The first day we met at the Hole in the Wall Visitor's Center and I bought Plants of the East Mojave: Mojave National Preserve
The unfamiliar and unusual plants I read about AND saw those two days were: Joshua Tree (another variety of yucca brevifolia), blue yucca (yucca baccata), Mojave mound cactus (echinocereus triglochidiatus var. mojavensis), desert stipa (achnathereum speciosum), desert almond (prunus fasciculata), sandpaper plant (petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi), winter fat (krascheninnikovia lanata), wooly brickellia (brickellia incana), California brickellia (brickellia californica), squawbush (rhustribolata), woolly-fruited bursage (ambrosia eriocentra), blue/purple sage (salvia dorrii ssp. dorrii), paperbag bush (salazaria mexicana), turpentine broom (thamnosma montana), palmer penstemon (penstemon palmeri - which I first mistook for larkspur and then milkweed), little gold poppy (eschscholtzia glyptosperma), yellow cups (camissonia brevipes - a primrose that I mistook for a buckwheat), and bitterbush (purshia tridentata var. glandulosa - which I first confused with sandpaper plant).
All the tiny samples I took from plants were taken from private property as it is illegal to remove anything from the preserve.
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Little gold poppy (eschscholtzia glyptosperma) tiniest dam poppy I ever saw |
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Desert Four O'Clocks, (mirabilis multiflora var. pubescens nyctaginaceae) |
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Turpentine Broom (thamnosma montana) |
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Mojave mound cactus (echinocereus triglochidiatus var. mojavensis) |
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Desert almond (prunus fasciculata) |
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Squawbush (rhustribolata) |
Squawbush had many uses among Native Americans, and many interesting stories associated with it, including one about vagina dentata.
From bottom left, clockwise: Little gold poppy (eschscholtzia glyptosperma), sandpaper plant (petalonyx thurberi ssp. thurberi), woolly-fruited bursage (ambrosia eriocentra), and wooly brickellia (brickellia incana).
Wooly brickellia lined the highways going toward Kelso. At first I thought they might be desert lavender but they were rounded, mid-sized silver mounds all along the roads and down the washes. I found the sandpaper plant there, as well, green branches sprouting up through last year's dead white branches.
At the Kelso Station I bought Early Uses of California Plants (California Natural History Guides). We have a copy of this somewhere in the house, but I've misplaced it so was glad to have it again to refer to.
The Mojave preserve is lush this spring and in full bloom. The elevation changes were rapid and the types of plants in any one area change just as fast. The East Mojave is not as lush as the Sonoran Desert but much lusher than the West Mojave and it supported much more biodiversity. It was a rare and wondrous treat to spend two days in this magical land.
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A train (the white line) crosses beneath the Providence Mountains. |