susanmf's Favorites

Link to Desert Needles blossom that Spanish Needles Flower Moth was resting on: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192604157

The moth was so well camouflaged. I only saw it because I was taking a photo a few inches away. It appears to have a gold "metallic" or shiny fringe at wing margins and was about 1 inch long.

Spanish Needles Flower Moth (Schinia niveicosta)

BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/index.php?q=search&keys=Schinia+niveicosta

Moth Photographers Group (range map only) https://mothphotographersgroup.msstate.edu/species.php?hodges=11167

Butterflies and Moths of North America https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species_search (only a range map, no species description yet, as of 11/29/23)

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Coachella Valley Preserve: For thousands of years, particles of sand from the San Bernardino Mountains and Indio Hills washed into the Coachella Valley forming a system of sand dunes. Today, these dunes are part of the Coachella Valley Preserve System, a 20,000-acre sanctuary.
The Coachella Valley Preserve also contains several palm oases that sit on top of San Andreas Fault lines. Underground water rises to the surface through these cracks. California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) grow along the cracks where the water seeps up creating a desert oases. Many plant species thrive in the alkaline soil.
Coachella Valley sits at the convergence of four vast ecological systems - the Colorado (or Sonoran) Desert, the Mojave Desert, and the coastal and peninsular mountain ranges.
https://www.blm.gov/visit/coachella-valley-preserve

Link to observation of rodent skull that was found at the base of the palms (where the owl was hanging out): https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192410813
Link to Great Horned Owl observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/192343404

California Fan Palm (Washingtonia filifera) A.k.a. Desert Palm. It is California’s only native palm tree. These palms often grow over seeps, springs, rivlets—wherever there is a regular source of water. They can be seen along (earthquake) fault lines on east side of the Coachella Valley. The cross-section of the trunk looks like vertical packed-together straws. Peak bloom time: February-June. Hard, pea-sized fruits are sweet and datelike in flavor. The fruits are an important food source for coyotes and many species of birds. Native people ate the berries, both fresh and dry, and ground the seeds into meal. The fallen fronds and still-hanging "skirts" provide excellent shelter and habitat for many species of birds, bats, owls, rodents, reptiles, insects and other animals.
The California Fan Palm was a very important plant with many uses for the local desert Cahuilla people. They added the small, sweet fruits fresh or dried to flavor foods. The most common use of the long fronds was in house construction to make the homes both waterproof and windproof. Palm frond stems were used to make cooking utensils, particularly spoons and stirring implements. Palm leaves were used to make sandals or foot pads. 17 traditional uses described here:

Native American Ethnobotany: A database of plants used as drugs, foods, dyes, fibers, and more by Native People of North America http://naeb.brit.org/uses/search/?string=Washingtonia+filifera and http://naeb.brit.org/

Temalpakh: Cahuilla Indian Knowledge and Usage of Plants, Lowell John Bean and K. Saubel, Malki Museum Press, 1972, pp. 145-149.

Desert Palm Oasis, James W. Cornett, 2010, pp. 4-79.

Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers https://borregowildflowers.org/index.html?type=search&searchtype=S&family=&name=Washingtonia%20filifera

Jepson eFlora https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=48512

Shrubs and Trees of the Southern California Deserts. Jim W. Dole and Betty B. Rose, Foot-loose Press, 1996, pp. 21, 53

California Desert Wildflowers, Philip A Munz, 1962, p. 28

CalFlora's Southern California Plant Communities http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/plantcommunities.html

Plants of Southern California: Regional Floras http://tchester.org/plants/floras/#abdsp (comprehensive website)

Native and Introduced Plants of Southern California by Tom Chester http://tchester.org/plants/index.html

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Coachella Valley Preserve: For thousands of years, particles of sand from the San Bernardino Mountains and Indio Hills washed into the Coachella Valley forming a system of sand dunes. Today, these dunes are part of the Coachella Valley Preserve System, a 20,000-acre sanctuary, a desert oasis for many species of birds, reptiles, plants, and human visitors.
The Coachella Valley Preserve contains several palm oases that sit on top of San Andreas Fault lines. Underground water rises to the surface through these cracks. California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) grow along the cracks where the water seeps up creating a desert oases. Many plant species thrive in the alkaline soil.
Coachella Valley sits at the convergence of four vast ecological systems - the Colorado (or Sonoran) Desert, the Mojave Desert, and the coastal and peninsular mountain ranges.

Birding Hotspot. Current access information: https://www.cnlm.org/portfolio_page/thousand-palms-oasis-preserve-coachella-valley-preserve/ (usually open Wed-Sun, street parking only)
and general information about the Preserve: https://www.blm.gov/visit/coachella-valley-preserve

I came across a couple of California Croton plants that were hosting many galls.
I searched @nancyasquith's collection and lists, https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/california-plants-with-mystery-galls, as well as the Russo guide, but couldn't find anything.
I'm posting this observation for the host plant, hoping we can find the gall inducing insect...

This trunk was washed down in a flash flood on 10 September 2004, over 18 years ago, and it is just starting to decay at the end next to the trail. See:

http://tchester.org/sd/plants/guides/anza_borrego/borrego_palm_canyon.html

Thanks to Mark Fisher at the Philip L. Boyd Deep Canyon Research Center for finding and sharing this population in bloom this year! This species was last recorded in Deep Canyon in 1978: https://www.cch2.org/portal/collections/individual/index.php?occid=1490992

Collected gall from Ceanothus verrucosus on 4/11/21.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/73583630

Gall cut open to find larvae inside on 4/21/21 and placed in container with a cup of soil.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/74768171

7 midges emerged today.

Last photo is to document the host plant. 4th photo is a cropped version of the last photo which has the insect gall in question in the lower left while A. trixa is found in the top half of the photo.