For 10 months, Jon Rebman roamed the wilds of Baja on a kind of botanical treasure hunt for plants that hadn’t been seen in a century.
He found 50 rare plants “that may have been collected once in history, a hundred years ago… on the Baja Peninsula,” said Rebman, curator of botany for
the San Diego Natural History Museum.
Rebman sought the missing species as part of an exhaustive effort to catalog the plants in the region. The results will be published in a few weeks in
a 350-page tome listing everything known to grow in Baja. On Tuesday, Rebman will talk about his research and the expedition, as part of the museum’s
NATtalks lecture series.
The project started in the museum’s herbarium, a carefully preserved collection of a quarter of a million botanical specimens. Rebman, his staff and
volunteers combed through those specimens to develop a definitive list of the plants of Baja
Among the plants they knew from the region, they found examples of species they hadn’t seen before. In fact, they were pretty sure no one had seen
these unknown plants in a very long time.
“By putting that huge publication together of everything we know about the plants of Baja California, a lot of things turned up that we didn’t know
were in Baja,” Rebman said. “I ended up going to La Paz, (Mexico) to look for these lost species.”
The Natural History Museum focuses on the evolution and diversity of southern California and the peninsula of Baja California, and its scientists have
explored the region extensively. In 2014, a group of museum researchers joined Mexican colleagues for a two-week trek through the Sierra de las
Cacachilas, a small, remote mountain range near La Paz
Last year, Rebman took that a step further and moved to La Paz for 10 months, making frequent trips through surrounding forests and mountains to
collect specimens and pursue the lost plants.
On one of those hikes, he explored the Sierra El Taste, a lush forest with an unusual mix of trees.
“The area is beautiful, stunning, tropical deciduous forest,” he said. “It has oaks everywhere, but between the oaks are palms. It’s oak-palm forest.”
There he found Sabazia purpusii, a small, purple blossom in the sunflower family that grows only in those mountains, and had not been collected since
1901.
Other treks took him to the Sierra de la Giganta region, where vast autumnal lakes fill with rainfall in the fall, but fade to dry basins in other
seasons. When the lakes recede, rare flowers bloom, including a small, spiky white flower, the Trichocoronis wrightii var. Wigginsii
“We hiked around for two days and didn’t find it,” Rebman said. “All of a sudden we found a population of 13 plants. And that’s it. It is a cute
little species.”
Rebman said he’s unsure whether those 13 flowers are the last remaining blossoms of the ephemeral flower. If so, they’re at dire risk from the sheep,
goats and cattle that graze the basin.
“Unfortunately, it seems to come off of the autumnal lake to flower, and anything that comes up is being eaten by the livestock,” he said. “So I’m
really worried about the future of this species.”
By documenting rare plants with photos and specimens, Rebman hopes to confirm their location and conservation status. Eventually that could lead to
research on their possible uses.
“These are very, very rare things; we don’t know if they’re extinct or not,” he said. “We don’t know if they’ll exist in the future. We have no idea
if these have any benefit to humanity… None of that has ever been looked at.”
Rebman will deliver his lecture on the lost plants of Baja at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, at the San Diego Natural History Museum. The “NATtalks” lectures are
$9 for members and $12 for non-members.
Anyone been to the Sierra El Taste? If so, can you post photos?
Not yet !!! That article had me getting on GE to check it out....exploring south of San Bartolo sounds like a trip to do...now, to just find some
rough roads bacquito - 9-20-2016 at 03:57 PM
Yes, interesting4x4abc - 9-20-2016 at 09:43 PM
could not find Sierra El Taste - where is it?motoged - 9-20-2016 at 11:27 PM
[Edited on 9-21-2016 by motoged]BajaBlanca - 9-21-2016 at 04:32 AM
I have a Mexican friend who is a hiker and I bet she has done it since she seeks out the hard to get places. I will check and see if I can get some
photos.
I sure wish I had been able to hear that botanist talk.4x4abc - 9-21-2016 at 06:43 PM
thanks, I found the same link a few days ago
however, it shows an Arroyo, not a peak as claimed
the Mexican topo does not show any matching information for that area
F12B24
since the author of the paper was exploring the Walmart eco reserve Las Cacachilas, my guess would be, that the Sierra El Taste is in that same area http://www.ranchocacachilas.com/
the description of oak and palm trees fit the area well
