Journal R.E. Johnson 1968 March 10 Peavine Mtn., Washoe Co., Nevada (cont.) ridge has a small cluster of Jeffrey Pines on it & a road running up it. On its left (west) slope a large mine dump can be seen we visited it but found no shaft. We returned to the "big shaft" and headed south over the west shoulder of the same hill we had circled on the road earlier. This hill also has Jeffrey Pine trees on it. John pointed out that W.D. Billings had believed that Jeffrey Pine could only compete with sagebrush & other surrounding vegetation on three sites which were too poor for sagebrush. These hilltops he believed to date back to the Pleistocene & to have highly leached soils. These soils have a light color & nothing grows on them except the Jeffrey Pine, which is knarled & stunted. Presumably the pine could grow on the surrounding better soils were it not for the brush competition. In the Pleistocene the Jeffrey Pine had ancestors occupied the whole area. At the present time the dominant vegetation on most sites is Sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata. Other species include: Ephedra viridis; Horse brush, Tetradymia (glabata or canescens); Desert Peach, Prunus andersoni (has spines), Gutierrezia sarothrae; Onion, Allium parvum (now in bloom); a grass Sitanion hystrix (6 inches tall, with leaves curling downward); Great Basin Wild Rye, Elymus; Eriogonum (several species) Bitterbrush, Purshia tridentata; Bitterroot, Lewisia