[Note: I did not write a journal entry at the time, so the notes that follow are based on the photos, any data I collected, and what faded memories I retain from years after the fact.]
Of all the days on this trip, this is the one I have the fewest specific memories of. I do know that Kitty LaBounty and I spent a lovely sunny day walking the ultramafic red bluffs that give Red Bluff Bay its name.
We were up on the bluffs by late morning and during the peak of the sun, Kitty made use of her umbrella as a sunshade.
We made it further back than we had last year, and as per usual, we didn’t get back down until late evening.
Beyond the views, plant highlights included two unusual species.
The Wallace’s Spikemoss (Selaginella wallacei) we thought at the time was a moss. I no longer remember what chain of events led me to become of aware of Selaginella wallacei, but when I eventually made the connection. Our observation seems to be the first known from Alaska, though a collection from 2012 near Ketchikan was recognized as this species (and may have been what got it on my radar) before this observation was. We collected some, though as of this writing (in 2025), I don’t think the collection has made it into an herbarium.
The other unusual species was one I stopped to photograph because of the interesting way it was growing. It seemed to be moving forward in an expanding arc that had started near the center. I got photos and we got a collection. Kitty later brought the collection to a workshop with an expert on North American Grimmia (a challenging genus of mosses). They decided it was Grimmia attenuata, a species known only from a few scattered collections in northwestern North America. [Update: An identifier on iNaturalist disagreed with this ID – unfortunately neither Kitty nor the expert are alive to comment further.]
My iNaturalist Observations for Today
