Vegetation of the Mid Hills

Eastern Mojave Vegetation	The Vegetation of Lobo Point and North Wild Horse Mesa, Mojave National Preserve, San Bernardino County, California. (Continued)
	Tom Schweich

Topics in this Article: Introduction Geography Geology Climate Methods Results Discussion Summary Literature Cited	Portions of this paper were originally presented at the 1995 Desert Research Sympoiums at the San Bernardino County Museum. My work in this area is ongoing and this paper has been updated as new information became available.
Locations: Lobo Point. My plot at LoboPoint	Summary The vegetation at Lobo Point is a desert scrub, consisting of Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum), Blackbush (Coleogyne ramosissima), Sticky Snakeweed (Gutierrezia microcephala), Ericameria (E. linearifolia and E. cooperi), Buckhorn Cholla (Opuntia acanthocarpa), Nevada Ephedra (Ephedra nevadensis), Turpentine Broom (Thamnosma montana), and Blue Yucca (Yucca baccata). The appearance of this vegetation is shown in Figure 1-4.
	The scrub is similar to blackbush scrub, which can be problematic in definition, but is often found in the Mojave Desert above the creosote bush scrub and below the pinyon-juniper woodland. Several species are consistently associated with a wash habitat, particularly Desert Almond (Prunus fasciculata), Woolly Bursage (Ambrosia eriocentra), Purple Sage (Salvia dorrii), Bladder Sage (Salazaria mexicana), and Catclaw (Acacia greggii).
Locations: Wild Horse Mesa.	A pinyon-juniper woodland, with Pinyon (Pinus monophylla) and Utah Juniper (Juniperus osteosperma), is found in the sheltered north-facing valleys at Lobo Point and North Wild Horse Mesa. Wright's Buckwheat (Eriogonum wrightii), Green Ephedra (Ephedra viridis) and Desert Bitterbrush (Purshia glandulosa) are often found in association with pinyons and junipers.
Relative proportion of types of vegetation by elevation in the vicinity of Lobo Point and the Mid Hills. Relative proportion of types of vegetation by elevation in the vicinity of Lobo Point and the Mid Hills.	A diagram of biotic zonation in the Mid Hills is shown in Figure 1-5. Usually these diagrams show vegetation in neat horizontal layers, with one type vegetation above another. However, my data shows that the vegetation in the vicinity of Lobo Point is not found in nice, neat layers.
Literature Cited: - Raven, Peter H. and Daniel I. Axelrod, 1978. Locations: Columbia Mountain. Mid Hills.	Perhaps the unusual form of this diagram is a reflection of vegetation zonation resulting from topography of the Mid Hills. However, it is also interesting to speculate that it may result from the Mid Hills' position in the eastern Mojave mountain ranges containing a jumble of Californian, Sonoran, and Great Basin floristic regions with Rocky Mountain influences (Raven and Axelrod, 1978). My continuing work of systematically sampling vegetation in the Columbia Mountain quadrangle, and studying the distribution of species found in the Mid Hills is aimed at exploring these issues.
	Literature Cited A list of all literature cited by this web site can be found in the Bibliography.
	Bailey, D. K. 1988. The Single-needle Pinyons - One Taxon or Three?. pp. pp. 1-18. in Hall, Clarence A., Jr and Victoria Doyle-Jones (Eds.). 1988.. The Mary DeDecker Symposium. University of California, White Mountain Research Station.. Plant Biology of Eastern California.
	Bradley, W. G., and J. E. Deacon. 1967. The biotic communities of southern Nevada. Nevada State Museum Anthropological Paper. 13(4).
	Callison, James, and Jack D. Brotherson. 1985. Habitat relationships of the Blackbrush community (Coleogyne ramosissima) of southwestern Utah. Great Basin Naturalist. 45(2):321-326.
	Cody, Martin L. and Henry J. Thompson. 1986. Distribution and Morphology of Happlopappus Hybrids (Asteraceae: Astereae) in the Mojave Desert. Madroño. 33(4):237-243.
	Cody, M. L. 1986a. Spacing patterns in Mojave Desert plant communities: near-neighbor analysis. Journal of Arid Environments. 11: 199-217. {TAS}
