Home › Flora/Plants

Flora/Plants

The Cienega de Camilo: A Threatened Habitat In The Sierra Madre Occidental Of Eastern Sonora, Mexico - Van Devender, Reina - 2003

Submitted by desierto on Thu, 2010-04-08 08:55
in

Abstract: A spring with Sphagnum palustre (peatmoss) in the Cienega de Camilo in eastern Sonora, Mexico, is a new habitat for Sonora and the Sierra Madre Occidental. The vascular plant flora in an area of 0.2 km2 contains 207 species in 63 families, dominated by Compositae (41 species), Leguminosae (24 species), and Gramineae (21 species). Of these species. 40.1% do not reach Arizona or New Mexico, 15.0% are rare or restricted in Sonora, and only 2.9% are non-native. Pollen analyses of organic mud in a core from the Ci6nega recorded pine-oak forest progressively drying in the last 1000 years. The Cienega de Camilo with its unique peat habitat, diverse flora, and its paleoecological potential is in urgent need of protection.

Canotia holacantha on Isla Tiburón, Gulf of California, Mexico - Benjamin T. Wilder, 2008

Submitted by desierto on Sat, 2010-03-13 18:16
in

ABSTRACT: Canotia holacantha Torrey is reported from the Gulf of California, Mexico on Isla Tiburón. This population is isolated from its closest conspecifics in northern Sonora by 230 km and is best explained as a Pleistocene relict. Previous reports of this species on Tiburón and differences between other “crucifixion thorns” are explained.

Tropical Marsh and Savanna of the Late Pleistocene in Northeastern Sonora, Mexico, Mead, Baez, Swift, Carpenter, Hollenshead, Czaplewski, Steadman, Bright, and Arroyo-Cabrales

Submitted by desierto on Sat, 2010-03-13 18:09
in

ABSTRACT: We recovered Pleistocene fossils from a lava-dammed river deposit along the Rio de Moctezuma in northeastern Sonora, at 29°41'N, 109°39'W, and 605 m elevation. Today the region is semiarid, with a foothills thornscrub community. The impoundment that resulted from the lava dam produced a short-lived marsh with an adjacent savanna. The extraordinary fauna is both diverse and rich, and includes ostracods, mollusks, fish, amphibians, turtles, a crocodilian, snakes, lizards, birds, and mammals, many with tropical affinities today. Most of the animals are either extralimital to the setting today or extinct. The recovery of Bison dictates a Rancholabrean Land Mammal Age for the fauna; a preliminary 40Ar/39Ar age suggests that the deposit is between 570,000 and 310,000 years old. The occurrence of cf. Crocodylus acutus (a crocodilian; generic assignment uncertain) and Pampatherium, the giant armadillo, is unique in the northern interior Sonora setting. We speculate that a well-developed riparian corridor along the R ́ıo Yaqui, from the Gulf of California to the mountain-valley setting at Te ́rapa, permitted the animals with tropical affinities to extend 350 km inland.

Freshwater Islands in a Desert Sand Sea: the Hydrology, Flora, and Phytogeography of the Gran Desierto Oases of Northwestern Mexico, Exeauiel Ezcurra, Richard Felger, Ann D. Russell, Miguel Equihua

Submitted by desierto on Fri, 2010-03-12 11:11
in

Abstract: The Adair Ray pozos (welter holes) arc small artesian springs scattered along the saltflats of the Gran Desierto near tbe Coast of the Gulf (If California in northeastern Sonora. The pozos provide essential fresh water for the rich bird fauna and some of the mammals, and were also utilized earlier by native people...

Flora of Tinajas Altas, Arizona—A Century of Botanical Forays and Forty Thousand Years of Neotoma Chronicles - 2010 - Richard Felger, Tom Van Devender

Submitted by desierto on Sat, 2010-03-06 14:33
in

Abstract: This flora of the vascular plants of the Tinajas Altas region, within the Lower Colorado Valley subdivision of the Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona, includes the present-day species as well as fossils recovered from packrat middens. The vegetation and flora are dynamic, changing even now, and have changed dramatically during the past millennia, along with shifting climate and human presences. This is the first publication of a comprehensive temporal flora and spans more than 43,000 years of plants inadvertently collected and curated by packrats (Neotoma spp.) and more recently by botanists. We document a total of at least 249 species in 180 genera and 55 families, of which at least 120 species in 96 genera and 36 families are known from the fossil record and at least 25 [pg. 11 says 36 taxa] of these fossil species are no longer present in the region. The most diverse families, present- day and fossil taxa, are the Asteraceae, Poaceae, Boraginaceae, Brassicaceae, Solanaceae, Euphorbiaceae, Fabaceae, Polygonaceae, and Nyctaginaceae. The most diverse genera are Cryptantha, Ambrosia, and Eriogonum. There are 11 nonnative species in the flora, representing only 5% of the modern flora, but only Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) and Arabian grass (Schismus arabicus) are likely to negatively impact the native plants.

