Our MSFI Seedbank project all began with 24 soil sites at 6 trays per site which gave the greenhouse a whopping 144 trays of native soil to care for. Turns out, just a little bit of water and it seemed things couldn't grow fast enough!
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| 10.Nov.2012 |
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| 20.Nov.2012 |
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| 28.Nov.2012 |
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| 16.Jan.2013 |
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| 15.March.2013 |
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| 28.March.2013 |
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| 1.April.2013 |
It's now dwindled down to a remaining two species to be ID'd and they are taking their sweet time.
In the mean time, let's reminisce.....
Though the Sonoran desert is known for it's outstanding biodiversity, it was still surprising to see a little bit of everything! We had...
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| Mushrooms |
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| Cylindropuntia sp. likely buckhorn cholla |
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| Fungi |
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| Liverworts |
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| Perennial shrubs like this Lycium sp. or Wolfberry |
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| Itty bitty annuals like Crassula connata (pygmy weed) and Draba cunefolia |
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| Moss |
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| Slime molds |
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| Mimulus guttatus -Monkey flowers |
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| Blue plants ( Plagiobothrys arizonicus- Arizona popcorn flower) |
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| Hairy plants ( Pseudognaphalium sp.) |
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| Plants to big for their pots (Encelia farinosa- Brittle bush) |
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A Rush!
( Juncus bufonius- toad rush)
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| And of course grasses galore! (Schismus ssp.) |
I know, I know, that's not why you all tune in, its about the flowers! And we scored on those too!
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| Sisymbrium irio |
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| Arizona fiesta flower- Pholistoma auritum var. arizonicum |
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| Monolepis nuttalliana- Poverty weed |
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| Lasthenia californica- Goldfields |
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| Amsinkia menziesii- Fiddleneck |
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| Platago patagonica- Plantain |
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| Daucus pusillus- American carrot |
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| Erigeron deivergens- Fleabane |
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| Nictiana obtusifolia- Desert Tobacco |
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| Calliandra cilliata- Fringed red maids |
Sadly, this just about wraps it up for the seedbank study. New plants for the preserve species list have been mounted for herbarium record and shrubs that can be transplanted are growing out in bigger containers to be brought back to preserve to continue stocking the seedbank with their bounty!
The purpose of our study was to find species that we knew to exist in the preserve (or hoped for) that were not appearing due to our poor rainfall during the flora investigation. In the desert most plant species have adapted their seeds to allow them to lay dormant in the soil for sometimes years waiting for adequate rainfall. Conditions in the greenhouse allowed us to find 6 new species for our flora list that includes Daucus pusillus, Juncus bufonius, Lactuca serriola, Monolepis nuttalliana, Draba conefolia and Sonchus olraceus. As fate would have it, we got decent rain this winter and were able to find 5 of 6 new species growing wild in the preserve.
All in all we found nearly 45 species that we were able to ID and probably another dozen that unfortunately did not get big enough to ID including a cylindrical cacti.
Some interesting things noted during observations was the abundance of crassula connata in nearly all trays, this is a low growing plant once very common throughout the preserve but has in since years been replaced by the abundant combur, infact, SEINET had it listed as a sensitive plant and would not disclose locations of collections. On a related note and equally interesting was the lack of Pectocarya plants, a very abundant annual species throughout the preserve.
The final ID's on our last species will come at the plants pace and until then, I can only hope you all have enjoyed this sonoran seedbank journey as much as I have. Thanks again to everyone who helped along the way!
Sincerely your flora intern,
Chelsey Lauren H.
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