CNDDB News Blog

View of Mt. Shasta from the cliffs above Castle Lake. CDFW photo by Kristi Lazar.

High up on the granitic cliffs overlooking Castle Lake near Mt Shasta hides a beautiful little plant that is rarely seen by hikers. This plant is a local endemic called the Castle Crags harebell (Campanula shetleri). This species is known from fewer than 10 occurrences in the Castle Crags area and nearly all of those occurrences were last documented in the 1970s and 1980s!

Two CNDDB botanists recently had the opportunity to visit a population of Castle Crags harebell during a botany workshop organized by the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium. One of our two instructors for the workshop, Heath Bartosh, led a small group of botanical enthusiasts up the steep, north-facing granitic cliffs above Castle Lake and Heart Lake to search for this elusive plant. As we spread out and searched the precarious cliffs, a fellow botanist yelled out that they had found the Castle Crags harebell near the top of the ridge! Everyone excitedly rushed over to the rocky crevices where this small blue-flowered plant was living to take photos and notes documenting the population. While finding this plant was an absolute joy, so was the view that greeted us as we looked up from where the plants were growing to see Mt Shasta and Black Butte in the distance and the waters of Heart Lake and Castle Lake below.

If you find yourself stumbling along granitic cliffs in the Castle Crags area, keep an eye out for the Castle Crags harebell and submit your observation to CNDDB via our Online Field Survey Form.

If you find yourself craving botanical adventures, consider participating in the workshops organized by the Friends of the Jepson Herbarium. You never know what cool and unusual plants you may see!

Castle Crags harebell (Campanula shetleri) in the granitic cliffs above Castle Lake. CDFW photo by Kristi Lazar.

Today we celebrate our reptilian friends the lizard. We came across this wise lizard that had some words of wisdom for us:

We are kin, scales of keratin.
Spiky and rough, but it's been tough.
Report for support.
-W. F. Lizard

We think this lizard is saying, if you come across any of the 24 CNDDB tracked lizards (PDF), to let us know by submitting your findings through our Online Field Survey Form. If you snap a handsome photo of them like this one of W. F. Lizard, it may also be featured in our next Photo of the Month!

Picture a thistle. What do you see? Do you imagine the yellow star-thistle blanketing dry hillsides in the late summer? Or perhaps the bull thistle, with its fat magenta flower heads and spines on every surface?

We tend to think of thistles as noxious weeds, unwanted invaders, and eyesores. But did you know that California is also home to 19 species of beautiful native thistles, 7 of which are endemic to our state? They may be spiky and sharp, but they are an integral part of many California ecosystems, from ocean dunes to mountain peaks. Thistles also produce a lot of nectar which makes them an important food source for native bumblebees, butterflies, and other pollinators!

Most of the native plants we would call thistles fall into the genus Cirsium, in the Asteraceae family. Some species of Eryngium also have the common name “coyote thistle” as they have a spiky growth form and similar-looking flowers, but they’re actually in the carrot family (Apiaceae) instead of Asteraceae!

Of the 14 Cirsiums that are CNPS-listed as rare species, 4 are federally endangered and 1 is extinct. The one extinct thistle, known as the Lost Thistle (Cirsium praeteriens), was collected near Palo Alto by J. W. Congdon in 1897 and 1901 but it was never seen again.

CNDDB staff had the opportunity to accompany the CDFW drone team and Native Plant Program to look for the federally endangered Suisun thistle on CDFW lands in the Delta. There are only a few occurrences of the Suisun thistle, and it grows in salt marshes with thick vegetation that makes it difficult to thoroughly survey on foot. However, drones can fly overhead and thoroughly photograph a site from the air. More and more botanists are turning to drones to survey areas inaccessible to humans, and drone surveys in Hawaii even rediscovered a plant thought to be extinct. We flew drones over a known population as well as a nearby marsh with suitable habitat, to see if it is possible to use the drones to identify new Suisun thistle populations, or to monitor existing populations. The results of this survey are still being analyzed, but if successful it could be an exciting new tool for plant conservation in California.

If you’d like to learn more about these misunderstood plants, check out the Xerces Society’s native thistle guide for more information about the native thistles of North America and their conservation value.

As always, if you spot one of our rare native thistles, fill out an Online Field Survey Form and snap a photo for a chance for your picture to be featured as our Photo of the Month!

Photo caption: Top: Western thistle (Cirsium occidentale) flower head; Middle right: The federally endangered Suisun thistle (Cirsium hydrophilum var. hydrophilum) grows in Delta salt marshes; Bottom left: Brownie thistle (Cirsium quercetorum) in bloom; Bottom right: Native bumblebee pollinating a Brewer’s swamp thistle (Cirsium douglasii var. breweri) 
Photo credit: Top: Kristi Lazar; Middle right: Rachel Powell; Bottom left: Kristi Lazar; Bottom right: Katie Ferguson