The famous waterholes, the Tinajas Altas, were critical for desert travelers and prehistoric people. The Tinajas Altas Mountains, in one of the most arid parts of North America, have one of the richest fossil records for Ice Age plants in the world. The radiocarbon-dated plant assemblages provide a detailed record of dramatic changes in geographic ranges of species and the succession from Ice Age woodlands to modern desertscrub. Prior to 11,000 years ago in the middle and late Wisconsin, Ice Age woodlands with singleleaf pinyon (Pinus monophylla), Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), California juniper (Juniperus californica), shrub live oak (Quercus turbinella), and Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) were at Tinajas Altas and elsewhere in Sonoran Desert lowlands. The earliest known creosotebush (Larrea divaricata) in North America, 18,000 years before present, from a Tinajas Altas midden, was already the modern tetraploid Sonoran Desert race.

The Tinajas Altas region adjoins the western margin of the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge, and is within the Barry M. Goldwater Range. Scientific, cultural, and aesthetic values dictate that the Tinajas Altas receive increased protection.

Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) and Natalgrass (Melinis repens) in Sonora

in

Buffelgrass Fire (Pennisetum ciliare)Buffelgrass Fire (Pennisetum ciliare)It's becoming common knowledge that buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare) is a huge problem for native vegetation in the Sonoran Desert of southern Arizona. In Sonora the problem is worse. Vast areas of Sonora are over-run with buffelgrass. Ranchers in Sonora continue to blade and till desert and thornscrub to plant this grass, which helps as cattle forage primarily only in the short-term. Once well established the grass becomes fairly woody and cows tend not to eat it unless there is little else.

Unfortunately continued drought and poor range conditions in Sonora make blading one's ranch for buffelgrass seem like an atractive option to push for high productivity.

Buffelgrass outcompetes natives especially on Sonoran Desert slopes, sometimes becoming almost 100% of vegetative cover. This is esp. problematic for saguaros and other cacti, which often prefer the same habitat. Buffelgrass is very fire-adapted and spreads fire readily, burning out native plants and hitting saguaros and other cacti the hardest.

The Plains of Sonora subdivision of the Sonoran Desert has been especially hard hit by buffelgrass. See more about buffelgrass here.

Natalgrass (Melinis repens) is becoming a major invasive in some areas of warmer, wetter Sonora. Some slopes can be completely dominanted by this species. Less known than buffelgrass, an eye should be kept on this species. It has spread to some of the most remote places I've been in Sonora. It's hard to hate this grass since it is very pretty.

Tom Van Devender has wrote more about Melinis repens at the Sonoran Desert Museum website.

Buffelgrass Fire (Pennisetum ciliare)

Submitted by desierto on Fri, 2010-02-26 17:15
in
Buffelgrass Fire (Pennisetum ciliare)

Digitized Map of Biotic Communities for Plotting and Comparing Distributions of North American Animals

Submitted by Cascabelero1985 on Wed, 2010-02-17 10:50
in

Brown, D. E., P. J. Unmack, T. E. Brennan. 2007. Digitized Map of Biotic Communities for Plotting and Comparing Distributions of North American Animals. The Southwestern Naturalist 52(4): 610-616

A Digitized Biotic Community Map for Plotting and Comparing North American Plant and Animal Distributions

Submitted by Cascabelero1985 on Sat, 2010-02-06 16:43
in

Brown, D. E., T. C. Brennan, and P. J. Unmack. 2007. A Digitized Biotic Community Map for Plotting and Comparing North American
Plant and Animal Distributions. Cantoia 3(1): 1-12

Abstract: An ecologically based classification system, when accompanied by digitized biotic community maps, has been shown to be useful for plotting and assessing plant and animal affinities in the American Southwest and northwestern Mexico. Because plant distributions are closely tied to climatic and environmental parameters, biotic community maps can be especially informative when delineating and describing vegetative communities and plant species distributions. We have therefore expanded the classification system and prepared a digitized, ecologically based color map of North America’s biotic communities to assess plant distributions on continental as well as regional scales.

Key Words: ArcMap, biogeography, biotic community, GIS, habitat map, plant distribution, vegetation, vegetation map.

Syndicate content