terryludwar's Identifications

Large group of plants at base of limestone cliffs.

This population at Horne Lake was first reported by @rambryum 3 years ago.

I saw about a dozen groups of plants along the cliff base, over about 150m. All were strictly associated with the cliff base, with a couple of the furthest "outliers" being only a couple of yards away into the forest. The cliffs were near vertical for the most part (and hence don't even show in the Google satellite view of the location) with no opportunities for any plants to grow higher up, and then moderately dry Douglas-Fir forest on a medium-steep slope at the base of the cliffs, continuing down for about 100m to the large lake at the base

P. munitum was abundant in the forest below, but generally absent from the immediate rocky cliff base, so plants were easily distinguishable by habitat/location. I did not observe any P. imbricans in the area.

The access was far easier than I had expected. I was fearing a steep bushwack and/or boulder scramble, but there was a well developed climber's trail through solid evergreen forest on the approach. While it was overcast on my visit, it looked like this location would be quite shady throughout the day due to the forest at the base of the cliffs, despite the south facing exposure.

There was quite a variety in the depth of divisions in the leaflets, with the small heavily twisted plants being the most deeply incised, and mostly clearly recognizable as this species. The texture of the leaflets was extremely heavy, noticeably more robust than P. munitum, and still in very fresh condition given the season. Other individual plants growing in soil rather than directly on rock were larger and less deeply divided - like the large one pictured at the front here (feel free to debate potential hybrid with munitum, but they did seem to form a continuum from small & deeply divided at the back, to large and less divided at the front). These looked very similar to P. andersonii to me, and at any other location I may well have mistaken them. All were checked carefully for any bulblets, of which none were found. Other small plants found in sheltered locations, while mature, where noticeably softer and more rounded.

I'll upload more photos of the rest of the plants later this week.