Due to the dryness in the mountains this year, I have not done much on the San Gabriels Pacific Crest Trail Project. I did do the section from I-15 to Swarthout Canyon Road and the section from Lightning Ridge to Vincent Gap, but until recently that was all. In early July, I accompanied Tom Chester, Walt Fidler, Adrienne Ballwey and RT Hawke on the section from Cloudburst Summit to Three Points, dropping from 7018' to 5885', on a pleasantly cool summer day. Although in general most of the flora is either finished or finishing, it was good to see what was still on the trail from May of last year and also interesting to note what was absent. It was especially useful to me to correct some of the identifications that I made last year. A midweek excursion on the Pacific Crest Trail is particularly enjoyable due to the absence of motorcycle and other traffic noise from the nearby Angeles Crest Highway. The symbol ^ next to the common name incicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip. The photographs in this gallery were taken on 7/10/14. The list of species for this segment of the PCT which has been updated is here.

[This taxon was lumped together with Pyrola picta in JM1 and 2 and Flora of North America, but has now been recognized as a separate species. It was first published in 1814 by James Edward Smith, then placed as a ssp. of Pyrola picta by Charles Vancouver Piper in 1906. Apparently the plants that grow farther north have leaves that are often dentate which our plants only occasionally have. One of its common names is Nootka wintergreen which comes from the fact that it grows all the way north to British Columbia. We saw this species just a little ways down the trail from Cloudburst Summit into Cooper Canyon, and also along the PCT toward Three Points.]

Naked-stem bedstraw
Galium angustifolium ssp. nudicaule
Rubiaceae

Smoothleaf yerba santa
Eriodictyon trichocalyx var. trichocalyx
Boraginaceae

California fuchsia
Epilobium canum ssp. latifolium
Onagraceae

Jepson's bedstraw
Galium jepsonii
Rubiaceae

[The Rubiaceae takes its name from the madder genus Rubia, an epithet originally adopted by the Roman naturalist Pliny for madder, and derived from ruber, "red." The family includes both coffee and quinine.]

Leafy daisy
Erigeron foliosus var. foliosus
Asteraceae

Few-flowered naked buckwheat
Eriogonum nudum var. pauciflorum
Polygonaceae