Flora And Fauna For Stewards
What the heck is that?
The Sonoran Desert • 60 species of mammals • Over 350 kinds of birds • 20 amphibians • 100 plus reptiles • 30 native freshwater fish • Thousands of invertebrates • Over 2,000 native species of plants
McDowell Mountain Preserve Flora and Fauna found on the McDowell Sonoran Field Institute Surveys as of 3/20/13: • Mammals (22)
• Birds (117) • Amphibians (2) • Reptiles (23) • Insects (73) • Plants (334)
Your best answers… • • • • •
Its name I don’t know Does anyone else know? Let’s look it up in my reference book. I’ll take a picture of it, have it identified and contact you. • While I don’t know, I can tell you something interesting about it.
No matter what it turns out to be, both the plants and animals in the Preserve all face one thing in common:
Challenges
Environmental Challenges • Lack of Rainfall – both in quantity and regularity • Temperature Extremes – daily and seasonally • Extreme Evaporation Potential • Lack of Renewable Resources
Biological Challenges • Surviving the environmental challenges • Competition • Most organisms are specialists • You’re somebody’s dinner.
Because of the environmental and biological challenges … • Our plants have a tremendous range and degree of physical adaptations • Our animals have a tremendous range of behavioral adaptations; some physiological or physical • Our organisms have developed extensive symbiotic relationships
What Do You See Here?
Same Plant, Different Season
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do
#1: Desert plants and animals are not struggling to survive. They have met the challenges and adapted to where they are. And, they are doing quite well, thank you.
Adaptation Strategies of Desert Plants Succulence Drought tolerance Drought evasion
Succulence • Storing water in stems, leaves, roots • Shallow extensive roots • Waxy cuticles • Reduced surface (few or no leaves) • Protection (spiny, bitter, toxic, camouflage, inaccessible) • CAM
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do
#2: Crassulacean Acid Metabolism a variant of photosynthesis where stomates open at night for gas exchange, and store carbon dioxide as organic acid.
Drought Tolerance • Shed leaves (reduces surface area, reduces transpiration) • Waxy leaves retard water loss • Deep, extensive roots • Absorb water from drier soil
Drought Evasion • Primarily “annuals” • Exist only in brief wet periods • Channel all their energy into producing seeds, then die.
Cactus
Cactus All cacti are succulents. But not all succulents are cacti. Agaves and ocotillos, for example, often are mistaken for cacti. So, what makes a cactus, a cactus?
Cactus A cactus has areoles.
Cactus Flower has: • Many tepals • Many stamens • Numerous stigma
Cactus Other common traits include: • Storing water in stems • Flexibility, waxy skin, storage cells • Spines instead of leaves • Showy flowers
Cactus General types of cacti include: • Columnar • Jointed Stems • Small and clumping
Columnar Cactus: Saguaros and Barrels • Pleated • Linear areole pattern • Long lived • Tip growth and blooming are at the apical meristem
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do
#3 Apical meristem Sure, you could say the top of the plant. But why would you when you could say something really cool like apical meristem.
Columnar Cactus: Saguaros and Barrels Differences
Saguaro
Barrels
Spines
Gray, straight, smooth
Reddish, curved, ridged
Arms
After 50 years or so
No arms
Flowers
White, blooms at night
Colors, day blooming
Fruit
Green to red, juicy
Yellow, dry with rind
Seeds
1,000s, tiny black
100s, tiny black
Height
20 to 30 ft, 50 ft max
4 to 6 ft, 10 ft max
Columnar Cactus: Saguaros and Barrels Why the height difference? • Saguaro has 13 to 20 woody ribs as support. • Barrel has an interior of mucilaginous tissue. (Think of a damp, smelly sponge that you’ve used to wipe up something gooey.)
Jointed Stem Cacti: Cholla and Prickly Pear
Jointed Stem Cacti: Cholla and Prickly Pear • Stems have joints • Two spine types: glochids and typical; - spines are barbed • Web-like skeleton • Rely on asexual reproduction • Highly branching
Jointed Stem Cacti: Cholla and Prickly Pear Differences
Cholla
Prickly Pear
Spines
Usually one color
Usually different colors
Joints
Roundish
Flat (pads)
Flowers
Relative small
Relatively large
Fruit
Small, rindy, green
Large, juicy, bright
Seeds
Often sterile
Often fertile
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #4 Frank Lloyd Wright used the central spine of the chain fruit cholla as inspiration to design the slender, elegant support pods for the interior of the SC Johnson building.
