An Unexpected Find

While I was out in the field for the week long trip, I was looking through all the plants I came across and I took detailed photos of those plants that I didn’t recognize in order to learn the flora of the island a little more and also properly catalog them if they turned out to be invasive plants. I took a photo of a very thick unusual looking plant that I found a large concentrated population of near one of the historical buildings. Later on, I was looking at Calflora to see if there was a difference in the iceplant species that are on the island due to differences in their flower colors. While scrolling through the iceplants, I saw the thick leafy plant I had earlier photographed! I would never have suspected that to be Crystalline Iceplant; it just looks so different from the iceplant we see everywhere else. I later confirmed that it was crystalline iceplant by comparing it to Sean Clark’s pressings of the plants on the island. I then got some good data about the location and spread of the Crystalline Iceplant. Hopefully since they’re mostly young growths, this is being caught early enough to manage before it gets out of control.