Rock daisy in Baja California (IMAGE)

University of California - Berkeley

Rock daisy in Baja California

Caption

The Baja California rock daisy (Laphamia lobata) growing on canyon walls of volcanic rock in the Sierra de la Giganta in Baja California Sur, Mexico. This species is endemic to la Sierra de la Giganta, where it forms part of a diverse community of plants that grow solely on cliffs surrounded by a matrix of tropical deciduous forest and semi-arid Sonoran thornscrub. Rock daisies are plants of arid micro-habitats, such as exposed rock outcrops. Their adaptations to the stresses of life on bare cliffs made them ideally suited to invading desert areas of the American Southwest as they expanded over the past 5 to 7 million years.

Credit

Isaac Lichter-Marck

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