Date: 23 March, 2017

Location: SCA trail (37.832143, -122.482281), elevation: 209.5 meter

This picture shows the direction of our trip from the University of San Francisco to the SCA trail.

Site description:

The trail is cut into the side of the mountain and faces westward. There are many native and small species that grow here. The species are smaller in size due to the high winds in this region. This is a coastal Scrub. There were various dominant scrub species such as California sagebrush and coyote bush. Associated species included poison oak, California blackberry, and California buckwheat. Shrubs were around 2 meters, canopy was continuous/intermittent.

Species descriptions and digital collections (3): These pictures illustrate the three species of plants that I have chosen to describe in my blog.

1) Genus and Species: Lupinus bicolor

Common name: Lupine

Family: Fabaceae

Species Description:

This species is a dicot and it’s native to California. It is found in open areas and is commonly called “miniature lupine.” It is a legume plant and has flowers with two different colors. The top banner petal has a squared off top edge and a large white patch with dark blue dots. The white patch turns magenta with age. Petals are generally blue but can also be pink or white. The leaves are palmately compound with 5-7 green leaflets. Inflorescence shows small flowers in whorls of usually 5 flowers along the short and hairy flower stalks. Flowers are deeply lobed. The petals are generally pointed and upper margins are ciliate near the tips.

2) Genus and Species: Erysimum franciscanum

Common name: Franciscan wallflower

Family: Brassicaceae

Species Description:

This species is an ornamental member of the Mustard Family. It’s biennial. The leaves are thin and basal. They are also oblanceolate and flat. Flowers have four petals and they are yellow to cream in color. They have a distinct midvein. Several delicate stems extend above a rosette. The coastal form has a woody lower portion while the upper portion is herbaceous.

3) Genus and Species: Phacelia californica

Common Name: Rock Phacelia

Family: Boraginaceae

Species Description: this species is a perennial herb. It has a purple erect stem. Floral heads are curled under. This species has early flowering and determinate inflorescence. It is extremely hairy and the flowers have five pedals. After some research, I learned that the flowers provide nectar for the endangered Mission blue butterfly found in this region. The leaves are generally compound and sometimes dissected. The corolla is bell-shaped and is blue to lavender in color.

Narrative:

We left campus at around one in the afternoon and headed to the SCA trails. This trail was relatively close to our campus. We had a hard time finding parking due to the nice weather and many tourists visiting the area. We finally parked and walked under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was fun. We then started our first field quiz, which took up most of the time and was difficult. There were many species that we had learned about on this trail. After the quiz, we continued to the Slackers Hill, which had a beautiful view of the bridge. It was extremely windy on our way back. We learned about a few species after our quiz that are shown in the images below.

Date: 09 March, 2017

Location: Mt. Tam/Ridgecrest (37.912957, -122.624790), elevation: 784 meters

This picture illustrates the directions from the University of San Francisco to Mt. Tam. Then, to Ridgecrest. We left campus at approximately 1:00 pm.

Site description:

The first trail that we came across was located in a coastal area with many coyote brush species. We also saw many other species including Scott’s broom, California Coffeeberry, and Houndstongue. Most of the species here were low to the ground and native. We did have some invasive species here as well. This region had some damp areas. The second trail was located in a redwood forest and we saw species such as oak trees and Douglas fir here.

(Picture of the first site we visited at Mt. Tam)

Species descriptions and digital collections (3): These pictures illustrate the three species of plants that I have chosen to describe in my blog.

1) Genus and Species: Sidalcea malviflora

Common name: Checker mallow

Family: Malvaceae

Species Description:

This species has bright purple to pink flowers in parts of five. The flowers are also open and they grow in groups. They come out alternatively. Anthers are white in color and stigma is the same color as the pedals. The stigma is broken into six tiny parts coming out from in-between anthers. This species is bee pollinated. The leaves are simple palmate and they have indentations with eight fingers but this can vary (there are species with entire leaves as well). The flowers look like a three quarter circle. The stem is hairy and this species is also white-veined.

2) Genus and Species: Taraxia ovata

Common name: Sun Cup

Family: Onagraceae

Species Description: this species is native and has four large petals. It also has a thick basal rosette arrangement (which refers to leaves that grow right at the base of the plant). The leaves are narrowly elliptic to ovate and they are also hairy. Leaf margins can be entire to wavy. The flower is pretty showy and big itself compared to mustards. There is yellow stigma in the middle and the midvein has a red color.

