2017 - Robert's botanical adventures in Northern California

[Robert]

Robert, have you any clue what kind of disease markings you observe on A. viscida? Is it a rust of some sort? Are these markings natural disease that occurs variably throughout its range?Could those be markings of residues of chemicals sprayed for management purposes?. From the image this far away I can't tell... If natural they are part of the diversity but if not....

Arturo,

I do not know what causes the scattered necrotic tissue on Arctostaphylos viscida. I am 62 years young, and have always noticed it. It seems to occur more frequently when there is wet spring weather or under very shaded conditions, but I also see it on plants in full sun. Not all species get it, and I have some old specimens of various species on the farm, including a specimen of Arctostaphylos viscida ssp. viscida with plenty of necrotic tissue on it every season. One thing I do know is that it is not a rust. It is also not chemical residue of any sort, unless it is a sensitivity to air pollution. This is a long shot possibility. Some forms of Arctostaphylos vicsida are very resistant.

I did check and found out that Oryzalin has not been used in the National Forest or on private forest lands in El Dorado County. Most likely what I see is natural genetic variation of some sort. After all, DNA replication is not perfect all the time. Our bodies all contain, obviously non-lethal, not very detrimental, flaws somewhere in our DNA. It is the same with plants. When I was actively breeding plants something spontaneously would always show up. One time a discovered a spontaneous auto-tetraploid in Cucurbita pepo in one of my grow outs, and sometimes I found valuable crossovers. It is so much fun breeding plants that I have started again. I wish that I had more room to work with vegetables as I kept some of my old ongoing projects mothballed. I have started some projects with much smaller plants.

Anyway, thank you for asking about the White-leaf Manzanitas. When I find the answer I will let you know. I could ask someone, but then I learn far more tracking down the answer myself. Getting the answer may take a while, as I have a long list of interesting and challenging questions I what to answer, such as many questions concerning the Arctostaphylos on Peavine Ridge.

[ian mcdonald]

Robert, just a thought, could your leaf disease be caused by insects? A gall perhaps?

[Robert]

Robert, just a thought, could your leaf disease be caused by insects? A gall perhaps?

Ian,

It appears to be fungal, but anything is possible.

[Robert]

I was at Ice House Reservoir, 5,488 feet (1,673 meters) on Wednesday. Ice House Reservoir is a few miles north of the central portion of Peavine Ridge in the Crystal Basin.



From the north shore of the reservoir, the southern end of the Crystal Range can be seen off to the east. It was another clear and warm day in the Sierra Nevada. The temperature was 55 F, 12.8 C, at 1:00 p.m. Over on Peavine Ridge it was 63 F, 17.2 C. This is well above average for this time of year.



On the south shore, the shaded banks are still covered with a shallow layer of snow. I was hoping to drive up the mountain to Wrights Lake, however in some shaded sites there was a considerable amount of ice on the road. I was driving a Prius; driving to Wrights Lake would make more sense with the Outback.



From the southwestern end of the reservoir there was a much better view of the Crystal Range. It was dead calm and the reflection of the Crystal Range off the water was very tranquil.

I hope to have an all day outing this coming week. Rain is forecast for Wednesday. This is welcome news, especially if the forecast holds. I will be more than happy to work my outing around some rainy weather. We need the rain!

[Robert]

The first day of winter and a beautiful day for an outing. I traveled to Kanaka Valley in El Dorado County.

This is a nice view of the Crystal Range (to the east) from the top of a ridge.



It was a breezy day, especially in the Sacramento Valley. This is a view to the west and the Sacramento Valley and the coastal mountains in the background. The tall buildings in Sacramento can be seen.

There is much to do with the holidays. I will write up a report on this outing as I can.

[hamparstum]

Robert, is the blue seen at the distance reflect a reservoir, perhaps Folsom reservoir? I googled the map , trying to get an impression of your view and the direction looking west of your pic. I would have expected much more snow cover in your recent pics! At least the weather won't stop your next outings for now!

[Robert]

Robert, is the blue seen at the distance reflect a reservoir, perhaps Folsom reservoir? I googled the map , trying to get an impression of your view and the direction looking west of your pic. I would have expected much more snow cover in your recent pics! At least the weather won't stop your next outings for now!

Arturo,

Yes! The water in the photograph is Folsom Reservoir.  On this outing I ended up on the South Fork of the American River a short distance from Weber Creek (below Weber Creek).

Sadly, there is very little snow cover in the Sierra Nevada. We are quickly falling below average precipitation to date. As of today we have 8.07" at the farm; average is 10.43". In addition, the weather until the last 2 days has been far above average. It is possible that this December will be the warmest on record (not a good situation).

Anyway, I have much to explain about my latest outing. With the holidays it might take a bit of time. The geology of the area is quite interesting and the are a fair number of locally endemic rare plants. I even had a new find on this outing!  very There is much to write about!

Another interesting thing. If you check some of my listings on Calflora and the site is near a paved road, you can use Google map to get a panorama view like you are driving in a car. This can give a good impression of what things look like. You may even be able to "drive" down Kanaka Valley Road!

If I have the opportunity, I will go out rain or shine. 

[Hoy]

Robert,

It has taken me some days to read through all  your adventures and all the comments on your site.

Seems the winter still is far away over there. Here it was winter the first 1/2 of December when I was away, now it is blowing and raining again and 10C/50F here at the coast. It is much snow in our mountains though, not like yours!

