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Natural History Of California
The ecology of California can be understood by dividing the state into a number of ecoregions, which contain distinct ecological communities of plants and animals in a contiguous region. The ecoregions of California can be grouped into four major groups: desert ecoregions (such as the Mojave Desert), Mediterranean ecoregions (such as the Central Valley), forested mountains (such as the Sierra Nevada), and coastal forests. Different authorities define the boundaries of ecoregions somewhat differently: this article follows the definitions of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Deserts California's high mountains block most moisture from reaching the eastern parts of the state, which are home to California's desert and xeric shrub ecoregions. The low desert of southeastern California is part of the Sonoran desert ecoregion, which extends into Arizona and parts of northern Mexico. California has two high deserts: the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Natural History Of California
Allan A. Schoenherr (February 6, 1937 – May 31, 2021) was a Californian author, ecologist, and naturalist. He is the author of the widely used reference book, '' A Natural History of California''. He received his PhD in zoology at Arizona State University and taught a long-running course on natural history of California University of California, Irvine. He is emeritus professor of ecology in Fullerton College. He taught classes for the Desert Institute of the Joshua Tree National Park Association. An accomplished nature photographer, he has provided the photographs to illustrate his books and he has received two awards for his images of California Gray Whales. A lover of the outdoors, he has traveled, hiked, and photographed all over the world. He has been the naturalist on many shipboard excursions including trips to Iceland, Greenland, Russia, Alaska, the Arctic and the Antarctic, the lagoons of Baja California, the South Pacific, and the Caribbean. As a biology professor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Joshua Tree
''Yucca brevifolia'' is a plant species belonging to the genus ''Yucca''. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to the arid Southwestern United States, specifically California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, and to northwestern Mexico It is confined mostly to the Mojave Desert between elevation. It thrives in the open grasslands of Queen Valley and Lost Horse Valley in Joshua Tree National Park. Other regions with large populations of the tree can be found northeast of Kingman, Arizona in Mohave County; and along U.S. 93 between the towns of Wickenburg and Wikieup, a route which has been designated the Joshua Tree Parkway of Arizona. The common name Joshua tree apparently comes from Christian iconography. Taxonomy The Joshua tree is also called ''izote de desierto'' (Spanish, "desert dagger"). It was first formally described in the botanical literature as '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pinyon Pine
The pinyon or piñon pine group grows in southwestern North America, especially in New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The trees yield edible nuts, which are a staple food of Native Americans, and widely eaten as a snack and as an ingredient in New Mexican cuisine. The name comes from the Spanish ''pino piñonero'', a name used for both the American varieties and the stone pine common in Spain, which also produces edible nuts typical of Mediterranean cuisine. Harvesting techniques of the prehistoric American Indians are still used today to collect the pinyon seeds for personal use or for commercialization. The pinyon nut or seed is high in fats and calories. Pinyon wood, especially when burned, has a distinctive fragrance, making it a common wood to burn in chimeneas. Pinyon pine trees are also known to influence the soil in which they grow by increasing concentrations of both macronutrients and micronutrients. Some of the species are known to hybridize, the most notable ones be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Juniper
''Juniperus occidentalis'', known as the western juniper, is a shrub or tree native to the Western United States, growing in mountains at altitudes of and rarely down to . It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List because it is a widespread species with an increasing population. Description ''Juniperus occidentalis'' is a shrub or small tree tall. Exceptionally tall specimens can be found in the John Day area of Oregon in excess of tall. The shoots are of moderate thickness among junipers, at diameter. The juvenile leaves (on young seedlings only) are needle-like and long. Arranged in opposite decussate pairs or whorls of three, the adult leaves are scale-like, 1–2 mm long (5 mm on lead shoots) and 1–1.5 mm broad. The cones are berry-like, 5–10 mm in diameter, blue-brown with a whitish waxy bloom, and mature in about 18 months. The male cones are 2–4 mm long and shed their pollen in early spring. The plants are about half monoe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shadscale
''Atriplex confertifolia'', the shadscale or spiny saltbush, is a species of evergreen shrub in the family Amaranthaceae, which is native to the western United States and northern Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema .... Description The height of ''Atriplex confertifolia'' varies from . Shadscale fruits and leaves provide important winter browse for domestic livestock and native herbivores. Compared to fourwing saltbush ('' Atriplex canescens''), shadscale has shorter and wider leaves and the fruit does not have four wings (although it may have two wings in a "V" shape). This species blooms from March to June. Maximum osmotic pressure has been reported in Atriplex conf. where it is about 202.5 atm. Distribution and habitat Shadscale is a common, often dominant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Low Sagebrush
