NEVADA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
Rare Plant Committee Meeting
NEVADA RARE PLANT WORKSHOP
Tuesday, 5 April 2005, Las Vegas

2005 MEMBER COMMENTS
http://heritage.nv.gov/nrpw/commnt05.htm

The following comments on 2005 agenda items were offered by participants and/or non-participants prior to the 2005 Workshop, and were made available at the workshop as a handout to participants. Those unable to attend but with thoughts or information to contribute are especially encouraged to submit them!

Member: Arnold Tiehm
Date: 4 March 2005
Comments: I have seen both collections of Cryptantha insolita and it sure looks like a good taxon to me. The type was collected by Goodding in 1905 and the label is just "Las Vegas". The 1942 collection was by Ripley and Barneby and again just says "Las Vegas". I once asked Rupert about the location. He told me that Las Vegas was just a wide spot in the road in 1942. They stayed at the Sal Sagev (anagram of Las Vegas) Motel and out behind the motel were springs. The Cryptantha was on the deposits from the springs. They also got Calochortus striatus at the same site. I would imagine that a little detective work could turn up a location for the old motel and then a search of the immediate area would tell if the plant is in existence.

Member: Brian Knaus
Date: 4 March 2005
Comments: Reveal collected [Petalonyx thurberi] near "Clay Camp." Note that while this collection was made in 1968, the Davis & Thompson revision which created subspecies in P. thurberi was in 1967. Reveal labeled it as P. thurberi; perhaps Reveal did not know about the revision at the time. Most of our specimens are currently only labeled as P. thurberi (OSC, ORE, WILLU). The label reads (brackets include my own comments):

Reveal #1494. Ash Meadows, NE of Clay Camp, 0.3 mi SE of a small lake-spring, Sec. 1, T 18 S, R 50 E. July 4, 1968. [Grooved stem, Stamen ~0.7-0.8 cm, leaves rarely toothed, bases cuneate to cordate-clasping, hairs retrorse 45º but not appressed]

Reveal also collected at Big Dune (#2251), where I collected last summer. These two Reveal specimens look very much alike and like my collection at Big Dune. I'd call all of these P. t. ssp. thurberi.

Member: Brian Knaus
Date: 2 March 2005
Comments: I'm glad Dr. Niles has said something as I don't have very much experience in this group. I'm also glad that he has expressed some confusion about the determinations of this taxon, because I'm confused.

The key provided by Davis & Thompson first uses the subjective character of pubescence texture, harsh in ssp. thurberi and soft in ssp. gilmanii. I feel this character will be difficult to appreciate in a dried herbarium specimen (I envision I pile of Petalonyx thurberi sheets where all the hair has been worn off from people trying to judge the texture).

The second character is whether the pubescence is "retrorsely appressed" (ssp.thurberi) or perpendicular (ssp. gilmanii). Based on this character I originally thought the plants at Big Dune were ssp. gilmanii. After looking in our herbarium (OSC, ORE, WILLU) I began to realize that this character is much more widespread than Davis & Thompson make it out to be. We have several ssp. thurberi from outside the Death Valley region that have (near) perpendicular hairs. It's easy to make the assumption that these may have been keyed by geography. I currently don't feel that this is a diagnostic character, although I have not made an exhaustive study of it and am not above being wrong. It would be easy to see how this character could lead to misidentification if it is indeed more widespread than Davis & Thompson thought.

The last character in the key is stamen size (>6mm = ssp. thurberi). According to this character the plants at Big Dune are ssp. thurberi. My guess is that this may be a diagnostic character. I am at the extreme disadvantage of only having one specimen of P. t. ssp. gilmanii so I definitely would not claim authority. Davis & Thompson also state:

In general, ssp. gilmanii has smaller flowers, broader leaves, and longer, finer pubescence than ssp. thurberi. In addition, the stem hair is erect in gilmanii instead of appressed as in thurberi, and the current seasons growth generally is shorter than in thurberi.

I reiterate that plants with perpendicular hairs is more widespread than they state. In the description, Davis & Thompson claim ssp. thurberi to have cuneate to truncate leaf bases while ssp. gilmanii has truncate to cordate-clasping bases. I feel that cordate-clasping bases are more widespread than Davis & Thompson claim based on our collection here. I have a lot of questions about "what is ssp. gilmanii?" I hope this sheds some light on the question.