Small Clumping Cacti: Echinocerus and Mammillaria
pincushion
hedgehog
Small Clumping Cacti: Echinocerus and Mammillaria • • • •
Small, often grow under other plants Branching from the base Fibrous, web like skeleton Central dominant spines
Small Clumping Cacti: Echinocerus and Mammillaria Differences
Echinocereus
Mammillaria
Spines
Central is straight
Central is hooked
Flowers
Large, solitary
Small, in halo
Fruit
Large, fleshy, spiny
Small, long, no spines
One Final Cactus Story What was… • the Spaniards most valuable export other than precious metals? • the “red” in British Redcoats? • a non-carcinogenic alternative to red dye #4? • recently in your Starbucks Strawberry Frappucino?
Cochineal • Scale insect • Feeds on Prickly Pear cactus pad • Body fluids contain bright, crimson carminic acid
Cochineal • Produce brighter, richer red dye than vegetable dyes • Spaniards kept source secret until 1800s • Gradually replaced when less expensive aniline dyes became available
Other Succulents: Agave
Agave • Size from a few inches to several feet • Usually thick, succulent pointed leaves • Leaves usually grow in a rosette • Leaves vary green to bluish to gray green • Leaves lined with spines/teeth, sharp point at end
Agave • Flowers on tall branched or unbranched stalks • Live from 10 to 30 years • Builds up sugar and starch, shoots up stalk • Most species die after flowering once
Other Succulents Yucca • Semi-succulent to nonsucculent • Similar to agave but straighter, narrow leaves • Some grow on trunks
Yucca • Large, white, bell-shaped flower on stalks • Unlike agave, most bloom more than once • Flowers and fruit edible; source of soap
Other Succulents: Ocotillo • Woody shrub 10 to 20 feet tall • Leaves develop after rain, several times per year
Ocotillo • Red to orange flowers at tips • Long, thick, sharp spines • “Living fence” • Flowers & water make beverage
Desert Trees Our three most common native trees: Desert Ironwood
Palo Verde Mesquite
Desert Trees Things they have in common: – Slow growth – Pinnate leaves – Need a water source – All are legumes… “bean trees”
Desert Trees Key Differences: Bark
Palo Verde
Ironwood
Mesquite
Desert Trees Key Differences: Leaves
Palo Verde
Ironwood
Mesquite
Desert Trees Key Differences: Flowers
Palo Verde (April)
Ironwood (May)
Mesquite (April)
Big Shrubs Creosote Catclaw Acacia Jojoba All are very drought tolerant.
Creosote Bush • Long life • Small, resinous leaves • Stalks grow in concentric pattern • “Desert smell” after rain • Drops leaves in drought • “Greasewood”
Catclaw Acacia • Sharp, curved thorns • “Wait-a-minute bush” • Usually about 6 ft, but can grow up to 20 ft • Gray green leaves, yellow flowers, catkins • Legume
Jojoba • Yep, like the shampoo • About 5ft tall • Gray-green leaves with vertical orientation • Male and female plants; 4:1 ratio • Nuts produce oily wax
Small Shrubs Triangle Leaf Bursage Brittlebush Both are very drought tolerant. Both are among first to come back after disturbance.
Triangle Leaf Bursage • About 2 ft tall • Triangular, gray-green leaves with fine tooth edge • Drops leaves during drought • Often dominant understory plant • Inconspicuous, green flowers late winter, burs ripening in spring.
Brittlebush • Woody shrub 3-5 ft tall • Bright green to gray-green soft leaves; aridity determines color • Small, yellow flowers on multi-branch stalks above leaves
Wildflowers
Wildflower Season Guess the dates and you’ll be wrong A “great” wild flower season (rare) is determined by soaking rain (at least an inch) in Oct - Dec, and helped by additional rains in January. But usually at least something is blooming.
