Yearly Archives: 2013

Great Basin Bristlecone Pine

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Great Basin Bristlecone pines are remarkable for their great age and their ability to survive adverse growing conditions. In fact, it seems one secret to their longevity is the environment in which most bristlecone pines grow.

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This tree most often grows where conditions are harsh, with cold temperatures, a short growing season and high winds. The examples I saw today were high atop Mount Charleston. Trees in these high-elevation environments grow very slowly and in some years don’t even add a ring of growth.

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This slow growth makes their wood very dense and resistant to insects, fungi, rot and erosion. Vegetation is very sparse, limiting the role of fire. Bristlecone pine seeds are occasionally cached by birds at lower elevations.

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While they grow more rapidly in more “favorable” environments at lower elevations, they do not achieve their legendary age or fascinating twisted shapes.

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Not only are they cool to look at, bristlecone pine is the longest lived tree species in the world — a few are known to have lived for over 5,000 years.

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I set my sights on finding a particular Bristlecone Pine in Nevada that is over 3,000 years old. The six mile round-trip hike was at times at elevations of over 11,000 feet. I finally did get to meet up with that tree.

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Giant Carolina Wolf Spider

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Driving remote roads at night, I can see the green reflections from the eyes of large invertebrates on the pavement.

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Wolf Spiders do not build webs to catch their food. Instead they use their vision and their sensivity to vibrations to hunt for prey.

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This creature has eight eyes that are arranged in three rows. The bottom row has four small eyes, the middle row has two very large eyes and the top row has two medium-sized eyes.

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This is a pretty large spider – with a three to four inch legspan.  It may hunt actively at night or wait in ambush at the mouth of its burrow, where it hides during the day. Wolf Spiders are unique among their species because the females carry their eggs along with them in a round silken egg sack attached to their abdomens.

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Immediately after the babies hatch and emerge from their protective case, they climb up their mother’s legs like a ladder and all crowd together on her back. Here they’ll stay for a few weeks until they’re large enough to hunt on their own.

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Arroyo Toad

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I took a road trip to Barstow, California. Some friends there agreed to help me look for a Federally Endangered amphibian that I’ve never seen in the wild  – the Arroyo Toad.

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The reasons for this toad’s decline are similar to the plight of many amphibians – their specialized habitat is being damaged by water management practices, pollution and invasive species.

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When darkness fell, we searched the creek with headlamps. California Toads, American Bullfrogs (an invasive species) and Baja California Treefrogs were found. Although it took awhile, we eventually found Arroyo Toads too.

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They are a medium-sized toad that is plump and stocky with dry, uniformly warty skin. The advertisement call of the Arroyo Toad is a fast musical trill, about 10 seconds, rising in pitch, and ending abruptly. We were able to hear a few calling in the night.

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Adults eat a wide variety of invertebrates, but mostly consume ants, especially nocturnal, trail-forming tree ants. So insuring that an animal has its food source is important in managing wild populations.

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Arroyo Toads have extremely specialized habitat needs, including exposed sandy streamsides with stable areas for burrowing and scattered vegetation for shelter.

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In addition, they need areas of quiet water or pools free of predatory fishes with sandy or gravel bottoms that do not contain silt. This is necessary for successful reproduction.

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Desert Iguana

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An adult desert iguana is large for a lizard, measuring head-to-tail 10-16 inches. The tail makes up most of the lizard’s length. Their genus is Dipsosaurus, which translates to “thirsty lizard.”

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Active in daylight, desert iguanas change color to regulate body temperature. They are darkest in the morning to absorb more heat from the sun, and they will turn nearly pure white by early afternoon to reflect sunlight. These lizards can stand hotter temperatures than most, remaining on 115º F days.

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Though desert iguanas seem to prefer open, relatively flat habitat, they rely heavily on the Creosote Bush in these areas for a number of needs. This plant provides some of the lizard’s diet (flowers), and the lizard burrows around and under the plant’s roots to avoid extreme temperatures and predators.

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I always enjoy seeing this large, heat-loving “classic” desert reptile.

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Screwbean Mesquite

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Perhaps the first thing you’ll notice about Screwbean Mesquite is the unusual spiral of the seed pods from which it takes its name.

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This is a medium-sized, spindly, many branched, thorny shrub with many straight, stout spines along the stems.

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Native Americans relied on the mesquite pod as a dietary staple from which they made tea, syrup and a ground meal called pinole.

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A favorite of bees and other insects (like this Tarantula Hawk), mesquite flowers produce a fragrant honey. Its pale to very bright yellow 2-to-3 inch spike blooms are produced from May to June.

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This is a cool plant to see, smell, taste and touch in person.

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Pinacate Beetle

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These shiny black beetles are common in the Southwest. They are called a number of other different names, such as desert stink beetles, clown beetles and headstanding beetles.

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When threatened, it will raise up on its back legs to stick its bottom in the air. This is a warning to stay back. For protection, it can emit a bad-smelling odor.

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Thickened, leathery wing-covers protect their delicate flight wings, which they do not use. Pinacate beetles are one of the great walkers of the desert beetle world and are often encountered, seemingly wandering at random.

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They occur across a variety of habitats, from open dunes to shrubs to mountains. There are several genera and over 1400 species of beetles similar to this one.

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Gila Spotted Whiptail

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Let’s see what’s up in the Las Vegas area this week, OK?

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Today I went to the Cerbat Mountains in Arizona and saw this reptile. This lizard is usually found in relatively open and sunny areas, often in the vicinity of pine trees. It is an alert, day active, fast-moving ground-dweller.

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It forages for a variety of insects and spiders by rooting around in leaves under bushes and digging in the soil around the bases of rocks.

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Whiptails have distinctive pointed heads and very long, whiplike tails.

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Here’s a pretty crazy thing about these reptiles: All Gila Spotted Whiptails are female. Eggs are unfertilized and hatchlings are clones of the mother.

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Pheasant’s Back Mushroom

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When out hiking recently I came across these large brackets growing out of dead trees. Their size (up to two feet across) and wild bird-like colors and patters were rather eye-catching.

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This large and distinctive fungus is not likely to be overlooked in nature. The radial bands of dark, flat scales on the upper surface of the cap make this species easy to identify, since there is nothing else quite like it in the forests of eastern North America.

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The underside of the shelf has large, irregularly-shaped, angular pores instead of gills. Most grow as a shelf-shaped or fan-shaped structure with a thick stem. Occasionally they grow as a complete circular, funnel-shaped mushroom.

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Like its relatives, Pheasant’s Back Mushroom plays an important role in breaking down the tough materials wood is made of and returning those nutrients to the soil. This is a key part of a forest’s recycling process.

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This organism is also known as Dryad’s Saddle. In Greek mythology, dryads were forest nymphs who were responsible for the trees and did not mingle with the other gods. They were depicted with oak-leave crowns and carried axes to protect their charges from intruders.

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This fungus is also pretty cool because it smells like watermelon!

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Rose-breasted Grosbeak

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The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is a medium-sized, stocky songbird with beautiful, bold plumage. It can be a tricky bird to find, as it often calls from treetops, but lately I’ve been spotting them.

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Its beak is large, thick and cone-shaped. It serves the bird by enabling it to eat wide varity of food items. The diet of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak varies between seasons, with a higher percentage of insects being taken warm weather. In the Winter, more seeds, fruits and buds are consumed.

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At the beginning of the breeding season the female grosbeak approaches a singing male, who in turn performs a courtship display involving flight and song. The pair is monogamous and builds a nest between May and June, with egg laying generally occurring between mid-May and July.

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Like many birds, the females aren’t as brightly colored as the males. They are not the best nest builders; Rose-breasted Grosbeaks build such flimsy nests that the eggs are often visible from below through the nest bottom.

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The Rose-breasted Grosbeak is relatively common throughout much of eastern and central North America and lives in forests and thickets, as well as alongside humans in parks and gardens.

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They are long-distance migrants. Rose-breasted Grosbeaks fly from North American breeding grounds to Central and northern South America in the Winter.

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Although often difficult to locate visually, its vocal abilities can often be heard. This bird’s sweet, robin-like song has inspired many a bird watcher to pay tribute to it. A couple of early twentieth-century naturalists said its call is “so entrancingly beautiful that words cannot describe it.”

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Wild Geranium

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“Geranium” is derived from the Greek word “geranos,” meaning crane. Though this name seems curious, it actually refers to the shape of the seed pod, not the flower. The papery seed capsules, which split lengthwise into five long peels, resemble a crane or stork.

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Typical habitat for this plant is in rich forests, fields, meadows and thickets. It is usually abundant in these locations. I’ve seen a fair number of them at several places I have visited.

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One of the most surprising and beautiful aspects of Wild Geranium is the color of its pollen. Unlike most wildflowers with traditionally yellow, orange, or white pollen, when viewed under a microscope Wild Geranium’s pollen is bright blue. This attracts a variety of insects which come to pollinate the flower.

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Upon pollination, the plant has adapted interesting and unique techniques for spreading its seeds. After the seed capsule has formed, it dries and begins to split. As it breaks open, the seeds are propelled into the air and can land as far as thirty-feet away from the seed pod.

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The seed’s journey, however, does not stop there. Each seed has “tail” which curls when dried and straightens when wet. The “tail” allows the seed to slowly creep a short distance before becoming stuck in a hole or crack.

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Early Native Americans recognized the value of Wild Geranium and used it as an ingredient in many medicinal treatments.

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Today, Wild Geranium extract is marketed as an anti-inflammatory and anti-hemorrhaging substance. It can be found in products sold in herbal stores and online.

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