Blackbrush, Coleogyne ramosissima, is easy to overlook. It’s tiny, dark leaves and gray stems can make a stretch of landscape look at best boring, at worst funereal. But this rose family plant’s low, dense canopy helps shape desert plant communities, and gives desert animals an important food source. Nurse plants shelter vulnerable seedlings from heat, drying winds, and hungry animals. Blackbrush may well be the most important nurse plant for Joshua trees.

Long-lived adults, episodic seed production, rodent seed caches, and suppressed young plants help blackbrush stands persist. But blackbrush isn’t well adapted to what North America’s hot deserts have become. Research in the Panamint Mountains shows why rebuilding a mature desert shrub community can take far longer than replacing its individual plants.

Protecting existing blackbrush matters as warming and disturbance make natural recovery harder.

Also, you still have a few days left to apply for our Fellowship for Desert Reporting, viewable at https://thedamn.org/fellowship.

Sources cited, plus extras:

• Webb, R. H., Steiger, J. W., & Turner, R. M. (1987). Dynamics of Mojave Desert Shrub Assemblages in the Panamint Mountains, California. Ecology, 68(3), 478–490. The exceptionally slow recovery of blackbrush communities after disturbance, including the climatic and geomorphic stability quotation. Free PDF. pubs.usgs.gov
• Hunter, K. L., & McAuliffe, J. R. (1994). Elevational Shifts of Coleogyne ramossissima in the Mojave Desert during the Little Ice Age. Quaternary Research, 42(2), 216–221. Packrat midden evidence for blackbrush expansion at the southern Nevada study site during the Little Ice Age. The extra “s” in ramossissima appears in the published title. Cambridge Core
• Meyer, S. E. (2023). Factors Regulating Population Stand Structure in Blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima: Rosaceae), a Masting North American Desert Shrub. Diversity, 15(5), 619. Stand structure, episodic seed crops, rodent dispersal, and banks of suppressed young plants within adult crowns. mdpi.com
• Pendleton, B. K., & Meyer, S. E. (2004). Habitat-correlated variation in blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima: Rosaceae) seed germination response. Journal of Arid Environments, 59(2), 229–243. Differences among populations in seed chilling requirements and germination responses. . ScienceDirect
• Jones, L. C., Schwinning, S., & Esque, T. C. (2014). Seedling ecology and restoration of blackbrush (Coleogyne ramosissima) in the Mojave Desert, United States. Restoration Ecology, 22(5), 692–700. Seedling establishment, herbivory, and how nurse-plant effects change with elevation and environmental stress.

Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• we realized that our continent's easternmost desert, the Chihuahuan Desert, is not as well known in many ways as its sister deserts like the Mojave and Sonoran. And we had to do what we can to rectify that! So in this episode, Chris chats with Dr. Kevin Floyd, botanical curator of the Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at the University of Texas at El Paso, about what life is like in the Chihuahuan Desert. Kevin discusses:
• Elevation, winter freezes, and summer monsoon rains.
• Why no one really agrees on the precise boundaries of the Chihuahuan Desert
• The small cacti, agaves, yuccas, that thrive in the desert’s grassland landscapes
• Native bees, birds, bats, and the connections between plant diversity and animal life.
• Bighorn sheep in the Franklin Mountains, road mortality, and the case for wildlife crossings.
• How native landscaping and reduced pesticide use help support local food webs.

Our first taste of a new batch of Fred Bell’s nature recordings features coyotes around Furnace Creek Campground in Death Valley National Park. And Chris reflects on storm damage, past and future. Check on your neighbors!

Also! We've extended two deadlines. Our Fellowship for Desert Reporting is still accepting applications until October 31, and you can still be the first to submit an answer to our bird ID quiz from last week! Listen to the Fred Bell recording in S5E33; the first three emails received at chris@90milesfromneedles.com that correctly identify the birds in the audio by October 22 win a 90 Miles from Needles T-shirt.

Links and Resources:

Desert Diaries Podcast: https://www.ktep.org/podcast/desert-diaries

Chihuahuan Desert Gardens at UTEP: https://www.utep.edu/centennial-museum/chihuahuan-desert-gardens/

Kevin Floyd and Daniel Carey-Whalen staff profiles: https://www.utep.edu/centennial-museum/about/people.html

Fellowship for Desert Reporting: https://thedamn.org/fellowship

Support 90 Miles from Needles: https://www.90milesfromneedles.com/donate

Become a desert defender!: https://90milesfromneedles.com/donate

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.