More Germination of Annuals

We had some welcome rain on November 20. I had been waiting for this, and I had quite a few annual seeds to spread around, including Lupinus succulentus, Layia platyglossa, Collinsia heterophylla, and several others. In addition, there were lots of seeds in the soil from annuals I have grown the past few years. As I write this, rain is coming down again, giving us hope for a flowery spring.

I posted previously about germination resulting from my watering of some areas, but after last week's rain they are coming up everywhere. I'm not real good at identifying seedlings, but I'm working on it. This first one I've decided is Clarkia unguiculata.

I'm guessing these are cotyledons because they do not resemble the adult leaves. In the area that I watered before, the plants have grown enough to tell what they are (below) . Also, they are growing so densely that I'm going to have to thin them. This plant gets pretty large for an annual.

The next one is miner's lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata. I have learned to recognize this one at its very early stages because I've had it for more than 5 years.

The next two are mysteries to me. The seedlings in the first photo could be from the seeds I recently bought or they could be Sidalcea malviflora that I grew here last year.

The next one is the bigger mystery. The cotyledons look like a Fabaceae, but I don't recall buying any Fab seeds. The other possibility is Asclepias eriocarpa which I collected from the Mojave desert a couple of years ago. I just don't know if this is what Asclepias seedlings look like. It will be fun to see what they turn into.

Lastly, an Isocoma menziesii decided to bloom this week. I have several of these and all the rest are going dormant, but this one isn't ready to go to sleep yet.

Constancea nevinii

In the Channel Islands section of my garden, Constancea nevinii is blooming right now. The common name is Nevin's woolly sunflower. This seems an unusual time for it to bloom since it had bloomed in the spring and I haven't watered it since then.

This member of the Asteraceae (aster or sunflower family) is native only to the Channel islands. Since my garden is pretty close to the beach, the environment in my garden is a good approximation of the island setting. The plant quite clearly likes where I have planted it among other Channel Islands species such as Leptosyne gigantea and Dendromecon harfordii. Starting as a one-gallon container, it has now taken over all the space that I will allow it to. In the photo below you see it underneath a very large Santa Cruz Island ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus asplenifolius).

Here's a better look at the beautiful, lacy foliage and the seed heads from the spring bloom.

The California Native Plant Society gives it a ranking of 1B.3 which means very rare in the wild. However, it is commonly available at native plant nurseries. I find it to be easy to grow and relatively drought tolerant at the coast. I don't know how it would perform in warmer inland locations.

Mammillaria in Fruit

One of the things I have been interested in lately is the timing of flowering and fruiting of M. dioica. I have blogged before about this cactus in my garden. I gave it some water in late September or early October, and it flowered by October 16. On Nov. 8 I first noticed that it had produced two fruit. Here's that photo:

Today it has 5 fruit and the last of the flowers is finishing up.

Based on this extremely small sample, it appears that M. dioica growing on the coast can bloom within 2-4 weeks after receiving water. It then goes to fruit 3-6 weeks after that.

I believe that this is quite different from tetrancistra which can delay fruiting for several months. Dioica in the desert may also behave differently. My next question is whether these fruit have viable seeds. If there are seeds, how easily do they germinate?

Baja Succulents Going Through Some Changes

Three of my Baja plants recently experienced some changes in their status. Two of these were very good changes. One remains to be seen.

The first one is coast hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus maritimus maritimus) that has decided to bloom in November. I have seen this plant in the wild on Punta Banda just south of Ensenada, and it was blooming profusely. But flowering is a rare event for the one in my garden, so I'm super excited about it.

The Echinocereus genus is commonly called hedgehog cactus because of its resemblance to the small, shy, spiny European mammal. There are six taxa of Echinocereus native to California, all from the interior deserts. In contrast, maritimus is found only along the coast from Ensenada southward. The wild plants I've seen were large mounds, not very tall but 3-6 ft. in diameter. Rebman and Roberts say that it prefers sea air and sedimentary soils, both of which I have, so it appears to be very happy. I've had this plant 20+years. It started as a single stem. It now has 22 stems, so it has added a stem per year, on average. Maritimus is the only species of Echinocereus in Baja that produces a yellow flower, and mine has probably bloomed 5-10 times since I've had it. I don't know what its pollinator is, and I don't think I have ever seen mine produce fruit. Maybe it will flower more often now that it has reached a more mature size.

The second plant that is changing is Dudleya candida. This lovely succulent is endemic to the Coronados Islands, just south of the border, and I have had a couple of them for about 10 years. I've never been to the Coronados, so I've never seen candida in the wild. Like the Echincereus, it seems quite happy in my garden. In fact, I have them planted almost side-by-side. The change that is happening now is a new rosette emerging right at the base of the Echinocereus.

This is the second time my D. candida have produced offspring (see my post of Sept. 29), and I don't know whether these babies are coming from seed or sprouting from the roots. I know that Dudleyas can produce pups around their base, but my two babies are several inches away from the base of the mother plants, so I'm inclined to think they are seedlings. In either case, it's a great sign whenever a plant is able to reproduce.

The third plant of this Baja trilogy is Dudleya pachyphytum. It is endemic to Cedros Island which is much further south. I have never been there either, but I was attracted to the somewhat unusual leaf morphology of this plant. The leaves are quite plump for a Dudleya. The prefix "pachy" refers to elephants, so one could say the leaves are elephantine. Of course, they swell and shrink depending on how much moisture is available to them.

I've had this one for somewhat less than 10 years. It has been growing happily in a pot, but recently the larger of its two stems broke off. This happens with some succulents, and it is often possible to get the broken off stem to re-root by laying it on the soil and leaving it undisturbed for awhile. So I'm going to try that and see if it works. The stem is also swollen, like a caudex, as you can see in the photo below.
























I did this successfully once before with a Cochemia poselgeri, another Baja cactus. Stems break off this species quite easily. When I accidentally broke one, I just laid it back on the soil and it eventually re-rooted. In the photo below, the large stem on the right is the one that broke off and re-rooted. So I'm optimistic about the pachyphytum.

Apparently these Dudleya species have become very popular in Asia, and poachers have been stealing them from Cedros Island and other places. Here's a link to an article about the problem.
https://www.mnn.com/your-home/organic-farming-gardening/stories/succulent-smuggling-ring-california-dudleya