Milkweed Map

The Tonto National Forest has been supporting the Monarch Butterfly migration by planting milkweed.  Here in the Sonoran Desert the Mesa Ranger District and volunteer organizations (Friends of the Tonto Nation Forest and Southwest Monarch Study) have been working to increase the population of Desert (Rush) Milkweed (Asclepias  subulata). Milkweed plants are critical to the Monarch Butterfly life cycle because the adults lay their eggs on the plant and the larvae only eat milkweed.

As a volunteer with Friends of the Tonto National Forest (FOTNF), I've participated in planting seedlings in the Tonto NF. Out of my own interest, I've planted milkweed seed in my home gardens and used a phone app to photograph and map milkweed plants.

Update: I added some points (black dots) to the map from Google Maps that I need to verify. I had originally saved them as "Labeled" locations in Google Maps. They don't have photos attached and I'm not sure of the location accuracy.



The photos below are of a Rush (Desert) Milkweed grown from collected seed.

Rush Milkweed in Home Garden

Rush Milkweed in Home Garden

I'm looking forward to collecting more seed this year once the milkweed plants start producing seed pods.

Adios

Tortilla Creek and Hewitt Canyon Riparian Photopoint

A friend and I drove out to Tortilla Flat last week to hike up Tortilla Creek and take photos to support a volunteer project.  The project involves taking photos of the creek and surrounding riparian area at fixed points that can be compared year after year.  The photos are shared with the Forest Service for their use in observing the changes due to erosion, overgrazing or fires in the watershed.  This year's emphasis is on creeks in the watershed effected by the 2019 Woodbury Fire in the Superstition Mountains.  You should be able to find Tortilla Flat on the map below. All of the blue points represent a photopoint site.




The following are photos from Tortilla photopoint #1:

The next photos are from Tortilla #2:

Hiking up the streambed and hoping from rock to rock to cross the creek was tough at some points but it was nice cool day and a pleasure to be out.

Update:
The next week, we drove to Queen Creek and Hewitt Canyon to continue collecting photos of the riparian areas. We first drove out Hewitt Station Road on Forest Service Road (FSR) 357 to the turnoff to Hewitt Canyon and the Queen Creek crossing of FSR 172.  We had two sites on Queen Creek: one at the road crossing and another a few hundred feet upstream where Hewitt Creek entered Queen Creek.

Queen Creek at Road Crossing

Queen Creek at Confluence with Hewitt Creek

We continued up Hewitt Canyon Road (FSR 172) and took photos at 3 sites along Hewitt Creek.  The road was unpaved and rough in spots but was easily traveled with a high clearance pickup truck. We found the first two sites relatively easy but the directions to the third were a bit confusing. Once we found the third spot, its location was obvious due to the stone enclosure clearly seen from the road.

First Site on Hewitt Creek 

Second Site on Hewitt Creek

Third Site on Hewitt Creek

Landmark for Third Site

We got the photos at the right time. The temperatures the next were in the 90's and a brush fire near Hewitt Canyon had limited access to the area.

That may finish the photopoints for 2020 unless Apache Trail opens up beyond Fish Creek Canyon. I have the documents for Fish Creek and Lewis & Pranty Creek but the sites are relatively inaccessible until the road opens.

Adios

Fern and Bryophyte Map

As you can see from the previous posts, I developed an interest this winter in shady micro-climate plants such as ferns, liverworts and mosses. The plants need moisture but seem to thrive in their own little niches here in the Sonoran Desert.  I was originally mapping them in the plant category of my interactive map (Azbarite Map).  Since I was interested in a finer subset of plants (ferns, liverworts, spike mosses and mosses), I decided to break them out into a separate map called "Ferns and Bryophytes".

Star Cloak Fern with Club Moss

Parry's Lip Fern with Liverwort

The mapping process involved creating a new Epicollect5 project called "Fern Map" for field collection describing ferns, liverworts, spike mosses and mosses. Fern Map was then created in Google Maps using existing data filtered from the Azbarite Map data base. Additional new data is added to Fern Map through a new map layer.

The new map makes it much easier to locate specific data related to ferns, liverworts, spike mosses and mosses.

More Botanical Notes

As described in a previous post, I've been exploring areas here in the nearby Sonoran Desert looking for bryophytes (liverworts & mosses), and pteridophytes (ferns and spike mosses).  These types of plants are usually associated with more temperate climates but can also thrive in shady, moist micro-climates here in the desert. Such micro-climates can be found in the shade of boulders on north facing slopes and on cliff faces in north facing canyons.  I've found several such spots during walks this winter.

North facing boulders in dry stream bed

Bryophytes were some of the first plants to emerge from ancient seas hundreds of millions of years ago and colonize dry land. Much like algae, bryophytes lack a vascular system for moving water and nutrients inside the plant. Ferns and spike mosses have vascular systems but also developed very early in the history of plants.

Here are some photos from recent walks.

Liverwort with reproductive structures

Moss with reproductive structures 

Parry''s Lip Fern

And finally, a spike moss.

Spike Moss (center)

The weather is starting to warm up and rattlesnakes also enjoy boulders and canyon cliffs so I'll soon be moving on to spring wildflowers as long as I can see what's laying underneath them.

