Happy Chriskwanzanakkuh

It's nearly midwinter's eve and the holidays are coming fast and hard.  We went to the old San Ysidro Church in Corrales for their version of Las Postadas.  Little Schlepp is decked out in his "Naughty List" sweater.  

The house is more-or-less decorated for the season. 

And the BioPark's River of Lights is a smashing success, especially the north side of the Japanese Garden. 

The Bonsai Club has held its annual pot luck meeting, complete with festively decorated bonsai. 

Tonight's Cold Moon was also the farthest north lunar standstill for the next 19 years.  I will have to be 90 years old to see the next one.

Swale Paintbrush

Swale paintbrush with Centaurium sp.

The latest news in the New Mexico rare plants world is that Castilleja ornata has been listed as an endangered species.  Prior to this week, NM had just 13 federally-listed threatened or endangered plant species.  

The location of the only population in NM is closely guarded, but from photographs on iNaturalist, Flickr, and Instagram, one can get a pretty good idea of the approx. location in the NM boot heel.  Best I can tell, the location is near Whitmire Canyon where County Road C004 meets the Battalion Road.  Of course, that doesn't narrow things down very much.

Habitat with Animas Mtns in the distance

It has been seen in Chihuahua in the Cumbres de Majalca National Park.  Otherwise, we're having to deal with just old herbarium specimens.  Speaking of which, the SEINet portal is down this evening.  I'm getting http 500 errors with my browser.