Member: Wes Niles
Date: 2 March 2005
Comments: We have at UNLV two collections of Petalonyx thurberi by Beatley that have been annotated by Dennis Schramm as ssp. gilmanii (Duplicate # 9790, 11 Oct 1969, south end of Striped Hills, east of Lathrop Wells; Duplicate # 13273, 22 Sept 1971, Clay pit area, road from Spring Meadows Farm). I have looked at both, and they look like ssp. thurberi to me. I would welcome a determination by some one else.

Member: Dave Anderson
Date: 1 March 2005
Comments: The collection of P. thurberi ssp. gilmanii by Beatley is not in the Nevada Test Site herbarium, I think it is in the UNLV herbarium. Beatley also had a collection at the Big Dune area, which she identified as ssp. thurberi. That specimen is in the Nevada Test Site herbarium.

Member: Brian Knaus
Date: 28 February 2005
Comments: I volunteered to look into Petalonyx thurberi at Big Dune and determine whether it is the rare ssp. gilmanii or the common ssp. thurberi. I collected over the summer [2004], the population seems abundant and otherwise happy. There is ATV activity at this site but because P. thurberi is a decent sized shrub they seem to be avoiding it. Don't know if recruitment could be an issue though.

In terms of what ssp. it is I have become stumped. Here at Oregon State we have three herbaria (OSC, ORE, WILLU) but have only one specimen of ssp. gilmanii. We do have a number of ssp. thurberi. I have come to feel that the monographs of Davis & Thompson as well as that of Munz don't accurately capture ssp. gilmanii. The direction of the pubescence seems variable in our collections of P. thurberi, not strictly retrorsely appressed as indicated by Davis and Thompson. Specimens from outside the Death Valley region also appear to have clasping, cordate leaf bases which is supposed to be characteristic of ssp. gilmanii. My current thought is that the difference between the sspp. is the size of the flowers which is a character that appears subordinate to the previous characters in the monographs. By the flower size character the population at Big Dune would be considered ssp. thurberi which is where I am currently leaning.

I am planning to send specimens to UNLV, RENO and Washington State (Larry Hufford has worked in Petalonyx but has not addressed the sspp. of P. thurberi). Perhaps someone with more experience in this group can help.

Member: Donald Farrar
Date: 8 February 2005
Comments: The most important news regarding Botrychium lineare is that the population we visited last summer on Railroad Ridge in Montana turned out pretty clearly to be an allotetraploid of B. campestre X B. lineare. With establishment of the existence of this tetraploid, I think now that this may be what exists or existed at one time at some of the California and Utah sites, and could be what is in the Spring Mountains. It may explain why I obtained fixed heterozygosity (i.e., consistently two alleles) at some loci in the Spring Mt. plants. I think relocating the Rainbow Falls site that appears from the herbarium collections to have had so many of these plants is still key to resolving the problem. Other new information on B. lineare is that we have discovered a large population in the Black Hills and scattered plants in the Yukon and Alaska.

I am describing a new variety of B. simplex based on southwestern plants. It grows in saturated fens. I am sure it is the variety that grows in the Chiatovitch Creek drainage in Esmeralda Co., NV (White Mts., Chiatovitch Creek, White Mt. Quad On hummocks in damp open meadow T1S, R33E, Sec. 35, elev. 8900ft) and may be the variety that once occurred in the Spring Mts. It would be great to confirm its presence in either of these sites.

The [possibly undescribed] lunaria-like plants in the Spring Mts. are a different taxon than B. simplex. The issue we are now working on is whether they are distinct from B. tunux in Alaska and some of the forms of European B. lunaria. There is no question that they are different from American B. lunaria, and a very important part of the puzzle that is the B. lunaria complex worldwide. Mary Stensvold is now working on this problem for her Ph.D. research and is examining B. lunaria from all over the world. If the Spring Mts. plants do get merged with some other taxon, they will still be dramatic disjunction that may help us understand the distribution and differentiation of B. "lunaria" world wide.

I also forgot to mention that you have two genetically distinct forms of B. minganense in the Spring Mts., and just to keep us guessing, both forms hybridize regularly with the Spring Mts. form of B. "lunaria".

I have completed short descriptions with distribution maps and photos and new keys to all US Botrychium species. These should be available through the Forest Service soon. We will be holding a Botrychium workshop at Echo Lake in Colorado next summer. Steve J. Popovich (sjpopovich [at] fs [dot] fed [dot] us) will be in charge.

