Finding Subularia aquatic L. Awlwort taking a bath!
At two Sierran locations this little aquatic has been collected flowering under water:
DWT #20352 Dog Lake, Tuolumne County, Yosemite National Park 40-70 cm of water Monday, August 18, 2008
DWT#20698 Johnson Lake, Madera County, Yosemite National Park, in waters to 2 meters deep, Wednesday, July 29, 2009
The southerly distribution station is East Lake, Tulare County:
John Thomas Howell wrote in the 1940 Base Camp Botany (Sierra Club outings section annual:
East Lake (15940). Some plants are found most unexpectedly. This particular plant was found when the botanist was taking a bath! When it first sprouts it is a submerged aquatic, but it doesn't bloom or fruit until the water recedes enough to leave it exposed to the air on the damp strand. While splashing around in the relatively warm (!) water for which East Lake is noted, the botanist noticed tiny plants which he had loosed from the bottom and which floated to the surface. These plants had no flowers but he lost little time in exploring the lake-shore in the vicinity and found there stranded plants in bloom. This inconspicuous plant is a circumpolarite localities chiefly north of East Lake. Since most botanists pass through life without ever seeing this intriguing little plant alive, aren't we glad we took a bath!
