Boechera Lyallii, Lyall's Rockcress

Day 259: As many of you know, I was invited to be a contributor to the University of Washington's Burke Herbarium photo database some years ago, and add images frequently. In addition, I refer to Burke when I am working on identifying plants because contributors who have a background in botany know what features of a plant's morphology are definitive and often show those parts in close-up (or in extreme cases, under a microscope). The Burke is very good on keeping up with taxonomic changes, perhaps a bit too good in this case. When I looked up Lyall's Rockcress Tuesday night, it was filed under Arabis lyalli. I labelled my photo as such and the following morning, I sent a batch of images in to Burke. Last night while I was reviewing the material for my next few posts, I thought I might have mis-typed "lyalli" because the final i (it should have two) was missing. I went to Burke to check...and couldn't find the plant under Arabis! Puzzled, I immediately began hunting down synonyms and discovered that it had been reclassified to Boechera lyallii in the space of a mere three days (yes, I edited my submission). As I said to Joe when I updated the information I'd sent him, "Give me a big rock and the nearest taxonomist." I'm ready to whop somebody upside the head.

So, Boechera it is, Boechera lyallii with two i's. It is a very hardy little plant with a preference for dry soils (amazing how some of these tiny marvels survive bitterly cold winters and heavy snowpack). It is most frequently found in alpine/subalpine areas, but also may occur in dry lowland meadows from British Columbia to California, and east to the Rocky Mountains. The flowers may be purple as they are in this image, although some specimens may be lighter and almost pink. The lower (basal) leaves are somewhat fleshy. In addition to its former binomial, it has carried a number of different common names including Murray's Rockcress (how did Murray get in there, I wonder?) or Slender Rockcress. Let's give botanist David Lyall his due and stick with Lyall's Rockcress, please.

Letharia Vulpina

Day 256: Team Biota ventured somewhat outside the Park boundaries yesterday to hike to Sheep Lake and Sourdough Gap from Chinook Pass, the trail slightly east of the Cascade Crest. Joe had been to the lake only a few days earlier and had found a lichen he knew I'd have to pursue: Letharia vulpina, aka "Wolf Lichen." We have two species of Letharia in Washington and both are primarily "east side" dwellers. The second species (L. columbiana) usually bears an abundance of fringed apothecia which are so distinctive that Northwest Lichenologists uses the lichen as their logo. I was hoping we might find both on our seven-mile trek.

And there's a point right there: Washington Trails Association's website claims the gentle hike to Sourdough Gap covers a mere five miles. Trusting in them, we left our lunches in the truck. Using my new GPS which tracks your actual route, we had covered seven miles by the time we got back at 3 PM. The largest discrepancy occurred between the lake and the pass. WTA claimed it was 0.75 miles one way. My GPS showed 1.4 miles.

That said, we found Letharia vulpina in abundance, noting that it occurred primarily on dead cedars and alpine fir. Brodo refers to it as preferring barkless branches, and indeed this was what we observed, although we also found it growing on bark. We did not find the second species, but felt we were much more than compensated by the number of "new" vascular plants we discovered, including a couple of species I had not seen before. I still have a few left to identify, but many will be featured in this blog over the next week. Stay tuned!