8/14/2019 Waucoba News Vol. 3 No. 1 Winter 1979

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'Waucoba GJVewsSponsored by The Bishop Museum & Historical Society, Bishop, Ca. 93514 VOLUME III No. 1

Winter -- 1979

Founded and Edited by Enid A. Larson, Box 265, Big Pine, Ca. 93513 4 issues per yearWAUCOBA: il. Paiute word for "pine tree ll

- also, highest peak in Inyo Mts., 11,027 ft.WAUCOBA NEWS Subscription: Send 4 stamped, self-addressed envelopes, Box 265, Big Pine. Ca.

COYOTE RIDGE

(between B shop& Baker creeks )

Photo by EAL

Ze is s Con t j f I ex

Subalpine associationwhere albjcaulisis low-growing; fromIts mat either a whitebark or a lodgepole hasbecome the central tree

WHITE-BARK and LIMBER PINESComments from Dr. Diana F. Tomback, Biology Dept. U.C. Riverside

l'The Clark's Nutcracker is t h e p r l - r Y { b e ~ r . s , l · .WClII .. .~ . - s e e d s _ - - D 1 . nutcracker stores q ~ t h t . s .of •. . -dofslopes and throughout the forest floor. During winter and spring t when l i t t le other naturalfood is available, the nutcracker lives off its seed stores. When the bird breeds in Februaryor March, the young are fed primarily on pine seed recovered from stores. Each year, a portionof these seed stores germinates in spri ng before the nutcracker can get to It• . A small percentof the germinated seed produces mature trees. ConsequentlYt the nurcracker Is an extremelyI..ortant part of sUbalpine ecology; i t l'plantsll both whltebark and I imber pine seed In sitesvery favorable to germination and el iminates much of the "chance" Involved in wind-dispersal ofseeds. Dispersal by nutcrackers is probably the primary reason why both whiteback and limber .

seeds "lost" their wings. Wings became unnecessary and were costly to produce by the tree."* ~ . * t t t t t 1 ~ ••t t ••t t t t •••• t t t ~ * t . * * * * * * * INTERIOR LIVE OAK in southern Inyo-Kern INS E C T S

The Interior Live Oak (Quercus Wislizenij) Research and field collections continueIs a zerophytic shrub which also tends to be throughout the Inyo-Mona-Great Basin witharboreal. I came upon this oak growing in emphasis on Sand Dune Habitats.Sand Canyon in Oct. 1977, and sent specimens DEEP SPRINGS.--The sandy area near the laketo the Call f. Academy of s.cSences. The many has proved to be the only place so fa r where 2branched 14-15 f t tall shrubs tended to grow morphologically distinct popUlations of onein groups of 8 or 10 strung out at least 0.5 ml species-group of CLICK BEETlE have been foundparallel to and 60-80 f t above the creek living in the same area; at the 17 Great Basin(3600-4000 ft el). Digger Pine, Purshja and sand dunes where this species-group has beenArtemisia ttjdentata grow in the same sandy, found each has yielded but a single popUlation.rocky habitat of Sand Canyon. The shrubby oaks Pit traps set and visited regularly have givenIn Sand Canyon grade into trees 30-50 ft high a wide variety of Coleoptera. At Buckhornin this steep canyon, their feet in the water. Spring at least 40 species of StaphylinidaeShort Canyon, south of Sand Canyon also has have been collected and identified. TheseInterior Live Oak. One shrub was found and be3tles are in association with the Black Toadcollected In Sept. 1978 by this author. I I habitat where water remains at constant tempera

Mary Ann Henry, China Lake t Ca. ture even when the ground is blanketed with snow.Ed. Note: We are grateful to Mary Ann for Dr. J. Powell, U.C. Berkeley, was in Deep

calling attention to this location of the Springs recently and collected 2 more specimensInterior Live Oak. Few botanists have been of a highly modified moth. So fa r a total ofaware of the location of these oaks on the 3 wingless females of this new species haveeastern slope of the Sierra. Their location been located In the sandy area near the lake.

appears on the map of Griffen & Critchfield It s life history and morphology are being

in THE DISTRIBUTION OF FOREST TREES IN CALIF., studied. The males ar e thought to be wingless.USDA Forest Service Research Paper PSW - 82/1972 --Derham Giullani t Big Pine(p . 103).

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