More tenebs moved, plus commentary on invasive natives

 Elysian Park is closer to NHMLA than Griffith Park is, although I assume that before the surrounding land was urbanized their darkling populations were genetically connected. Anyways, I booked a taxi ride to Elysian today and caught about 20. Tenebs from there will be posted at the same link as the one in the previous post.

Also, while strolling around Santa Fe Dam recently I saw a small, localized population of tidytip daisies and purple-houses and several other species of so-called native plant that are common in commercial native wildflower seed mixes. I mean, I have trust issues from rampant mislabeling of flora in the horticultural industry (sometimes the mistakes aren't discovered until many years later), but some of the other questionable things in there were the same morphospecies as Gilia tricolor, G. capitata, and Collinsia (likely heterophylla but I can't be bothered to check). These are not locally native here at all, and given that the population seems to be self-sustaining without irrigation, as well as spreading into patches of truly native annuals, I think we're dealing with an incipient intra-state invasion here. The nature center didn't look to have planted them (none of those plants are in the nature center's official garden, which also contains locally nonnative flora, albeit not the same ones; I fear the nature center sunflower bushes may engage in maladaptive introgression with wild Encelia), but Californian plants have been known to do intra-state invasion things of this sort before; just look at Lupinus arboreus and the havoc it's wrecked (note that arboreus does not appear to be present cultivated or feral in my area; I am merely using the lupine as a talking point).

It's a shame that no one on the internet seems to be talking about the potential problem Gilia and co. pose. Some other questionable choices I've seen elsewhere include the wrong Eriogonum species/subspecies (this is particularly problematic since some insects have been proven to die if consuming the wrong genotype of an otherwise suitable host Eriogonum), the Californian orange poppy Eschscholzia californica (which has already invaded Chile, has explosively dispersed seeds, and can grow in sidewalk cracks, and seems to be hated by almost every insect here, even Apis mellifera, which visits it only reluctantly), and various Nemophila/Clarkia. Again, there's pretty much nothing on the internet warning against them; some websites even claim they're locally native here. So it's no surprise even the world-class botanical institutions* are doing these for their native gardens, as opposed to popcornflowers and Zeltnera venusta and Linanthus dianthiflorus and Camissoniopsis. L. dianthiuflorus and popcornflowers are barely even commercially available. Sigh.

*I know the NHMLA is doing this on purpose for its own reasons, and while I don't entirely agree with that (mostly I fear it will cause shenanigans related to insect microevolution) I'm going to let it off the hook. On the other hand, I'm giving the Huntington's semi-"free-range" Nemophila and Gilia population a rather concerned glance, although they're unlikely to escape compared to the ones around Peck Road Water Conservation Park.