The King Clone creosote, the largest known clonal creosote ring in the Mojave and one of the oldest clonal plants in the world, was discovered by botanist Frank Vasek in the early 1970’s while reviewing aerial photographs for consultation work he was doing for Edison Power regarding the placement of new infrastructure.
The USDA has completed aerial surveys of San Bernadino county over a dozen times since the 1960’s, unwittingly capturing this ancient plant and many other creosote rings in the Lucerne Valley over decades.
These photographs prompt us to consider the latent information contained in every photograph, as well as the construct of labeling things as “discoveries” based on when they enter our consciousness, superimposing our timeline of awareness, understanding and value based on what we know, see and measure.
These photographs—an index sheet and more detailed negative—show the King Clone creosote in the Lucerne Valley. These may have been the photographs Vasek was reviewing. High resolution scans were very kindly provided to me by the Water Resources Archive at CSUSB, where I first found these images online. Unfortunately, the archivist told me she didn’t know where the analog prints were. The USDA has a massive archive of its photographs in a field office in Salt Lake City, Utah.
On private land at the time, research by Vasek and his students into the King Clone and other creosote rings led to local fundraising by private citizens and conservation groups who were able to eventually purchase the land and convey it to the government for the creation of a small public preserve.
King Clone ring is visible in top right of frame near “AXL.” See arrow.
Index sheet of Lucerne Valley. Note Edison Co Power Line notations in margins.
King Clone is visible, and tagged as an attraction, on satellite software we use today. Screenshot of my phone, 2024