THE DESERT LICHENS OF RENO, NEVADA 
ALBERT W:-C, T, HERES 
Reno lies at the eastern foot of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, 
some 15 miles from the Nevada-California boundary line, at an 
altitude of 4500 feet. It is built on a level tract known as the 
Truckee Meadows, through which flows the Truckee River. 
Mountains hem in this grassy valley on every side. Peavine Peak, 
lying northwest of the city, rises from Reno itself to a height of 
8270 feet, while a little farther away and off to the southwest 
stands Mount Rose, with an altitude of 10,800 feet. To the noyth 
and east stretches a rolling plateau, a part of the Great Interior 
Basin, ridged by numerous parallel mountain ranges between which 
are a few streams during the rainy season and many sinks or drain- 
age basins without outlet. 
The average precipitation at Reno, as determined by observa- 
tions at the University of Nevada over a period of 17 years, ® 
8.21 inches. A large part of this falls as snow during the winter 
months, or as early spring rains. The summer is hot and dry, 
very light showers occurring rarely. Late in the autumn light 
rains fall occasionally. During the entire year the diurnal changes 
of temperature, as in all desert regions, are very great. In winter 
the days are generally clear and sunny, the temperature dropping 
below freezing, or in some years even sometimes as low as —15 F. 
at night. Throughout the year strong drying winds from the west 
or north are very frequent, though these same west winds als 
bring what little rain there is. But usually they have lost their 
moisture in crossing the Sierras and are drying winds in Nevada. 
The spring is late and backward, killing frosts often occurring the 
last of May, and frost may occur in midsummer. : 
On the desert plateau proper there are no trees, except 0? the 
mountains above 6000 feet, the chief woody plants being sage 
brush, an Ephedra (Indian tea), Grayia spinosa (bud sage), Emplec- 
tocladus Andersoni (wild peach), Purshia Kunzia (bitter brush), 
Botanical Gazette, vol. 51] [20 . 