[Robert]

Rhododendron occidentale

Arturo,

This is an example of R&D in our garden. This form of Rhododendron occidentale is from the Feather River canyon. They are from a hot exposed, semi-exposed site where summer temperatures are routinely 40 C or more. All the selected clones thrive in our Sacramento garden. The coastal race of R. occidentale grows very poorly (if at all) in hot interior California. In addition, the flowers of all the selected clones bloom 6 weeks earlier than other forms of R. occidentale from the Sierra Nevada mountains. This selections process has been repeated, and continues to be repeated, with many other species in our garden. If I have time, I will transfer some of my old photographs from my old laptop computer with some of my west coast lily seed lines. If you are interested I can post them for you to see.

[Robert]

Robert,

It has taken me some days to read through all  your adventures and all the comments on your site.

Seems the winter still is far away over there. Here it was winter the first 1/2 of December when I was away, now it is blowing and raining again and 10C/50F here at the coast. It is much snow in our mountains though, not like yours!

Hi Trond,

The 7 day GFS forecast is very discouraging. There is no rain in sight. Unless things change quickly we will be back in drought conditions. At least the weather has turned seasonally cool.

[Leucogenes]

Hi Robert

A question occupies me already very long. Are you on your wanderings mostly alone? Since I ask myself whether you already had meetings with big animals...for example Puma concolor or Ursus americanus.

A question of a former big-city person. 😉

Thomas

[Robert]

Hi Thomas,

Yes, 99% of the time I wander in the mountains by myself. I grew up this way. I see Mountain Lions and Black Bears often enough. I even got a photograph of a Black Bear this summer and posted it on the forum. When I did some work in the Rubicon River canyon back in 2002-3, I saw Mountain Lions frequently (at least for Mountain Lions, they do not like to be seen).

[Robert]

More examples of R&D in our garden and up at the farm.



A nice Lilium parryi hybrid.



A Lilium kelloggii hybrid.



A Lilium parvum var. hollidayi hybrid.    Yes, it looks exactly like Lilium parvum var. hollidayi. Why plunder wild stocks of this rare El Dorado County endemic when you can grow a hybrid that looks exactly the same and is much easier to grow and maintain in the garden?

All of the above projects have been mothballed until now. The next step is to create seed lines that breed true to variety using traditional plant breeding techniques.

[hamparstum]

Robert,
      I do grow some Rhodo's in my place and just today as I was getting myself ready to send in my Seedex request, I felt that I needed to improve my understanding of that genus. What I don't have is any outdoor Rhododendron that is deciduous and could also provide fall colour. Now with your posting I'm prompted to ask from you, some seed of your garden developed R.Occidentale strains. Although my place doubtfully will reach a summertime high of 40șC, it still is dry enough so summer dryness adaptation is a must. Rhodo's is definitely a must, in particular when one is looking at leaf colour, texture and form, many which are year long attractions!
Needless to say each one of your lilies is very beautiful. I agree absolutely with the unneeded plundering of wild populations

 Lilium parvum var. hollidayi hybrid.    Yes, it looks exactly like Lilium parvum var. hollidayi. Why plunder wild stocks of this rare El Dorado County endemic when you can grow a hybrid that looks exactly the same and is much easier to grow and maintain in the garden?

All of the above projects have been mothballed until now. The next step is to create seed lines that breed true to variety using traditional plant breeding techniques.
[/quote ]
When any of your lilies set seed and you have extra available I would love to start my local population of any of these!

[Robert]

Arturo,

Remember Rhododendron occidentale is a mesic species. They also have very fragrant flowers. I feel sure that the interior California forms of this species will thrive in your garden. They will all be plenty cold hardy for your climatic conditions. Over the past 3 plus decades, I have done considerable work plotting the distribution of R. occidentale both in El Dorado County, California, but also in much of interior northern California. I am well aware of the high elevation limit of the species in El Dorado County, California. This might interest you too. I have also discovered some unique variations of this species in El Dorado County.

Rhododendron occidentale is just one example of the practical horticultural application of knowledge grained from all of my outings over many years. I down loaded some of my photographs from my 15 April 2004 outing to the North Fork of the Feather River in Northern California to my main laptop computer. Within the next month I will make a posting of this outing and the practical results to date.

The West Coast Lilies is one example of how knowledge gained from my outings is being used to create interspecific hybrids. During the 1990’s I did considerable work in Northwestern California where there are many native Lilium species.



I gathered seed from a plant of Lilium pardalinum ssp. pardalinum near Takilma, Oregon (Southwestern Oregon near the California border). This is one of the resulting seedlings. There can be considerable variation and even mixing of the species in this part of Northwestern California – Southwestern Oregon. This plant resembles Lilium columbianum. This batch of seed produced a widely assorted batch of seedlings, some of which resembled Lilium pardalinum. Most likely this is the result of chance hybridization in the wild.

Lastly, my intraspecific breeding is starting to yield results. There is very little knowledge of the genome of most of our California native plant species. The potential seems infinite. Some species appear to have very little genetic variation, while the variance within most species seems considerable. There is a huge potential to create superior horticultural varieties through intraspecific breeding – and with negligible affect on native populations!



This is a better example of the autumn color on the Feather River forms of Rhododendron occidentale. The autumn color (on most species) in our Sacramento garden was not very good this year. It was far too warm.