	Comstock, J. P., T. A. Cooper, and J. R. Ehleringer. 1988. Seasonal patterns of canopy development and carbon gain in nineteen warm desert shrub species. Oecologia (Berlin). 75(3):327-335. {TAS} [Ecophysiology Lab, Department of Biology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA]
	Everett, R. L.. (Compiler). 1987. Proceedings -- Pinyon-juniper conference, Reno, NV. January 13-16, 1986.. Intermountain Research Station General Technical Report INT-215. 581 p.
	Garcia-Moya, Edmundo, and Cyrus M. McKell. 1970. Contribution of shrubs to the nitrogen economy of a desert-wash plant community. Ecology. 51(1):81-88.
	Hendrickson, J., and B. Prigge. 1975. White fir in the mountains of eastern Mojave Desert of California. Madroño. 23: 164-168.
	Hickman, James C. (Ed.). 1993. The Jepson manual: higher plants of California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press..
	Hurst, Willaim D. 1977. Managing Pinyon-Juniper for Multiple Benefits. Ecology, uses, and management of pinyon-juniper woodlands: Proceedings of the workshop. USDA For. Serv. Gen. Tech. Rep. RM-39. Fort Collins, CO 80521: Rocky Mt. For. and Range Exp. Stn. 48 p.
	Lei, Simon A. and Lawrence R. Walker. 1997a. Classification and ordination of Coleogyne communities in southern Nevada. Great Basin Naturalist. 57(2):155-162.
	Lei, Simon A., and Lawrence R. Walker. 1997b. Biotic and abiotic factors influencing the distribution of Coleogyne communities in southern Nevada. Great Basin Naturalist. 57(2):163-171.
	Lei, Simon A. 1977. Variation in germination response to temperature and water availability in blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) and its ecological significance. Great Basin Naturalist. 57(2):172-177.
	McLaughlin, Steven P. 1995. Floristic Relationships of the Eastern Mojave Desert: a Quantitative Analysis of Local Floras. Crossosoma. 21(2):57-74. {TAS}
	Phillips, Edwin A., Kaaren K. Page, and Sandra D. Knapp. 1980. Vegetational characteristics of two stands of Joshua tree woodland. Madroño. 27(1):43-47.
	Raven, Peter H. and Daniel I. Axelrod. 1978. Origin and relationships of the California flora. University of California. Publications in Botany. 72. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. {TAS}
	Sawyer, John O., and Todd Keeler-Wolf. 1995. A Manual of California Vegetation. Sacramento, CA: California Native Plant Society. 471 p.
	Schoenherr, Allan A. 1992. A Natural History of California. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. {TAS} 772 p.
	Schweich, Thomas A. 1995. The vegetation of Lobo Point and North Wild Horse Mesa, Eastern Mojave Desert, San Bernardino County, California. San Bernardino County Museum Association Quarterly. 42(3):93-98. {TAS}
	Trimble, Stephen. 1989. The Sagebrush Ocean. Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press. {TAS}
	Vasek, F. C., and M. G. Barbour. 1988. Mojave Desert scrub vegetation. pp. pp. 835-868 in Barbour, Michael G., and Jack Major. 1988. Terrestrial Vegetation of California, New Expanded Edition. Special Publication Number 9.. 1988. {TAS}
	Vasek, F. C., and R. F. Thorne. 1988. Transmontane coniferous vegetation. pp. pp. 797-832 in Barbour, Michael G., and Jack Major. 1988. Terrestrial Vegetation of California, New Expanded Edition. Special Publication Number 9. 1988.
	Walter, H. 1963. Climatic diagrams as a means to comprehend the various climatic types for ecological and agricultural purposes. pp. pp. 3-9 in Rutter, A. J., and F. H. Whitehead (Eds.). 1963.. A symposium of the British Ecological Society, London, 5-8 April 1961. The water relations of plants. London: Blackwell Scientific Publications, 1963.
	West, N. E., K. H. Rea, and R. J. Tausch. 1975. Basic synecological relationships in pinyon-juniper woodland. Proc. pinyon-juniper ecosystem: a symposium. Logan, Utah: Utah State Univ.
	Yeaton, R. I., R. W. Yeaton, J. P. Waggoner III and J. E. Horenstein. 1985. The ecology of Yucca (Agavaceae) over an environmental gradient in the Mohave Desert: distribution and interspecific interactions. Journal of Arid Environments. 8: 33-44.
	Zar, Jerrold H. 1996. Biostatistical Analysis, 3rd edition. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1996.

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Literature Cited