Wildflowers Parts of a Flower
Most Common Wildflowers (even in poor years)
Lupine
Globemallow
Most Common Wildflowers (even in poor years)
Mexican Gold Poppy
Owl’s Clover
Most Common Wildflowers (even in poor years)
Fiddleneck
Desert Hyacinth
Most Common Wildflowers (even in poor years)
Phacelia
Desert Chicory
Most Common Wildflowers (even in poor years)
Chia
Storksbill Filaree
Neither Flora Nor Fauna. But You’ll See A Lot Of It In The Preserve. True symbiotic relationship
Lichen
Lichen Algal or blue-green bacteria cells living in a compact mass of fungal tissue •
• Algae provides photosynthesis, fungus provides protection
Desert Animals
Arthropods
Birds
Reptiles
Amphibians Mammals
Arthropods Arthropods account for 85% of all living animal species; result of small size, capacity for rapid change, and tenure. For an arthropod, a plant can be a universe. Multiple generations per year prompt adaptive changes quickly. Tenure has allowed diversification and evolution.
Arthropods Arthropods have an articulated skeleton like we do… use their limbs to walk, run, jump, fly. But theirs is an exoskeleton (we have an endoskeleton)
Arthropods Scorpions
• 30 species of scorpions in Arizona • Striped tail most common, bark scorpion most dangerous • Sting to subdue prey, and for defense • Nocturnal • Fluoresce under ultra-violet light
Arthropods Spiders: (Arizona blond tarantula)
• Grows to 3-4 inches • Female solid tan, male black legs • Lives in 1-2 inch hole, lined with silk • Female does eat the male after copulation… unless he can get out of there fast enough.
Arthropods • 40 species in Arizona, many specialized
Termites
• Key ecological role is reducing cellulose • Social, live in colonies; queen, soldiers, workers • First appeared 100 million years ago
Arthropods Bees (carpenter bee)
• As many as 1,000 species in Sonoran Desert • As much as 80% of desert plants and 30% of agricultural plants pollinated by bees • Most desert bees are solitary. • Home to world’s smallest Perdita minima (2mm) to largest carpenter bee (1.5”)
Arthropods • Pepsis wasp, grows up to 1.75”;
Wasps: (tarantula hawk)
• Only female hunts tarantulas – Stings spider’s leg, injects paralyzing venom – Drags spider into hole, lays an egg on it, covers hole – Larva consumes spider
• Adults fee on nectar and pollen • Note wasps have aposematic coloring
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #5 Aposematic Coloring Warning coloration – bright, conspicuous markings - that informs potential predators to back off The brighter the color/pattern, the more dangerous the animal
Herpetofauna (Reptiles and Amphibians To You & Me) • Sonoran Desert has one of richest diversity of reptiles in the country • Why? – Complex landscapes (mountains, valleys, rocky soil, sandy soil) – Variable climate – Diverse vegetation
Amphibians Sonoran Desert Toad
• One of largest toads in North America (7”) • Gray-green dorsum, creamy venter (underside) • Habitat includes creosote bush, thornscrub, grasslands • Active May through Sept, lays eggs in summer rainy season • Potent toxin as defense
Amphibians • 3 inch, smooth-skinned
Couch’s Spadefoot
• At base of hind foot is a dark, sickle-shaped spade; used for burrowing • Emerge from underground when feel vibrations of thunder • Breed in temporary pools • Young mature from egg to toadlet in less than 2 weeks
Amphibians • Grows to about 2 -2.5” • Cream to brown to greenish brown depending on location • Habitat riparian areas in rocky canyons • Breeds in summer rainy season and in spring • Eggs laid in large mass that floats on water
Canyon Tree Frog
Reptiles Desert Tortoise
• Can grow to about 14” • Short club feet, flattened for limbs for digging • Generally herbivores, toothless • Habitat diverse • Lives 35 to 40 years, mostly within few miles of where they hatched • Protected in AZ; don’t pick them up… they’ll pee on you and may die
Reptiles Western or Tiger Whiptail
• About 4” long lizard plus long, thin tail. Dark mottling on back and sides. Young have blue tails. • Doesn’t stop moving; stays on ground • Feeds on invertebrates and smaller lizards by searching leaf litter, under plants, rocks, on ground • Diverse habitats • Many whiptail species reproduce by parthenogenesis.