Member: Dana York
Date: 17 March 2004
Comments: Petalonyx thurberi ssp. gilmanii--I don't know about the Nevada populations, but it is known from at least 20 populations throughout the park [Death Valley National Park]. Populations range in size from a few shrubs to over 100.

Astragalus mohavensis var. hemigyrus--Found last year just west of the park [Death Valley National Park] near Darwin. Genetic work on the CA [plants] should be done--there are slight morphological differences from the NV type material.

Sisyrinchium funereum--I question that this species occurs at Ash Meadows. There are no other rare plant correlations between Ash Meadows and Death Valley. This plant only occurs in the springs surrounding the (Death) valley. The populations vary in size (some >100 plants) and seem to be stable, but threats include exotic plants, water extraction, cattle, and burros.

Member: Jason Alexander
Date: 27 April 2003
Comments: With a taxon as complicated as Astragalus lentiginosus, we do not yet know if these small [Nevada var. stramineus] populations with unique morphology are significantly differentiated from the rest of the complex or are they fully intergradient with neighboring varieties. Untested hypotheses abound (including, so far, mine) but no concrete data has ever been researched. It is important to protect the diversity in this variety in either scenario in a population biology context.

If var. stramineus is a full hybrid, or the Nevada populations are hybrids with var. fremontii, these hybrids swarms are an important conduit for genetic diversity of typical var. stramineus. It is likely that var. stramineus will become genetically depauperate and potentially go extinct if this conduit for genetic diversity is severed. In this case, a conservation plan would encompass populations from Toquop Wash (which are distinguishable from typical stramineus only in having slightly smaller flowers) east to the Beaver Dam Wash. These putative hybrids should be considered var. stramineus until genetic data show otherwise.

If var. stramineus is distinct from other varieties of this complex, the population in Toquop Wash is likely the main source for dispersal in Nevada, having the largest and most widespread extant populations. The others around Mesquite are heavily impacted. In addition, the populations around Beaver Dam are also heavily impacted by past and current development. The remote sandy pockets in washes between Toquop Wash and Beaver Dam Wash are important small populations that promote gene flow and the maintenance of diversity in this species. If this hypothesis is correct, loosing these small populations could cause a loss of genetic diversity and the possible extinction of this variety. In any case, var. stramineus is a taxon in need of some mitigation from habitat loss.

Member: Anita Cholewa
Date: 18 March 2003
Comments: For starters, this genus is not an easy one to separate and is fraught with danger for inexperienced botanists. Here's some additional information that might be of help. In the area where these plants occur (southern NV, UT) there aren't too many other species. In fact, Sisyrinchium demissum is the only other one that overlaps in range. (S. bellum is further west and S. halophilum is further northwest -- we've searched extensively and never found these closer). Sisyrinchium demissum, S. funereum, and S. radicatum are all branched species but can be distinguished on the basis of additional bract and floral characters (see table below). The characters are subtle but real. I have done a fair amount of crossing among these [species] and barriers exist. I don't have flowering dates but generally these are all spring to early summer for the particular region.

The Sisyrinchium funereum populations are mostly within Death Valley and thus protected (Furnace Creek near Inn, Sand Springs at north end of Death Valley and the Ash Meadows border area both within -Devils Hole- and outside Death Valley -McGill Ranch and Jackrabbit Springs [maybe this is inside I don't remember]). Populations contain lots of individuals.

The Sisyrinchium radicatum populations are a bit more dispersed, in Clark, Nye, and Lincoln cos. with some also in Washington Co. in UT. Clark: Charleston Mts - Pine Canyon, Charleston Mts - Ash Spring, Spring Mts - Pine Creek, Red Rock Canyon - Calico Basin. Nye: Big Springs (aka Deep Springs) in Ash Meadows, Pahrump Valley. Lincoln: Pahranagat Lakes, Pahranagat Valley - Ash Springs. I can't assess the threats to these populations.

I would be happy to look at your materials [in Nevada herbaria] but I cannot promise a speedy return if more than just a few specimens.

Member: Pat Leary
Date: 29 July 2002
Comments: My impression of Phacelia geraniifolia is that it is found on limestone cliff areas in canyons from Mount Potosi north to at least La Madre Mountain. It is predictably growing in the right habitat in that geographic range. It would be difficult for me to say to not add it to a watch list because I can only tell you about less than a dozen populations for certain (three that I have written down and documented). Until a formal or informal survey of its occurrence is conducted, I think it might be more prudent to retain it on a watch list.

(last updated 1 April 2005) 

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