Rare Plant Treasure Hunt

Johnson's pineapple cactus (Sclerocactus johnsonii), CNPS list 2.2. © Amber Swanson and CNPS

Spring Season Summary

The CNPS Rare Plant Treasure Hunt was awarded a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to collect rare plant and vegetation data on BLM lands in the Mojave Desert and Carrizo Plain and has already had many successes this spring! Seventy-five volunteers from all over California and the Western U.S. were able to see thousands of native wildflowers in bloom and gain a greater appreciation of the arid lands of California. One participant remarked, “I will never look at the desert in the same way again!”

Among them, they took a total of 22 trips (44 field days) and logged more than 550 volunteer hours. They helped discover and update more than 195 new and historic rare plant occurrences, which included rare cacti, poppies, monkeyflowers and desert mallows. In all 34 separate rare plant species were found. One rare plant in particular, Johnson’s Pineapple Cactus (Sclerocactus johnsonii) was found in an area where it had been not documented since 1941!

Our efforts also made an impact on solar energy site decisions. In a recent field trip to a proposed solar energy site at the El Paso Alluvial Plain near Ridgecrest, California volunteers created a list of the site’s flora. This list was then cited by a biologist for the California Energy Commission in his recommendation to not build on there, partially due to the presence of preferred Desert Tortoise food found onsite. This energy site has now been taken off “fast track” status.

The data that was collected this spring will be entered into the Department of Fish and Game’s California Natural Diversity Data Base (CNDDB) and shared with agencies and partners to aid in conservation and land management. A small number of rare plants were also collected to be pressed and deposited in California Herbaria for future research.

Throughout the summer and fall seasons this project will continue to yield data valuable to conservation and will help the public become better stewards of their land. For more information about the Rare Plant Treasure Hunt and photos of rare plants in the Mojave desert and Carrizo Plain visit, www.rareplanttreasurehunt.blogspot.com and www.flickr.com/photos/rareplanttreasurehunt. To get involved email us at treasurehuntcnps.org.