White Mtns Road Trip #5

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White Mtns Arizona Road Trip #5

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One Year After Wallow Fire Of Summer 2011

© W.P. Armstrong 26 September 2012

Apache National Forest, Arizona

The burned slopes are covered by "fetid goosefoot" (Dysphania graveolens), a native annual in middle to upper elevations of Arizona. It is widespread throughout ponderosa pine forests of the central and northern parts of the state. This species is also listed as Chenopodium graveolens and C. incisum var. neomexicanum. Its extensive distribution also includes New Mexico, western Texas and Colorado, extending south to Central and South America. This strong-smelling chenopod is not reported as a fire-follower, although it was very abundant following the Wallow Fire of 2011. Dysphania graveolens is not conspicuous in the spring and summer, but by the late summer and fall it is quite noticeable as its stems and branches change color from lime green to bright red. The leaves of Dysphania are deeply cleft. The tepals (perianth segments) are covered by sessile golden glands and have appendages shaped like rhino horns projecting from the back.

Inset: Flower about 1.0 mm in diameter. The yellow grains are spherical glands. The plant is sticky and with a strong odor. Local residents of Alpine, Arizona call it "skunk weed" and "fire fern." However, neither of these common names appear in the literature.

The plants in burned areas were 1-2 feet tall and about 3-5 inches wide, with a growth form like a miniature slender tree. The stem and leaves were green and turning to bright red. Cauline leaves were few and deeply lobed-pinnatifid, 20 to 40mm long and 10-15 mm wide (no basal leaves seen). Main stems were glabrous and bare at base, becoming densely branched like an Eriogonum. Flowers were minute (about 1 mm in diameter), with reddish tepals (perianth segments) each bearing a horn-like appendage.

This is not a densely branched marine coral or red coralline alga. It is the dried, pressed, flower-bearing branches of "fetid goosefoot" (Dysphania graveolens). This native annual was very common on burned slopes one year following the 2011 Wallow Fire in the White Mtns of Arizona.