The Hypothetical Case of the Out-of-Place Seed Mix -- what doesn't belong here?

native planting
THIS IS AN EXERCISE using a hypothetical seed mix, and what the results might be five years later. The exercise is for you to determine which species of the mix are out of place.

Along Highway 99, five miles north of Bakersfield in Kern County, if you sowed a hypothetical seed mix in the median, at the rate of about 60 pounds per acre. After five years, the only survivors might be a thin stand of Stipa in amongst exotic annual grasses, plus a strip of star thistle and turkey mullien in the road-edge spray-zone.

Answer yes or no for each of the seed mix species listed below, "Is this a plant that would have been originally found growing locally in the Southern San Joaquin Valley open grassland community prior to 1769, on an upland dry soil in full sun?" (Percent listed on the left is what percentage each species made up of the whole mix.)

percent....species................YES...NO.<< Is each a full-sun dry-soil San Joaquin Valley native?

10..Baccharis pilularis...........____..____
12..Bromus carinatus .............____..____
10..Bromus rubens "Panoche".......____..____..Is this species an exotic?_____
10..Elymus condensatus............____..____
10..Elymus glaucus "Berkeley".....____..____
12..Hordeum brachyantherum........____..____
10..Lupinus texensis..............____..____
12..Stipa(Nassella) cernua........____..____
14..Trifolium monanthum "Kern Co."____..____


Photo and text copyright © 2000 by Craig Dremann, The Reveg Edge, Box 361, Redwood City, CA. 94064

Updated December 24, 2022 - The Reveg Edge Ecological Restoration service