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Owens Peak #7a: Bottleworts On Palomar College Campus In 2022
[Also Including An Interesting Native Ant In Its Nest Near The Bottlewort Location.]
© W.P. Armstrong (Updated 14 February 2022)
 1.  Back To The 2020 Bottlewort Page  
 2.  Bottleworts Photographed In 2022  
 3.  Why Bottleworts So Difficult To Spot  
 4.  California Thrasher Near Bottleworts   

Bottlewort Population Along Upper Trail Southeast Of Arboretum
Through Coastal Sage Scrub. Bottleworts Extend Out Into Trail!
Following Image Taken Two Years Ago In February 2020

Class Marchantiopsida: Sphaerocarpos drewiae

The specific epithet for this bottlewort has different spellings in the published literature, including drewei, drewii, dreweae and drewiae. I am using references that correctly follow the International Code Of Botanical Nomemclature:

International Code Of Botanical Nomenclature: Recommendation 60C (b)

"If the personal name ends with a consonant (except -er), substantival epithets are formed by adding -i- (stem augmentation) plus the genitive inflection appropriate to the sex and number of the person(s) honoured (e.g. lecard-ii for Lecard (m), wilson-iae for Wilson (f), verlot-iorum for the Verlot brothers, braun-iarum for the Braun sisters, mason-iorum for Mason, father and daughter)."

Sphaerocarpos drewiae: This species commemorates a woman, Dr. Kathleen Drew. W is a consonant; therefore, the correct suffix is iae.

Note: I found most of the bottleworts 2 years ago along dirt road in above photo taken in February 2020. The ground was moist because of sufficiently spaced rains. In 2022 we had heavy rain in December, but no rain through January, so the ground was dry. I crawled on my hands and knees with a magnifying glass to find the minute bottlewort clusters in following images.

2. Bottleworts Photographed In 2022

The above 2 images of the rare and seldom observed bottlewort (Sphaerocarpos drewiae) were taken 24 Jan 2022. I will water the population along dirt road to encourage the growth of more male & female plants, and hopefully sporangia.

On 27 January 2022 I watered some baby bottleworts along "Bottlewort Trail" between Arboretum and 2021 Comet Fire area. Spotting them is like the metaphor finding a needle (pinhead) in a haystack! Hopefully with periodic watering and TLC they will grow into larger clumps.

Baby bottlewort showing female involucres and head of ordinary straight pin.

3. Why Bottleworts So Difficult To Spot In Late January 2022

The young bottleworts along dirt trail through coastal sage scrub (28 Jan. 2022) were very small. They had several minute female involucres extending above thallus.

Close-up view of bottlewort along dirt trail through coastal sage scrub. It is compared with the head of an ordinary straight pin (1.5 mm in diameter). This view shows 2 female involucres and cellular detail of thallus. Photo taken 28 Jan. 2022. The following herbarium label was prepared by bryologist Chris Wagner who visited the bottlewort site on 5 February 2022.

4. California Thrasher Near Bottleworts

This bird sat on a nearby branch and appeared curious as I photographed tiny bottleworts. I believe it is a California Thrasher.