Ancient Plants of Cañón Doña Petra and Cañón Las Ánimas

Ferns and bryophytes are among the oldest groups of land plants. They play a key ecological role in succession and soil formation, and their dependence on water makes them particularly sensitive to rainfall pulses.

A bias exists—even within scientific language—that excludes these groups when we generalize using the term “flora,” reflecting what might be called “flower chauvinism.” In Baja California’s semiarid environment, it may seem that these plants are "not important". Yet they are present, alongside major gaps in our knowledge of their distribution, taxonomy, and ecology. They are silent witnesses to life on land, largely overlooked by science and conservation.

We aim to establish formal monitoring at two sites: Cañón de Doña Petra and Cañón Las Ánimas in Ensenada, Baja California. For years, I have documented and raised awareness of these taxa using citizen science tools, scientific photography, and microscopy, while marveling at their life cycles and their ability to “resurrect” after drought. We will now bring that sense of wonder into formal scientific research through monthly monitoring to document how El Niño rainfall pulses affect their reproduction and growth.

The project seeks to establish an unprecedented, open, and replicable baseline that can support continued monitoring over time. Understanding how these ancient survivors respond to climate change is more than an academic exercise: it is a way of recognizing the plants that sustained the world before flowers existed.