"Sky Island Flora" of San Diego County
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"Sky islands rise above adjacent topography and often contain plants and animals not found in the surrounding lower elevations. These geologic features provide unique microhabitats that are typically wetter and cooler, but these areas are now coping with increasing impacts and threats of a warming and drying climate. In San Diego County, there are six general sky island, mountain areas over 5000 ft. (1524 m). These include Palomar Mtn., Cuyamaca/Laguna Mts., Hot Springs Mtn./Comb’s Peak, Volcan Mtn., Granite Mtn., and Whale Peak. A preliminary vascular flora was compiled for these combined areas using herbarium specimen vouchers and verified iNaturalist observations. The current count of native and naturalized vascular plants documented to occur in these sky islands of San Diego County is 1073 species and 1157 total taxa (including subspecies and varieties). Twenty different plant taxa are strict endemics or near-endemics to the sky island region. A total of 53 taxa in this flora are sensitive and have some sort of regulatory listing. At least 12 different species from the sky island flora have not been documented in the last 50 years so it is unknown if these plants have been extirpated from our County.”
