November | 2018 | Plants of the Bodie Hills

1. Asclepias cordifolia

It’s time for another update to Plants of Hot Springs Valley and Grover Hot Springs State Park, Alpine County, California. I’ve added several plants to the list, based on explorations around the margins of the valley earlier this year, plus observations posted by others posted on iNaturalist. PDFs (for printing single-page format and booklet format) are available on the Downloads page of this site.

3. Agoseris retorsa

Here are 11 species (including one correction) added to the list in 2018:

Apocynaceae (Milkweed or Dogbane family)
1. Asclepias cordifolia – Purple milkweed – Sandy hillside with chaparral, along Burnside Lake Trail near the campground, north side of valley.
2. Asclepias fascicularis – Narrow-leaf milkweed – A milkweed with decidedly narrow leaves, growing in pine forest near the park entrance (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/13825500).
Asteraceae (Sunflower family)
3. Agoseris retorsa – Spearleaf mountain dandelion – In granitic sand along the Burnside Lake Trail, in forest openings or forest edges, west of the meadows.
4. Artemisia ludoviciana subsp. incompta – Mountain mugwort – Uncommon, along the eroding banks of Hot Springs Creek, west of the meadows. Perhaps also to be found in rocky outcrop areas.
5. Hemizonella minima – Tiny tarweed – A small to minute, yellow-flowered annual growing in granitic sand along the Burnside Lake Trail near the campground and north of the falls; also among outcrops near the falls. (This is a correction: previously misidentified as Madia exigua.)
6. Malacothrix floccifera – Wooly desert-dandelion – A small annual growing in granitic sand in dry forest openings, along the Burnside Lake Trail north of the falls. The flower heads resemble small dandelions, with ray flowers that are white in the outer portions and yellow toward the middle.
Brassicaceae (Mustard family)
7. Capsella bursa-pastoris – Shepherd’s-purse – a very widespread plant (but not common here), found along the disturbed edge of a service road (where it doubles for a few hundred yards as the Burnside Lake/Charity Valley Trail), on the north side of the valley, west of campground.
Orchidaceae (Orchid Family)
8. Corallorhiza striata – Striped coralroot – In deep litter of pine needles in conifer forest along the Burnside Lake Trail, north of The Falls.
Polemoniaceae (Phlox family)
9. Ipomopsis aggregata – Scarlet gilia – In dry forest openings, west of the meadows.
Ranunculaceae (Buttercup family)
10. Ranunculus occidentalis – Western buttercup – Moist, non-alkaline meadows or moist places in forest.
11. Ranunculus testiculatus – Bur buttercup – A weedy, unpleasant thing (“gets stuck in the pads of my dogs’ feet”, somebody once told me), native to Eurasia. It’s in a small area of disturbed ground in the meadow near Hot Springs Creek, east of the Hot Springs Cutoff trail, and perhaps in other disturbed sites.