 Adios

Some Botanical Notes

This winter I've developed an interest in Sonoran Desert plants that thrive in cool wet weather. These plants include ferns, spike-mosses, mosses and liverworts. We've had some cool wet weather this month and these plants seem to be doing well. They are generally found in small niche communities on north facing slopes or cliffs. Many of the plants prefer sheltered clefts in rocks and I've come across them on the bluffs east of Butcher Jones Beach near Saguaro Lake and in canyons on the north side of Usery Mountain.  Mosses are bright green and abundant on boulders on the north side of Coon Bluff.

Parry's Lip Fern - Canyon on north side of Usery Mountain

Star Cloak Fern - Bluff east of Butcher Jones Beach

Wright's Lip Fern - Bluff east of Butcher Jones Beach

The spike-mosses are creeping plants that can form dense patches in wet areas. The leaves are only green during wet periods but curl inward and become dormant during dry periods.

Spike-Moss - Bluff east of Butcher Jones Beach

Another cool weather, shade loving plant is the liverwort. Liverworts are unusual due their lack of leaves and vascular system. The plant consists of a flattened multi-celled structure containing green photosynthetic material (chloroplasts) and a single-celled rhizome for an anchor. The plants can form large mats in wet, shady areas but completely dry out in arid periods.

Liverwort - Canyon north of Usery Mountain

Liverwort - Bluff east of Butcher Jones Beach

The cool, wet weather has also refreshed the moss communities. The following photos were taken along some boulders on the north face of Coon Bluff near Phon D. Sutton Recreation Area.

I'll be out looking for more over the next couple of months.

Adios

Jones Wash

I finally got around to hiking up the ridge on the north side of Saguaro Lake. I parked at the Butcher Jones Beach overflow parking lot and walked through a mesquite bosque into the wash bordering the ridge. The wash runs east to west along north facing bluffs of the ridge.

Jones Wash

The north facing bluffs provided shelter from the intense Sonoran Desert sun for communities of liverworts, mosses and ferns.

Thallus Liverwort

The ridge is composed of conglomerate and tuff (welded ash) laid down during and after volcanic activity in the middle tertiary period (10-20 Mya).

From ridge looking down into wash

There are several wet weather stream beds draining the ridge. The small stream below contained water from recent rains.

Wet Weather Stream

The north facing slope also included shaded areas that supported ferns, mosses and spiked club moss.

Wright's Lipfern

Star Cloak Fern and Spiked Club Moss

I've always been attracted to north facing slopes because they support such a large diversity of plant types and isolated communities of plant life dependent on shade and moisture.  There are other places in this vicinity that I want to explore on future walks.

Revised 11/28/2019

I returned to the wash a few days later and continued upstream for a mile or so. The wash was wide and unobstructed with nice views of surrounding mountains. There were also numerous deer tracks and game trails cutting the wash.

About a half mile from the parking area there was a point where the wash had long ago cut through a sandstone and conglomerate ridge leaving tall bluffs on each side of the wash.  The bluffs were riddled with caves. The cave are good shelter for animals and have probably also been shelter for people.

I want to return again soon but park along a side canyon, hike across the large wash and explore some game trails.

Adios

I took a hike this morning with a friend.

We decided to go to Hackberry Spring in the Superstition Wilderness Area.  It's along First Water Creek north of Superstition Mountain.  I'm rediscovering the area after the Forest Service dropped parking fees in the area.  I was too tight to hike in area when it cost me $4 for parking along a dirt road.  Their excuse was that they improved the road and installed restrooms.  I can assure you that I had no need for nor had I requested a better road or restrooms.  I might have paid something for them to make the road a bit worse and remove the restrooms.  My avoidance of parking fees has caused me to take some pretty hairy detours sometimes. A couple of years ago I hiked to Hackberry Spring by a really round about route and was worn out by the time I got back.

We got started around 8am and beat most of the crowd.  We parked in the horse trailer lot and cut cross country hoping to keep away from other people.  It worked for the most part.  We had a nice peaceful walk for several hours but we eventually had to cut into the regular path to the spring.  The wet weather had allowed grass and plants to sprout and it looked like a landscaped park along the washes.  We got scratched up a bit by the Catclaws while bushwacking through the washes but it was worth the solitude and scenery.

Luckily we came out in a nice little narrow canyon leading to First Water Creek.  There was water flowing in the creek and it was nice walking along and hearing the moving water.  After awhile we started to hear voices and could see a large group coming down the path.  We managed to get ahead of them before getting to the spring so that we could quietly check it out for awhile.

After they caught up we took off again and headed up the path toward Garden Valley.  Garden Valley is actually a mesa that stays pretty wet and is rumored to have been a seasonal camp for ancient indians (Salado Culture).  We cut off and took a shorter way back that went through an old ranch area with corrals and a windmill.

After getting back to the truck we decided to stop and get something to eat.  As luck would have it,  the Mammoth Saloon at Goldfield was open for business.  We drove through a crowd of snowbirds and parked behind the saloon.  Cowboy Bob (the bartender) was friendly but his Italian accent made his cowboy personae a bit hard to swallow.  He served us two beers in plastic cups and we took him up on his recommendation of chili.

Adios