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #6 Parthenogenesis a form of asexual reproduction found in females, where growth and development of embryos occurs without fertilization by a male.
Reptiles
• Long and slender, 3 - 8ft long • Variable color
Coachwhip
• Distinct head, large eyes, braided appearance to scales, lighter cross stripes may be present • Clocked at 3.6 mph • May retreat or be aggressive when threatened • Will bite but non-venomous
Reptiles Rattlesnake Facts • 13 species in Arizona, more than any other state • Rattlesnakes use the "loreal pit," a heat-sensing organ between the nostril and eye to locate prey and potential predators • These snakes have glands that make venom, much like human saliva glands make saliva • The rattle is made of keratin, the same material found in human hair and fingernails
Reptiles Rattlesnake Facts (cont’d)
• Age of rattlesnake cannot be determined by counting the segments of its rattle • Rattlesnake prey may include small mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and centipedes • According to Arizona Poison Centers, less than 1% of rattlesnake bites result in human deaths
Reptiles Western Diamondback
• Up to 66” length • Bold black and white tail banding • Small scales on head • Diverse habitat • Active at night in warmer months, day in spring and fall, retreats to rocky areas in winter but may emerge on warm days • Mating season, males wrestle prior to copulation
Stuff To Keep You More Alive Than Dead #1 Red Touch Yellow, Harmful Fellow
Coral Snake
King Snake
Stripes will never be this obvious. And many AZ snakes have red and yellow bands. Steer clear of both!
Birds and Mammals: Desert Adaptations You have: Air conditioning, hats, shirts and shoes, water bottles, sunscreen, a house, a shower, a swimming pool, a grocery store, etc.
Birds and Mammals: Desert Adaptations Desert birds and mammals have: None of that stuff
Birds and Mammals: Desert Adaptations For them: Water is scarce Temps range from freezing to 120 F As temps increase, water gets more scarce They’re not too keen on the 340+ days of sunshine that draws all the tourists. And yet they adapt.
Birds and Mammals Desert Adaptations Primary strategy for dealing with high temperatures is avoidance. They simply stay out of it. For example: Bobcat most active at dusk and dawn Many birds most active at dawn Javelina active in day only in winter Kangaroo rats never active in day
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #7 Nocturnal Active at night Diurnal Active during the day Crepuscular Active at dawn and dusk
Birds and Mammals: Desert Adaptations They also seek out a cooler microclimate Change insulating value of feathers or fur Take advantage of higher body temperatures Use evaporative cooling
Birds and Mammals: Desert Adaptations Water Income and Water Expense
Income
Expense
Free water
Evaporative cooling
Water in food
Dilution and excretion of waste
Oxidation water
Eggs or milk
Birds
Birds Turkey Vulture • Wingspan to 6ft • Carrion eater • Keen sense of smell • Soars on thermals • Utilizes urohydrosis for cooling
Birds Harris’ Hawk • Raptor, social and hunt in groups • Exhibit “stacking” • Prey on rabbits, rodents, snakes, lizards and other birds
Birds American Kestrel • Wingspan to 2ft, smallest falcon • Insect eater • Hovers, then plunges hunting • Cavity nester
Birds Gila Woodpecker • Insect eater, also cactus fruit, hummingbird feeders, even dog food • Nests in saguaros; excavates “boots”
Birds Gilded Flicker • Cavity nesters in saguaros, higher than gila woodpecker • Feeds on insects, also ants on ground and cactus fruit
Birds Greater Roadrunner • Largest cuckoo • Hits 15 mph running • Feeds on anything small enough it can kill and eat • Smarter than Wyle E. Coyote
Birds Great Horned Owl • About 2 ft tall • Nocturnal hunter with keen eyesight, keener hearing • Rabbit and rodents primary diet, but also skunks, lizards, frogs, even fish
Birds Gambel’s Quail • Terrestrial bird, short round wings • Diet mostly seeds, also succulent fruit and insects for water • Gregarious, coveys as large as 20
Birds Anna’s Hummingbird • Fall and winter visitor to AZ • Territorial; protecting feeding and courtship areas Costa’s hummingbird
Birds Cactus Wren • Nests in chollas, palo verde, saguaros • Nest about size and shape of football; side entry • Diet is arthropods and cactus fruits
Birds White-Winged Dove • Seed and fruit eaters • Sloppy nests built almost anywhere • Help pollinate saguaros and disperse seeds • Mostly summer residents
Birds Phainopepla • Males black, females and immature males dark gray • Feeds on berries, mostly desert mistletoe; also insects
Mammals
Mammals Cottontail Rabbit
• Everybody’s prey, most killed first year, compensate by prodigious reproduction rate • Small, 1-3 pounds • Spend day in “forms”, also borrow other animals’ burrows • Usually two litters per year, 2 to 4 rabbits per litter • Young are born altricial
• True hare, not a rabbit
Mammals
• Large, 2ft, 8-10 pounds • Prefers flat open spaces • Stands up to see predators, crouches and freezes; bounds away in 15 foot leaps • Dramatic courtship dances • Young (1 or 2) born precocial
Jackrabbit
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #8 Altricial Born naked, blind, helpless, needing extended care Precocial Born furred, eyes open, Able to move around in a few hours
Mammals
• Pointy face, black tipped tail, slender legs, small feet • Weighs 15-25 pounds
Coyote
• Diverse habitat, extremely adaptable, including your neighborhood • Lives in small groups, dens located central to hunting area; dens mostly for pups • Breeding season Feb-Mar, births Apr-May
Mammals Javelina
• “Collared Peccary” • 40-50 pounds, thick neck, sharp canines (“javelins”) • Herbivores, but also will eat dead birds or rodents • Poor eyesight, good sense of smell • Live in groups usually of 8-12, share each other’s scent • Each group defends700-800 acre territory, marking rocks
Mammals Bobcat
• Weighs 15-22 pounds • Short tail (the “bob” in bobcat) with black and white tip • Most common in rugged, heavily vegetated areas • Hunts by ambush; prey includes jackrabbits, rodents, birds, snakes • Solitary except during Spring mating season • Range only a few miles depending on prey available
• Females 75 pounds, males up to 145 pounds; 6 ft long, 3 ft long black tipped tail • Habitat is rugged, heavily vegetated areas, but anywhere with prey • Primarily deer, also smaller animals • Solitary, except for few days at mating • Range is 25 square miles or more
Mammals Mountain Lion
Mammals Mule Deer
• Brownish gray with big mule ears, white tail with black tip • Herbivores; habitat anywhere with enough vegetation for food and cover • Social, in herds or bands for protection • Range generally only a couple of square miles
Mammals Ringtail
• 2 pounds or less, grayish, pointed face, big eyes & ears, fluffy black & white ringed tail as long as its body • Strictly nocturnal, rarely seen in the wild • Habitat riparian canyons with rocky outcrops and caves • Omnivore • Can rotate its hind feet 180 to climb down cliff faces!
Mammals Harris’ Antelope Squirrel
• White stripe on sides, bushy black tail usually arched over its back • Prefers rocky habitat • Feeds on fruits of cholla, prickly pear and barrel cacti, seeds, mesquite beans, insects, occasional mouse • Diurnal, even in summer
Mammals • “Packrat” • Medium-sized rat about 1 pound, big ears and eyes, short tail • Habitat diverse; can live in arid areas as long as cholla and prickly pear available • Forages at night, brings things back to nest to store or to add to nest
White-throated wood rat
Mammals:
Packrat
Stuff To Make You Sound Like You Know More Than You Do #10 “I know, I sat through the whole natural history class!” Give yourselves a big round of applause.
Resources • A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert; AZ Sonoran Desert Museum; www.desertmuseum.org/ • A Field Guide to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve; McDowell Sonoran Conservancy • MSC Flora Photo ID Guide; Marianne Skov Jensen (2010)
McDowell Mountain Preserve PLANTS Southwest Environmental Information Network (SEINet) http://swbiodiversity.org/seinet/checklists/checklist.php?cl=2560&proj=1
HERPS https://www.facebook.com/groups/142024522619105/
This presentation is only for internal education and training for McDowell Sonoran Conservancy Steward volunteers. Rights to photos in this presentation are governed by their copyright holders which include Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Marianne Jensen, Barry White, Don Bierman, Steve Dodd, Lisa Miller