Cal­i­for­nia poppy (Eschscholzia california)

It’s a dilemma faced by field researchers every­where: the need to study a par­tic­u­lar species, com­bined with uncer­tainty over where it occurs. Any­thing smaller than a oak tree and less com­mon than a robin can be fiendishly dif­fi­cult to find.

Now those seek­ing to locate par­tic­u­lar plants in the NRS can rejoice. The name of every species found within the 150,000 acres of the system—from giant coast red­woods (Sequoia sem­per­virens) to petite Cal­i­for­nia gold­fields (Las­the­nia cal­i­for­nica)—is on this com­pre­hen­sive list.

The Flora of the Uni­ver­sity of Cal­i­for­nia Nat­ural Reserve Sys­tem was com­piled by Brian P. Hag­gerty and Susan J. Mazer of the Depart­ment of Ecol­ogy, Evo­lu­tion, and Marine Biol­ogy, UC Santa Bar­bara. They con­sulted exist­ing plant lists for each of the reserves, cor­rect­ing and updat­ing spelling and tax­on­omy along the way.

Calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa)

The list is in the form of an Excel spread­sheet, allow­ing users to iden­tify at a glance where their species of inter­est grow. A com­pan­ion pdf includes lists of the species found on the most reserves as well as the num­ber of plant species at each reserve. Only four reserves are not rep­re­sented in the flora—Box Springs, Emer­son Oaks, Jenny Pygmy For­est, and Yosemite Field Sta­tion, for which species lists were not available.

Cholla cac­tus (Opun­tia sp.)

The list sta­tis­tics are impres­sive. A total of 3,300 plant species—almost half of the more than 6,880 found across the entire state—grow within the bound­aries of the reserves.  The reserve with the most plant bio­di­ver­sity, at 639 species, is Boyd Deep Canyon. The plants found in the largest num­ber of reserves are red-stemmed fila­ree and awned fes­cue, one non-native and the other native.

North­west crim­son columbine (Aqui­le­gia formosa)

The impe­tus behind the plant list is the Cal­i­for­nia Phe­nol­ogy Project. The project aims to track phe­nom­ena such as plant ranges, flow­er­ing dates, and other data to assess cli­mate change responses through­out the state. The infor­ma­tion will be used to inform resource man­age­ment, and land-use decision-making.

The project is part of a nation­wide effort, the USA National Phe­nol­ogy Net­work. The net­work brings together pro­fes­sional sci­en­tists, cit­i­zen sci­en­tists, gov­ern­ment agen­cies, non-profit groups, edu­ca­tors, and stu­dents of all ages to mon­i­tor the impacts of cli­mate change on plants and ani­mals in the United States. Any­one can par­tic­i­pate from their back­yard, school­yard, or local reserve.