Join The Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plant Society for a Field Trip to the Masonic Mountain Area. Meet by 9:00 am, on June 25, at Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest Ranger Station (in Bridgeport, a half-mile south of the intersection of US 395 and SR 182). We’ll do a brief orientation and carpool from there. Assume the Ranger Station will be closed, with restrooms not available there. Bring water, lunch, snacks, sunscreen, insect repellant, camera, binoculars, etc. We’ll probably return to the Ranger Station around 3 pm.

Along the way we’ll look at the first population of Northwestern paintbrush (Castilleja angustifolia var. flavescens) to be recognized in California, just north of Chemung Mine. We will see the approximate type locations for Bodie Hills rockcress (Boechera bodiensis) and Masonic Mountain jewelflower (Streptanthus oliganthus). We should see Bodie Hills draba (Cusickiella quadricostata), maybe Mono County phacelia (Phacelia monoensis), and with luck, also Masonic Mountain jewelflower. Many other plants of pinyon-juniper, sagebrush, and aspen grove communities should be in bloom.

Tim Messick is a retired botanist/cartographer/photographer who started compiling a flora of the Bodie Hills more than 40 years ago. The current version of his “Plants of the Bodie Hills” can be downloaded from BodieHillsPlants.com.

For more information please see the event webpage.