Table 10. Foods eaten by tortoises during the third phenological period (1 June–30 June) at the Desert Tortoise Research Natural Area, eastern Kern County, California.

Species	# Bites	# Plants	% Bites	% Plants
Chamaesyce albomarginata	3,601	97	51.38	24.01
Eriastrum eremicum*	488	52	6.96	12.87
Erodium cicutarium	461	62	6.58	15.35
Eremothera boothii	366	35	5.22	8.66
Erodium cicutarium*	258	41	3.68	10.15
Chorizanthe brevicornu	257	8	3.67	1.98
Schismus barbatus*	194	26	2.77	6.44
Chorizanthe brevicornu*	119	15	1.70	3.71
Amsinckia tessellata*	116	12	1.66	2.97
Stylocline psilocarphoides*	99	12	1.41	2.97
Mirabilis laevis	83	2	1.18	0.50
Cryptantha circumcissa*	34	5	0.49	1.24
Phacelia tanacetifolia *	28	1	0.40	0.25
Oxytheca perfoliata*	25	3	0.36	0.74
Eriastrum eremicum	23	5	0.33	1.24
Astragalus layneae	7	1	0.10	0.25
Eremothera boothii*	6	3	0.09	0.74
Ambrosia salsola	4	1	0.06	0.25
Linanthus parryae*	4	1	0.06	0.25
dead lizard (Gambelia wislizenii)	695	-	9.92	-
Unknown plant spp.	105	22	1.50	5.45
tortoise scat	36	-	0.51	-
Total	7,009	404	100.00	100.00

Plant names in boldface are herbaceous perennials; plant names followed by an asterisk were in a dried state (i.e., had already flowered and fruited—see Materials and Methods); # Plants refers to the total number of individual plants for a given species that tortoises fed from (i.e., a plant was counted if a tortoise made at least one bite from that plant). Tortoise scat was eaten on two different occasions by two different tortoises (one male and one female).