SANTA ROSA PLATEAU BURN AREA
APRIL 2011 PAGE ONE
Photographs by Michael Charters
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On September 1, 2010, a fire blackened 85 acres of the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve near Murrieta. This part of the Reserve is currently closed and is scheduled to be reopened in approximately a year, after the trail, which was not in good condition before the fire and was damaged further by it, is re-routed. Yesterday I received permission to accompany Tom Chester and Mike Crouse along a section of the Wiashal Trail that winds through the burn area and we botanized across a good section of that area both along the trail and off-trail. The large shrubs such as chamise, oak and mission manzanita, all seem to be happily resprouting, and the charred ground has produced a crop of beautiful wildflowers including a great number of snapdragons, whispering bells and gilias. An upside-down V next to the common name is for a taxon I had never seen before, and an asterisk indicates a non-native species. Tom Chester's flora of this area is here. |
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San Diego pea Lathyrus vestitus var. alefeldii Fabaceae |
Strigose lotus Acmispon [Lotus] strigosus Fabaceae |
The Photographer |
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Ground pink Linanthus dianthiflorus Polemoniaceae |
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Long-beaked storksbill * Erodium botrys Geraniaceae [Picture at lower left shows the furrows above the fruit body] |
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Large-flowered cryptantha Cryptantha intermedia var. intermedia Boraginaceae |
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Sleepy catchfly Silene antirrhina Caryophyllaceae [Note sticky internodes on the stem] |
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Common eucrypta Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia var. chrysanthemifolia Boraginaceae |
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Blue dicks Dichelostemma capitatum ssp. capitatum Themidaceae |
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