DUMP WASH/BORREGO BADLANDS, ANZA-BORREGO DESERT STATE PARK
FEBRUARY 2009 PAGE ONE
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Tom Chester, Dave Stith and I met in Anza-Borrego for this very interesting visit to the Borrego Badlands, an area I had heard of before but which I had never fully appreciated the significance of. It is indeed a "badlands," or malpais as the Spanish called it, criss-crossed with sandy washes, rocky arroyos, sand dunes and corrugated hills formed mostly of sedimentary conglomerates, sandstones, claystones and mudstones from the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs, and eroded by flash floods. This area also contained the fossils of Columbian mammoths, three types of camels, cave bears, ground sloths, gomphotheres, and many other species. We walked up the sinuous Dump Wash from near the Borrego Landfill site, and were appalled at the prevalence of Brassica tournefortii in quantities we had never before observed and could scarcely credit. Our original destination was Inspiration Point, but due to the length of time we spent exploring various ridges and gorges, we didn't quite make it there. A single visit is hardly sufficient to cover this area so we will have to go back again to see how things develop. An upside down V next to the common name indicates a species that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, and an asterisk indicates a non-native species. |
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Notchleaf phacelia Phacelia crenulata var. ambigua Hydrophyllaceae |
White mallow Eremalche exilis Malvaceae |
Desert sand verbena Abronia villosa var. villosa Nyctaginaceae |
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Basket evening primrose Oenothera deltoides ssp. deltoides Onagraceae |
Narrow-leaved cryptantha Cryptantha angustifolia Boraginaceae |
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| Woolly plantain Plantago ovata Plantaginaceae |
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| Broad-fruited pectocarya Pectocarya platycarpa Boraginaceae |
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| Spectacle pod Dithyrea californica Brassicaceae |
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| Desert dicoria, Twinbugs Dicoria canescens Asteraceae |
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Desert pot-herb, Dead man's fingers ^ Calandrinia ambigua Portulacaceae |
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Booth's evening primrose Camissonia boothii ssp. condensata Onagraceae |
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Peirson's brown-eyed primrose Camissonia claviformis ssp. peirsonii Onagraceae |
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Desert chicory Rafinesquia neomexicana Asteraceae |
Four wing saltbush Atriplex canescens var. canescens Chenopodiaceae |
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Oligomeris, Lineleaf whitepuff Oligomeris linifolia Resedaceae |
Spanish needles Palafoxia arida var. arida Asteraceae |
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