Birding Travels
In North America

Apache Plume - Fallugia paradoxa
Apache Plume
South of Hillsboro, NM, USA
May 2014

Sometimes I discover that I have failed to post information about very common species.  Such was the case last week when I found that my references to Apache Plume, Fallugia paradoxa, on this website were only in passing.  I find that rather amusing since one of my earliest and strongest images of the Black Range is of the Apache Plume.  The day before we bought our home we were driving west on NM-152 as the the sun set, marveling at the beauty of the Apache Plumes as the sun shown through the plumes pictured above.  It was because we wanted to see more that we stopped in Hillsboro.

In the United States, Apache Plume is a plant of the southwest, see the BONAP map of its range to the right.  Light green indicates that the species is native to, and not rare within, the county indicated - yellow indicates that the plant is rare in the county specified. It is also found in the states of Baja California, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, and Zacatecas in Mexico.

The Apache Plume is also known as Ponil.  It was first described by David Don as Sieversia paradoxa, in 1825, later as Fallugia micrantha by Cockerell, and yet later as F. p. var. acuminata by Wooton - various other authorities have been in the mix as well.  The species is monotypic, the only species within the genus.

The specimen shown below was collected by Edgar Mearns as part of the International Boundary Commission on May 14, 1892 near Monument No. 40 on the border of the United States of Mexico and the United States of America.