Jepson Flora Project: Jepson Interchange for California Floristics    
Eriocaulon microcephalum Kunth
ERIOCAULACEAE
Initial Editorial Analysis 13 Mar 2008
Source of Report for California 1980 Phytologia Memoirs, as cited in Kartesz & Meacham
Initial Editorial Comments in no way mentioned in Munz, Munz Supplement, The Jepson Manual [Ed. 1]; under Eriocaulaceae in Appendix III, The Jepson Manual [Ed. 1], "not naturalized", evidently for entire family, as no lower level taxon indicated; indicated as native, endemic to California in Kartesz & Meacham
Correspondence and Comments Subsequent to Initial Analysis
Correspondence 1 5 Jun 2000 e-mail from Barbara Ertter to Steve Boyd see Comment 1
Editorial Comments 1 Correspondence 1 indicates the record for CA, based solely on a Xantus collection supposedly from Fort Tejon in Kern Co, is highly suspect.
Correspondence 2 6 Jun 2000 e-mail from Steve Boyd to Barbara Ertter see Comment 2
Editorial Comments 2 Correspondence 2 indicates the record for CA, based solely on a Xantus collection supposedly from Fort Tejon in Kern Co, is highly suspect, in part because there is the ambiguity of Xantus' label data, and in part because there does not appear to be suitable habitat in the area, except perhaps at Castac (not Castaic) Lake, which is probably of the fault sag sort; and the seeds could have been brought in by birds.
Correspondence 3 11 Sep 2003 e-mail from Dieter Wilken see Comment 3
Editorial Comments 3 Correspondence 3 indicates that there is high probability that the collection discussed in Editorial Comments 2: (made by Xantus de Vesey in 1857-1858, near Fort Tijon) is credible because Xantus is known to have been active in the area and there is an abundance of suitable habitats (moist or wet meadows) along some of the San Andreas sag ponds near Fort Tejon.
Correspondence 4 11 Sep 2003 e-mail from Barbara Ertter see Comment 4
Editorial Comments 4 Correspondence 4 indicates that Xantus was in the area, but that his reports often turn out to be erroneous, and that it is unlikely that this is an authentic record of a disjunct Andean species [Eriocaulon microcephalum] occurring near Fort Tejon.
Correspondence 5 11 Sep 2003 e-mail from Dieter Wilken to Barbara Ertter see Comment 5
Editorial Comments 5 Correspondence 5 indicates that Eriocaulon microcephalum is not just Andean, in that it is known from Costa Rica and at least as far north as Morelos, Mexico, based on the Listados Floristicos project at UNAM and MO, and that there are many moist habitats left in in the San Andreas slip zone near Fort Tejon.
Correspondence 6 11 Sep 2003 e-mail from Barbara Ertter to Dieter Wilken see Comment 6
Editorial Comments 6 Correspondence 6 indicates that, according to Ann Zwinger's book on Xantus' letters to Spencer Baird, which are quoted in Leviton & Aldrich's printing of Hittell's history of the Academy, Xantus had a "craving for respect and public approbation [that] led him to fabrication and plagiarization." (an example cited by Leviton and Aldrich concerns eggs purportedly from Fort Tejon that were actually from Mission Dolores)
Correspondence 7 11 Sep 2003 e-mail from Jim Shevock to Dieter Wilken see Comment 7
Editorial Comments 7 Correspondence 7 indicates that Ernest Twisselmann, in developing his Flora of Kern County in the 1960s, probably would not have missed this species had it occurred there, and that in California it should be viewed as "historic, needs further validation" so at least botanists working along the Kern-Los Angeles line near Ft. Tejon can search suitable habitat for it.
Correspondence 8 12 Sep 2003 e-mail from Dieter Wilken see Comment 8
Editorial Comments 8 Correspondence 8 indicates that in 1856, any travelers along the "road" to Los Angeles from the Central Valley would probably have gone by numerous sag ponds, marshes, and wet meadows, because the route from east of Mill Portero to Ft Tejon, past present-day Gorman, and east to Elizabeth Lake passes right through the San Andreas rift zone, where there still are some wet places left!
Correspondence 9 12 Sep 2003 e-mail from Steve Boyd see Comment 9
Editorial Comments 9 Correspondence 9 indicates that floristic composition of the seeps, marshes, meadows, and sag ponds of travel routes through the Tehachapi-San Emigdio-Mount Pinos region at the time Xantus collected there have likely been heavily altered by intensive, near continuous cattle grazing, so that it would be easy to imagine the loss of a substantial number of regionally rare elements from these wetland habitats given all the trampling, grazing, dredging and other water diversion that has taken place.
Correspondence 10 12 Sep 2003 e-mail from Mike Foster see Comment 10
Editorial Comments 10 Correspondence 10 includes a list of nearly 150 taxa observed during a walk through Mill Potrero
Correspondence 11 23 Jan 2008 e-mail from Staci Markos, including forwarded e-mail excerpt of 9 Jan from Rob Preston, assigned author of Eriocaulon for The Jepson Manual [Ed. 2] see Comment 11
Editorial Comments 11 Correspondence 11 indicates that Rob Preston (assigned author of Eriocaulon for The Jepson Manual [Ed. 2]) has not been able to find any record of Eriocaulon [species not indicated] currently extant in CA, so that he does not plan to treat it for The Jepson Manual [Ed. 2]. [Since it is unclear whether or not Preston considered both species currently included in this Index (Eriocaulon cinereum R. Br. and Eriocaulon microcephalum Kunth), a Current Status of "unresolved" seems most prudent until clarification is received.]
Correspondence 12 27 Feb 2008 e-mail from Rob Preston see Comment 12
Editorial Comments 12 Correspondence 2 indicates that, in the opinion of Rob Preston (assigned author of Eriocaulon for The Jepson Manual [Ed. 2]), evidence (as summarized in preceding Correspondences) is not strong enough to include Eriocaulon microcephalum Kunth as a definite Jepson Flora Project-6 (accepted name for taxon extirpated in CA), because the plants evidently never were established in the wild [and such establishment is required for assignment to Jepson Flora Project-6], so that Jepson Flora Project-8 is most appropriate.
Editorial Summary and Current Status
Editorial Summary rejection, evidently based on dubious report
Current Status JFP-8, accepted name for taxon not occurring in CA (erroneous reports, misapplication of names, misidentifications, other exclusions)
Current Status Authority The Jepson Manual [Ed. 2]
Current Status Date 13 Mar 2008
List of names for this Current Status category
List of ICPN names in Eriocaulon
List of names from ICPN, Hrusa's Crosswalk, and Jepson Flora in Eriocaulon
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