[ Lost in the Landscape ]

miramar mounds national natural landmark

Last week I par­tic­i­pated in a trip to Mira­mar Mounds National Nat­ural Land­mark that I helped orga­nize for a group of us from the local native plant soci­ety. Only a few vis­i­tors get to visit every year, so we were lucky to have the oppor­tu­nity. JoEllen Kasse­baum, Botanist for Marine Corps Air Sta­tion Mira­mar, inter­preted for us.

Sev­eral endan­gered species call the Land­mark home. The best-known is prob­a­bly San Diego mesa mint, Pogog­yne abram­sii, a plant with extremely lim­ited distribution.

San Diego but­ton cel­ery is another endan­gered plant found on the Land­mark. Both these species live only in ver­nal pools. The issue isn’t so much that the plants are wimps. Give them a lit­tle depres­sion filled with water for a few weeks and they thrive. They’re endan­gered because the gen­tly rolling ter­rain that favors the cre­ation of ver­nal pools is also easy land to develop. (Sad to say, my house prob­a­bly sits on land where ver­nal pools were found sixty years ago.)

The super­star of the pools last week, how­ever, was the toothed cal­i­coflower, Down­ingia cus­p­i­data. The way it grows only in the pools cre­ates a really cool effect when it blooms. The land around the pools is what­ever color the chap­ar­ral is, but the pools become this solid mass of soft lavender.

Sorry for shar­ing so many of the down­ingia pho­tos, but the dis­plays were way too amaz­ing not to!

And there were other things bloom­ing away. Here’s a small sampling.

Bounded by free­ways on two sides, a city land­fill on another, and run­ways of the Marine air­base to the north, it’s an unpromis­ing loca­tion for 400-plus acres of rare ver­nal pool habi­tat. The Land­mark, ded­i­cated in 1972, remains a part of MCAS Mira­mar. The land isn’t tech­ni­cally a preserve–national secu­rity inter­ests could cause the land to be with­drawn back into mil­i­tary use. But the same rea­sons that make this an unlikely loca­tion for a nature destination–the free­ways, the dump–also make it a com­pro­mised loca­tion for mil­i­tary activ­i­ties. We can keep our fin­gers crossed that it remains ded­i­cated to pre­serv­ing these rare resources.

April 25 2010 06:30 am | Categories: landscape • places | Tags: Downingia cuspidata • Eryngium aristulatum var. parishii • native plants • Pogogyne abramsii • San Diego button celery • San Diego mesa mint • vernal pools

10 Responses to “miramar mounds national natural landmark”

1. ryan on 25 Apr 2010 at 10:04 am #

   I hadn’t heard of the place or the plants. That dowingia is nice. It does have a nice pond of wild­flow­ers affect.

2. Elephant's Eye on 25 Apr 2010 at 11:49 am #

   Would you, do you, grow any of these plants in a bog gar­den at home? The pond of mauve flow­ers reminds me of our vlei lily. Sim­i­lar lifestyle in a sea­sonal pond. I have two pots in one of our bogs. Green leaves are up now. Flow­ers this year?

   We have a last tiny rem­nant of a rare plant com­mu­nity at Youngs­field Air Base in greater Cape Town. Sand flats pro­tected from devel­op­ment so far by mil­i­tary use, but very tempt­ing for hous­ing development.

3. Benjamin on 25 Apr 2010 at 1:47 pm #

   Gor­geous, and so del­i­cate, and yet so strong. Reminds me a lot of the short grass prairie around here–or, mor pre­cisely, what one should look like or once did.

4. lostlandscape on 25 Apr 2010 at 4:39 pm #

   Ryan, even most of the locals have no idea it’s there. There’s some dis­cus­sion of maybe devel­op­ing it with pub­lic board­walks between the pools so that peo­ple can actu­ally visit the place.

   EE, these pools are def­i­nitely sea­sonal, and most of my bog plants are moist year-round. I sus­pect the down­ingia might not like those con­di­tions. But I do have a small pot-full of some wet-winter/dry-summer bog plants that would be cam­pat­i­ble. I should keep an eye out for seeds of this plant. It sounds like South Africa has unin­ten­tional nature pre­serves as we do over here, where mil­i­tary bases shield land from the rav­en­ous developers.

   Ben­jamin, I’m prairie-deprived and only have enjoyed the prairie in bloom via pho­tos. The inte­gra­tion of the grasses with more charis­matic flow­er­ing plants results in a won­der­fully kinetic texture.

5. Town Mouse on 25 Apr 2010 at 6:37 pm #

   Amaz­ing! Isn’t it great what can hap­pen with­out people?

6. George on 26 Apr 2010 at 6:24 am #

   Is per­mis­sion required to visit? If not, I’m guess­ing access would still be restricted to some extent and for sure dur­ing the annual air show.

7. lostlandscape on 26 Apr 2010 at 5:56 pm #

   TM, absolutely! Just image thou­sands of acres look­ing just like this before the humans arrived…

   George, unfor­tu­nately access is restricted at all times since it’s part of the air sta­tion. From what I heard 3–6 groups are granted access annu­ally, and it requires base approval and a guide. It’s pos­si­ble to get within just a few feet of the sec­ond loca­tion my group went to, the loca­tion with the best down­ingia dis­plays. It’s bounded by I-15 on the west, Kearny Villa Road on the east and high­way 52 to the south. You can park on the east side of Kearny Villa and care­fully cross four lanes of busy traf­fic. That annex is also part of the base and is double-fenced much of the way around. But you can see a cer­tain amount from the road­side, with a cou­ple spec­tac­u­lar pools within 20 feet from the road.

8. Christine on 27 Apr 2010 at 11:54 am #

   Amaz­ing oppor­tu­nity! As a vora­cious native plant googler/researcher, I’m always look­ing to enjoy the moment of meet­ing a plant I’ve never heard of and learn­ing more about it. Thanks for giv­ing me the chance to nerd out!

9. catzgarden on 28 Apr 2010 at 11:57 pm #

   James — Spent time this evening brows­ing your blog. Lots hap­pen­ing in your life — con­grat­u­la­tions on your art showing.

   And thanks for all the beau­ti­ful pics and posts…your yard looks so happy this spring.

   And the wild­flow­ers are amaz­ing. You find the most inter­est­ing places to visit and share.

   Thanks again — catzgarden

10. Arleen Webster/Camissonia's Corner on 02 May 2010 at 10:11 pm #

    Really cool pho­tos, James. I espe­cially love the Down­ingias, which are one of my fav ephemeral spring wild­flow­ers. My first encounter with Down­ingias was in the Devil’s Gar­den Nat­ural Area in Modoc County up in the NE cor­ner of Cal­i­for­nia. My hus­band and I were tool­ing around off road and hap­pened upon a knock-out patch of diminu­tive sky blue Bach’s Cal­i­coflower (Down­ingia bachi­galupii) just off the beaten path. I’m on the look­out now for the emer­gence of Spot­ted Down­ingias (Down­ingia bella) along the ver­nal pools of the Santa Rosa Plateau.

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