List of Muggins Mountain Wilderness flora

This is a list of Muggins Mountain Wilderness flora. The Muggins Wilderness covers about 15-20 percent of the Muggins Mountains, (of southwest Arizona's, northwest Sonoran Desert), and is on the southwest of the triangular mountain region; the southwest mountain flank is block faulted and parallels the northwest-southeast Dome Valley and the northeast flank of the northeast end of the Gila Mountains, also northwest-southeast aligned.

Three washes drain the wilderness area southwestwards, and there are two major interior mountain peaks, Muggins Peak, at 1,424 feet (434 m), and Klothos Temple, at 1,666 feet (508 m). The Muggins Mountain Wilderness is excessively arid, especially as summer progresses, and the wilderness is also a sun-drenched southwesterly facing region.

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Perennials

Perennials: Common name

Anderson thornbush Bebbia chuckwalla's delight Brittlebush Catclaw acacia Creosote bush Desert fir,[1] (named Peucephyllum, a monotypic genus of the Asteraceae, (daisy, aster, sunflower family))—(a tree form resembling the creosote bush, in color, form, and height) Desert globemallow Desert holly also called saltbush-(found with some mesquite ssp-Muggins Wash)

Desert ironwood Desert lavender Hairy milkweed Rush milkweed Desert milkweed, leafless milkweed Ocotillo Blue palo verde Saguaro Scruffy prairie clover Smoketree (Psorothamnus) Smokethorn White ratany

Perennials: Genus-species-(binomials)

Acacia greggii Asclepias subulata Atriplex hymenelytra–Saltbush Bebbia juncea Carnegiea gigantea Cercidium floridum Dalea albiflora Encelia farinosa Fouquieria splendens

Hyptis emoryi Krameria grayi Larrea tridentata Lycium andersonii Olneya tesota Peucephyllum schottii Psorothamnus spinosus Sarcostemma hirtellum Sphaeralcea ambigua

Annuals

Common name

Arizona lupine California fagonbush Canyon ragweed Chicura Desert sunflower Desert tobacco Desert trumpet Fremont's pincushion

Mojave desert star Narrow-leaved popcorn flower Rattlesnake weed Rigid spiny herb Scorpionweed Notch-leaved phacelia White-bract stick leaf White-bract blazing star White tackstem

Genus-species

Ambrosia ambrosioides Calycoseris wrightii Chaenactis fremontii Chorizanthe rigida Cryptantha angustifolia Eriogonum spp Desert trumpet Euphorbia albomarginata

Fagonia laevis Geraea canescens Lupinus arizonicus Mentzelia involucrata Monoptilon bellioides Nicotiana obtusifolia (Phacelia crenulata spp) Scorpionweed

The three washes

Wash 2: Muggins Wash

The "saltbush", Atriplex hymenelytra, the desert holly is found from the 1/2 to 7/8 point up Muggins Wash and side washes to the northeast-(because of the geology-). Mesquite is in the vicinity, but very less common. The main drainage of Muggins Wash which drains from the north-northwest contains areas of the Peucephyllum, the desert fir. This occurs just north of the split to the major northeast drainage of Muggins Wash, which is to the east of Muggins Peak.

Wash 3: Morgan Wash

On ridges, the headwater sub, sub-washes between Muggins Wash to northwest, some special plants are known:

• Hairy milkweed, the Sarcostemma hirtellum milkweed

See also

• Muggins Mountains
• Muggins Mountain Wilderness

References

1. Peucephyllum schottii, Sonoran Desert Plants, packrat middens, Whipple Mountains, 11,500 ybp; Picacho Peak, 11,000 ybp; p 315-317.

• Turner, Bowers, & Burgess. Sonoran Desert Plants; an Ecological Atlas, Raymond M. Turner, Janice E. Bowers, Tony L. Burgess, c 1995, Univ. of Arizona Press, Tucson. 504 pages.
• Warren, Scott S. Exploring Arizona's Wild Areas. Mountaineers Books, 1996, 2nd Ed 2002. (softcover, ISBN 978-0-89886-774-9).
  • Reference to the common plants — (a short list-(perennials)-(p 265): Muggins Mountains Wilderness: Seasons, Plants and Wildlife: "ocotillo, creosote bush, brittlebush, blue paloverde, Desert Ironwood, and Smoketree (Psorothamnus);" p. 265.