“What is this grass?!” On April 23rd, six feet apart, eyes bleary above their masks after long days of hiking 10+ miles, Jessie Vinje spotted a strange grass. Margie Mulligan, her field partner and botanical complement, didn’t know.
Jessie had visited the same site annually five years in a row, but "this year we got lucky: although our target species wasn’t even flowering yet, the timing and weather were just right for the mystery grass. Without our combined expertise and determination, it would still be sitting in my plant press.”
At the end of their work day, they gathered their mystery grass specimen, backpacks, and monitoring equipment and bushwhacked through chaparral, black mustard, artichoke thistle, and stinging nettle. Compared to other work sites they monitor, this one was relatively easy to access since it didn't require crawling.
They used the Jepson key and consulted experts. Ultimately, Jon Rebman at the San Diego Natural History Museum Herbarium determined that the grass was Sphenopholis interrupta ssp. californica. The only other records of this species were two voucher specimens collected 130 years ago by Charles Orcutt in Baja: April 1, 1890 east of Tijuana and April 19 near San Ramon.
Congratulations to Jessie and Margie on their exciting discovery!
