Visited on April 26, 2018

Location: Upper Mount Tamalpais 37.9235° N, 122.5965° W; Elevation: 2,572 feet

Mount Tamalpais is the highest point of the Marin County. It has three summits, the West, Middle, and East peaks. The mountain contains many microclimates including cool and foggy in lower ocean-facing valleys with their redwood forests, to hot and dry on the manzanita slopes, cool and breezy at the summit and shady on the heavily Douglas-Fir-forested north slopes near Alpine Lake. The area that we focused on was the Douglas Fir Forest habitat, which is also one of the dominating species of this area

Castilleja Foliolosa

Common Name: Wooly Paintbrush; Family: Orobanchaceae

Castilleja Foliolosa is a dicot, perennial herb that is native to California. This flower has typical orobanchaceae flowers that are bunched up and bilateral. The obvious defining characteristic is the bright red/orange tips of the petals. The leaves are a paler green and are linear and only seem to come from the base of the flower. This one was found all over the higher parts of Mount Tam. The maximum height is 2 feet.

Tauschia Kelloggii

Common Name: Kellogg’s umbrellawort; Family: Apiaceae

Tauschia Kelloggii is a dicot, perennial herb that is not native to California. The umbel inflorescence of this flower signifies the belonging to the Apiaceae family. The stem is very celery-like and the leaves are highly dissected, looking like parsley almost. The flowers on this plant is yellow and it is less dense looking than other Apiaceaes we have seen. This one was found more towards the lower parts of our hike. The maximum height is about 3 feet.

Mimulus Guttatus

Common Name: Yellow Monkey Flower; Family: Phrymaceae

Mimulus Guttatus is a dicot, annual or perennial herb that is native to California. The flowers are very typical mimulus with the two upper petals and three lower petals, making the flower bilateral. The color of the petals are usually yellow. The leaves are generally obvate and are a more paler green color. I noticed that there are red dots on the petals on the inside. This ones was found in a small patch of yellow monkey flowers. The maximum height is about 2 feet.

Information About Our Trip

We left USF around 1:00 pm and the weather started off cold when we left USF, probably around 55 degrees, however when we reached the top of the mountain, then it felt warm, but my phone said it was only 59 degrees. I really like everything Mount Tam has to offer. Aside from the windy trip up the mountain, everything was beautiful. The hike has small waterfalls that look like backyard fountains where you will probably see a chain fern because of the water. I can’t wait to continue down the mountain next trip.