Phoenix Chapter President: Co-Chairs Mike Plagens-email and Cass Blodgett-email Treasurer- Suzanne Cash, email or (602)942-0727 Meeting Reminders- Sandy Zetlan, email or (602)363-6098 Phoenix Chapter meetings are held in Webster Hall at the Desert Botanical Garden, 1201 North Galvin Parkway, on the second Tuesday of each month at 7:00pm from September to May. Please look for signs when entering garden or ask at the main gate. EVERYONE IS ENCOURAGED TO INITIATE A FIELD TRIP TO A FAVORITE PLACE. For Phoenix Chapter information contact Cass Blodgett or Mike Plagens.

JOIN OUR CHAPTER E-LIST:  To keep up with the latest, join the chapter e-list. You will be contacted about events, conferences, outings, workshops, and volunteer opportunities in our area. Don't forget to keep us updated on email address changes, as well as postal address changes. It will save AZNPS money! Send your request to Mike Plagens, email.

2011/12 Winter Programs

Tuesday, December 13, 2011   John Gunn:  Elephant Trees in Arizona

Elephant Trees are one of the most interesting plants in the Sonoran Desert.  They are sought out for their beauty, unusual form, and fragrant offering.  John Gunn, Conservation Resource Manager of Spur Cross Ranch, will discuss the habits and distribution of Bursera species in Arizona.

Tuesday, January 10,2012  David Morris: Ethnobotany of the Pima and Tohono O’odham

Explore the harvest of the desert with Native American naturalist David Morris.  Learn about the many uses of our desert plants and the biology that makes them useful.  Some plants have provided for people of the desert since prehistoric times.  Learn how plants of the Sonoran Desert were used for food, building, medicine and magic.

Tuesday, February 14,2012   Joe McAuliff: Long Lived Shrub Clones in the Sonoran Desert

Joe will present his recent research on long-lived shrub clones in the Sonoran Desert.  He has been working with giant Creosote Bush clones for more than a decade, but also has recently discovered giant, long-lived clones of a Wolfberry species in Baja California and in Arizona near Casa Grande.

Field Trip

Wednesday, Feb 29,2012     Pinal Creek and Haunted Canyon

There’s an extra day in 2012 so why not use it to go on a nature hike? This rather hidden location is accessed through a vast mining area west of Miami, Arizona.  This is in conjunction with the Audubon Club, so we will look early for birds then shift our attention to plants, wildflowers and insects as temperatures warm.  We’ll finish by 3:00 PM.  Contact Mike Plagens, email for reservations and details.

Reports of Field Trips

Wednesday, October 12, 2011: Box Canyon, Mineral Mountains, Florence AZ                  

This trip was organized by Maricopa Audubon, and also attended by Phoenix Chapter AZNPS members. A few spots along the Florence Highway from Mesa showed signs of green in the shrubs and ocotillos, but most spots looked brown and withered due to the general poor showing of the past summer’s rains. We found that Box Canyon was also exceedingly dry.  None-the-less our search for plants (and birds) was a pleasant experience.  All of the colorful walls of this deep canyon are covered with brilliant lichens and the sandy bottom is littered with car-sized boulders shed from above. The geology is mostly a very porous rhyolite that absorbs and releases water slowly to the benefit of a diverse flora.

Some of the interesting flora we found with open blooms included Snapdragon Vine (Maurandella antirrhiniflora), Spiny Haplopappus (Machaeranthera pinnatifida), Sand Mat (Chamaesyce spp.), a few Saguaros (yes! open bloom spotted by Laurie), and Deer Grass (Muhlenbergia rigens). We found many other species in vegetative state, some with just a few withered leaves. We challenged ourselves to name them with confidence.

As expected, Canyon Ragweed (Ambrosia ambrosioides) is common along the canyon. Many of the leaves were completely covered with blistered galls. Mike Plagens identified these as caused by gall mites in the family Eriophyidae. The mites live inside the blisters and are less than 1 mm.

 

Phoenix Chapter members of the expedition to Box Canyon:

Allan Ostling, Laurie Nessel, Ron Sigler and Mel

Saturday, October 29, 2011:Table Top Mountain, Sonoran Desert National Monument             

Four members of the Phoenix Chapter met at the Sonoran Desert National Monument to hike up Table Top Mountain.  This was a steep 2,000-foot elevation rise, 8-mile round trip hike.  We started our hike from the transition between the Lower Colorado Desert and the Sonoran Upland and ended up in chaparral grassland communities.  Lots of fun.  Conditions were very dry from the end of summer and early fall drought.  Some of the highlight finds include a single Hibiscus coulteri, lots of Tequilia canescens, two Penstemon psuedospectabilis, Acourtia nana, and plenty of Jatropha cardiophylla thriving in its northern most habitat.