San Bruno

Date: 3/22

Location: San Bruno, California

Coordination: 37.6969° N, 122.4338° W

Elevation: 1,319′

Directions: 

Site description:

San Bruno Mountain State Park is a state park in northern San Mateo County, CA. It is next  to the southern boundary of San Francisco and borders the cities of Brisbane, south San Francisco and Daly city. The park is dominated by San Bruno Mountain, which is a 4-mile ridge. The park offers a diverse habitat for various species of rare and endangered plants. This park is surrounded by beautiful views of San Francisco and offers a place for different activities such as hiking, biking and horseback riding. The main habitat in this site coastal shrub but are good examples of coastal strand, oak woodland, chaparral, and riparian habitats as well. The dominant plant species in this site include : Coast Rock Cress, Montara Manzanita, Pacifica Manzanita, San Bruno Mountain, Franciscan Wallflower, San Francisco Owl’s Clover, San Francisco Campion.

 

Species description:

 

Family: Brassicaceae
Common name: sweet alyssum
Species: Lobularia maritima

Overall plant and its habitat: annual plant, growing to 5–30 cm, It is common on sandy beaches and dunes, but can also grow on cultivated fields

Leaves: The leaves are 1–4 mm long, alternate, hairy, oval to lanceolate, with an entire margin.

Flowers: The flowers are about 5 millimetres in diameter, sweet-smelling, it has four white rounded petals (or pink, rose-red, violet) and four sepals,  six stamens with yellow anthers

This plant was found in the early section of our hike.

 

Family: Brassicaceae
Common name: Franciscan wallflower
Species: Erysimum franciscanum

Overall plant and its habitat: endemic to Northern California, biennial or short-lived perennial, flourish on a range of soils including serpentine

Leaves: long, thin, green

Flowers : cream-colored to yellow, four sepals and four petals,

This plant was seen in the early section of our hike.

 

Family: OROBANCHACEAE
Common name: Wight’s paintbrush
Species: Castilleja wightii
 Overall plant and its habitat: native perennial species, found on brushy slopes throughout the dunes, 30–80 cm,

Leaves: 20–60 mm, generally crowded, lanceolate to ovate

Flowers: lobes acute or rounded; corolla 20–30 mm, yellow, prominent

This flower was found in the earlier section of the hike.

 

Narrative:

We left USF around 1 pm on Thursday 3/22. The weather was sunny but it was windy and cold. It took us around 30 minutes to get to San Bruno. This site was surrounded by gorgeous views and we were able to see many species of plants since there was an abundance of flowering plants in this location. After our hiking, we stopped on our way and got In-N-Out Burger before going back. Overall, the hike as enjoyable and easy and we got to learn about a variety of plant species.

 

Additional Species seen: 

Family: Ericaceae
Common name: kinnikinnick
Species: Arctostaphylos uva-ursi

 

Family: Apiaceae
Common name: yellow mats
Species: Sanicula arctopoides

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *