[Pollinator] California Spring 2017?

[Peter Bernhardt]

National weather reports suggest that the current cycle of storms on the
west coast will saturate some Californian habitats more thoroughly than in
years past.  This could mean a bumper year for native wildflowers and shrub
species.  I am curious about what Californian members of these list serves
plan as the flowering cycle of some native could begin as early as February
and build through March and April.  This may be one of the best seasons in
years to observe, collect and photograph pollinators on Californian natives
as the pollination biology of so many species remain unknown.  Are there
plans to observe clumps and populations of some of the rarer species listed
on the following website?

http://www.cnps.org/cnps/rareplants/pdf/changes_since_6th_ed.pdf

It might be worthwhile for some of you to reach out to the California
Native Plant Society (see link).  It may give pollinator people the
opportunity to check on the status of nesting hummingbirds, rarer
lepidopterans or wasps and a number of bee species described as specialists
or oligoleges.  The wildflower people, in turn, receive more information on
the reproductive biology of the plants they want to protect.

Based on the literature and wildflower books, Californian members of the
genus Fritillaria should start blooming over the next 2 months.  Surely
someone would be interested in finding the pollinators of a wildflower
known as stink bells (Fritillaria agrestis).  Why are the pigmentation
patterns in F. afghans so variable (see link below).

http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/NorthAmericanFritillarias

Peter
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sonic.net/pipermail/pollinator/attachments/20170124/2041bad4/attachment.html>