room inside than required for seeds, beak persist |
Not nearly enough info to ID, but
Astragalus seems likely and UA Herbarium list suggests this, and pictures look plausible.
Cercidium floridum?
Cercidium microphyllum
Prosopis velutina
Eriogonum wrightii wrightii?
I definitely saw a lot of Eriogonum on top of Wasson peak; UA Harbarium suggests this is most likely. Very uncertain.
Simmondsia chinensis
Celtis pallida
| | ST | | zigzag, thorny, whitish smooth bark |
| | LF | | barely oblique, small, ellip, rounded, roughened ab rubbing backwards |
Phoradendron californicum
Larrea tridentata tridentata
Here are some lichens I saw but didn't collect to study number of distinct species is probably close (what I saw, at least) but I wouldn't trust the IDs:
Acarospora contigua
Caloplaca? (orange)
Candelariella? (bright orange)
Lecidea tessellata?
Rhizoplaca
Acarospora (yellow-green)
Lecanora (at least 3 types)
? (tiny yellow areolate crust)
Dermatocarpon miniatum
Physcia
Acarospora? (dk grey)
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