''Artemisia arbuscula'' is a North American species of sagebrush known by the common names little sagebrush, low sagebrush, or black sagebrush. It is native to the western United States from Washington, Oregon, and California east as far as Colorado and Wyoming. It grows in open, exposed habitat on dry, sterile soils high in rock and clay content. Description ''Artemisia arbuscula'' is a gray-green to gray shrub forming mounds generally no higher than . Its many branches are covered in hairy leaves each less than a centimeter long. The inflorescence is a spike-shaped array of clusters of hairy flower heads. Each head contains a few pale yellow disc florets but no ray florets. The fruit is a tiny achene less than a millimeter wide. ;Subspecies * ''Artemisia arbuscula'' subsp. ''arbuscula'' * ''Artemisia arbuscula'' subsp. ''longiloba'' (Osterh.) L.M.Shultz * ''Artemisia arbuscula'' subsp. ''thermopola'' Beetle - Idaho, Utah, Wyoming Wyoming () is a state in the Mount ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Big Sagebrush
''Artemisia tridentata'', commonly called big sagebrush,MacKay, Pam (2013), ''Mojave Desert Wildflowers'', 2nd ed., , p. 264. Great Basin sagebrush or (locally) simply sagebrush, is an aromatic shrub from the family Asteraceae, which grows in arid and semi-arid conditions, throughout a range of cold desert, steppe, and mountain habitats in the Intermountain West of North America. The vernacular name "sagebrush" is also used for Sagebrush (plant), several related members of the genus ''Artemisia (genus), Artemisia'', such as Artemisia californica, California sagebrush (''Artemisia californica''). Big sagebrush and other ''Artemisia'' shrubs are the Dominance (ecology), dominant plant species across large portions of the Great Basin. The range extends northward through British Columbia's southern interior, south into Baja California, and east into the western Great Plains of New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, and the Dakotas. Several major threats exist to sagebrush ecosystems, includ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Saltbush
Saltbush is a vernacular plant name that most often refers to '' Atriplex'', a genus of about 250 plants distributed worldwide from subtropical to subarctic regions. ''Atriplex'' species are native to Australia, North and South America, and Eurasia. Many ''Atriplex'' species are halophytes and are adapted to dry environments with salty soils. The genus ''Chenopodium'' is taxonomically a cousin of the genus ''Atriplex''. Certain chenopodiums may be called saltbushes, including '' C. robertianum'' and '' C. nutans''. ''Sarcobatus vermiculatus'', native to North America, is a halophyte plant, and is sometimes informally called a saltbush. File:Atriplex canescens habit.jpg, Four-winged saltbush (''Atriplex canescens'') File:Einadia hastata Brush Farm.JPG, '' Chenopodium robertianum'' berries File:Einadia nutans 1.jpg, '' Chenopodium nutans'' berries File:Sarcobatus vermiculatus (4018712194).jpg, Cone-like structures containing the female flowers of ''Sarcobatus vermiculatus'' See ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greasewood
Greasewood is a common name shared by several plants: * ''Adenostoma fasciculatum'' is a plant with white flowers that is native to Oregon, Nevada, California, and northern Baja California. This shrub is one of the most widespread plants of the chaparral biome. * '' Baccharis sarothroides'' is a shrub with tiny green blooms native to the Sonoran Desert of northern Mexico and the southwestern United States, commonly found in gravelly dry soils and disturbed areas. * '' Glossopetalon spinescens'' is a species of shrub known by the common names spiny greasewood and Nevada greasewood. The shrub is native to the western United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in mountainous habitats, often on limestone substrates. It has small white-petalled flowers in the leaf axils. * '' Gutierrezia'', generally called snakeweeds or matchweeds, annual, perennial, or shrub-like plants with white or yellow flowers, of western North America and western South America. * ''Larrea tridentata ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blackbrush
''Coleogyne ramosissima'' or blackbrush, is a low lying, dark grayish-green, aromatic,Turner, Raymond M. 1982. Great Basin desertscrub. In: Brown, David E., ed. Biotic communities of the American Southwest--United States and Mexico. Desert Plants. 4(1-4): 145–155. spiny, perennial, soft wooded shrub, native to the deserts of the southwestern United States.Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, p18, 252Canyon Country Wildflowers, Damian Fagan, p 3, 105 It is called blackbrush because the gray branches darken when wet by rains. It is in the rose family ( Rosaceae), and is the only species in the monotypic genus ''Coleogyne''. Growth pattern It has dense, intricate branches ("ramosissima" means "many branched"). Its dense branches form spiny tips. This plant forms vast pure stands across the desert floor and on scrubby slopes, giving the landscape a uniform dark-gray color. Vegetative types in which it dominates or is a codominate are called blackbrush scrub. It drops most o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creosote Bush
''Larrea tridentata'', called creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and ''gobernadora'' (Spanish for "governess") in Mexico, due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of nearby plants. In Sonora, it is more commonly called ''hediondilla''; Spanish ''hediondo'' = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name ''tridentata'' refers to its three-toothed leaves. Distribution ''Larrea tridentata'' is a prominent species in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America, and its range includes those and other regions in portions of southeastern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, and Chihuahua, Sonora, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Zacatecas, Durango and San Luis Potosì in Mexico. The species grows as far east as Zapata County, Texas, along the Rio Grande southeast of Laredo near the 99th meridian west. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
