Waucoba News Vol. 7 No. 4 Autumn 1983
Waucoba News Vol. 7 No. 4 Autumn 1983
Waucoba News Vol. 7 No. 4 Autumn 1983
Sponsored by The Bishop Museum & Historical Society, Bishop, Ca. 93514 Volume VII No. 4
Founded and Edited by Enid A. Larson, Box 265, Big Pine, Ca. 93513 AUTUMN 1983
Subscription: Four 9t1 long stamped self-addressed envelopes 4 issues per year
or a membership~$5.00) in Bishop Museum
Yellow-bellied
Marmot
(Marmo1a flaviventris) .
, .
Sketch by
Dian R. Mawby
Science is a process in which new information is constantly being added. Here is what
John Thomas Howell. California Academy of Science in San Francisco has written:
tlln the Spring1983 issue of the Waucoba News you write that "in California there are
3 species of juniper." Actually there are 4 species by present-day count--you omitted
the Dwarf Juniper that is with us as a subprostrate creeping shrub. I know of it at
scattered stations in the northern Sierra only as far south as Mono Pass east of Tuolumne
Meadows (not the southern Mono Pass at the head of Mono Creek, Fresno Co.). There was a
fine specimen draped over rocks on the Tioga Pass Road just east of the pass in Mono Co.;
I hope it is still there, though it was precariously close to that much-traveled highway.
According to Sudworth (Forest Trees of the Pacific Slope, p. 176) the "Dwarf Juniper
is more widely distributed than any other tree inhabiting the northern half of the globe"
--a noteworthy fact repeated by Little (Checklist of United States Trees, 1979, p. 154)0
In its distribution nlany local races have developed and numerous names, specific and
varietal, have been given to them. The name Little accepts for our Pacific (Oast variant
is Juniperus communis varosaxatilis (the varietal name used by Munz, Calif. Flora p. 63).
In its distribution many local races have developed and numerous names, specific and
varietal, have been given to them. The name Little accepts for our Pacific coast variant
is Juniperus communis var. saxatilis (the varietal name used by Munz, Calif. Flora p.63).
However, with the eye of a botanical horticulturalist, James Roof would recognize 3
named varieties and several unnamed forms as growing in California and adjacent Oregon
(The Four Seasons vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 1-9. 1973):
'~hile we are writing about variants in the Dwarf Juniper, we might mention two other
variant junipers in California that have been given names. The magnificent venerable
Sierra Juniper is distinct enough from the typical Western Juniper to warrant subspeci
fic recognition, J. occidentalis ssp.australis o It ranges south from the vicinity of
Susanville, whereas the typical ssp. occidentalis ranges northward to Washington and
Idaho.
"In the California Juniper is a distinctive columnar form that Ernest Twisselman and
I named for its discoverer, Robert Luthey of Kernville. Juniperus californica forma
Luthegana is of rare sporadic occurrence in the Sonoran hills bounding the valley of
the South Fork of the Kern River in Kern Co. One of these columnar individuals may be
seen near the road from Bodfish to Havilah just south of the Bodfish Gap.
"The common name, juniper, that we use is taken directly from the classical Latin
name for the plant, Juniperus. The common name in Italian is "ginepro" and in French
is "genevrier." From these common names comes the English word gin (the liquor, not
the cotton-gin!) and the name of the Swiss city, Geneva. The word Juniper appeared in
English writings in the 14th and 15th centuries when it was variously spelled Gynep~e,
Iunipere, or Iunyperis (according to the Oxford English Dictionary). In Al!1~i(!E;tt. !"t
was spelled Juniper in the 1700' s." -- J. T. Howell. "Pc'
KIT FOX
Vulpes macrotis
Sketch by Dian R. Mawby
,
'"
A small desert resident that feeds on evening. Within one week the pair changed
rabbits, rodents, and insects. It has location of this densite and moved. The
slender legs and large ears. This mammal adult male as well as the female forage
is nocturnal, with dens on hilly slopes. and bring food to their young.
It produces as many as 8 young in a litter.
The dens have mUltiple entrances. It lives
in Death Valley, Eureka Valley and Deep
Springs. Pensteman floridus ssp austinii was
blooming along the Loretta Mine Road just
This animal is fully protected in east of the summit of Inyo mountains.
California. Department of Fish and Game (below the summit)
placed its distribution in Owens Valley
as far north as the southern end of It was an apparent second blooming with
Tinemaha Reservoir. 2-3 feet long stems with many full bloom
flowers and many buds yet to bloom -
In April, 1983, a pair was sighted weather willing.
along the Westgard road by Steven Foster,
Big Pine. Derham Giuliani confirmed the Is this second blooming usual?
den location and 8 young were seen each -- Mary Ann Henry
Ridgecrest, CA