3) Genus and Species: Calypso bulbosa

Common Name: Fairy slipper

Family: Orchidaceae

Species Description: We came across this species off the Ridgecrest trail. This orchid is a monocot that has simple oval leaves with parallel venation. The leaf is basal and can be elliptic to ovate in shape. The blade is 3-6.5 cm long. The flowers are purple and showy. There is a single leaf illustrated in this picture. There is also a single stigma at the top. Flowers are generally pink.

Narrative:

We left campus at one in the afternoon and drove to Mt. Tam. We started our hike on this nice sunny day and came across many interesting species. Most of them were yellow and had interesting names. We saw coyote fur as we ended our hike at our first trail, which felt soft and looked somewhat fascinating. We saw many umbels here as well. We then drove up and started searching for a native orchid off of ridgecrest. Then, Professor Paul guided us to the serpentine rocks which were off the trail. We saw many species here. Professor Paul scared me when he pretended that something grabbed him from an empty hole in the ground. We climbed up and down the rocks but survived. Sameer also found a new species, which we added to our list. We came back to the cars and had some popcorn as we drove back to school. This was a very fun trip except the part where I was searching for ticks after the trip..but now I should start studying for my field exam so wish me luck next week!

Beautiful view (PC: Professor Paul)

Lost in the serpentine madness

The ground iris is beautiful

Here is a picture of Professor Paul showing us the coyote fur

The ultimate umbel

Species that Sameer found

Picture of a serpentine rock that shows the green color pretty well

Date: 02 March, 2017

Location: San Pedro Valley County Park (37.578450, -122.475945), elevation: 58.7 meters

This picture shows the directions from the University of San Francisco to San Pedro Valley County Park. We left campus at approximately 12:50 pm.

Site description:

The site that we visited is located near Pacifica. There are many native species that grow here. This region consists of moist and dry areas. The streams and creeks help to keep the area moist. In higher elevations, this region seems to be a coastal Scrub. There were various dominant scrub species observed here. The first dominant species that we observed was eucalyptus. There were also other stubby species. We observed the Manzanitas, California sagebrush, and coyote bush species here as well. Associated species included poison oak and California buckwheat. Shrubs were around 2 meters, canopy was continuous/intermittent.

Species descriptions and digital collections (3): These pictures illustrate the three species of plants that I have chosen to describe in my blog.

1) Genus and Species: Toxicoscordion

Common name: Fremont’s death camas

Family: Melanthiaceae

Species Description:

This is a California native perennial herb species that is toxic. The flower is bisexual. It has three pedals and three sepals that are undifferentiated. The stigma breaks into three as well. Perianth parts are white to yellow. The ovary is superior. The leaves of this species are sword-shaped and long, which go in many directions as shown above. The leaves are lanceolate to widely ovate. The stem is glabrous.

2) Genus and Species: Eriodictyon californicum

Common name: Yerba Santa

Family: Boraginaceae

Species Description: this species has dirty looking leaves. The leaves have strong tertiary venation underside, lanceolate to oblong. The leaves are elongated and bunched together. The margins of the leaves can be entire to toothed (dentate). The leaves also have short petioles. Flower is funnel-shaped and white-ish but is not present in these pictures. The stem is glabrous. This species is found on the slopes, woodlands, roadsides, and chaparral.

3) Genus and Species: Trillium albidum or Trillium chloropetalum

Common Name: either Giant white wakerobin or Giant wakerobin (hard to distinguish)

Family: Melanthiaceae

Species Description: We came across this species at the beginning of our hike. This is a California native perennial species found usually in moist canyons and coastal scrubs. It shows trillium modeling on the leaf. The flower is radial and has 3 white sepals and 3 white petals. The corolla is white to pink. Sepals are spreading. Petals point up (ascending). Anthers are purple to white. Something interesting that we learned was that deer bite these. Leaves are rounded to obtuse at the tip. There is also green to brown spotting on the leaves. Flowers have a sweet rose-like scent.

Narrative:

We left campus at 12:50 in the afternoon. It was a warm sunny day and we were all excited to begin our field trip. After about thirty minutes of driving, we arrived at San Pedro valley County and started hiking up. We came across a sign that warned us about mountain lions but thankfully we didn’t see any. Professor Paul taught us about some interesting species. We ran into multiple species that we had seen before such as Houndstoungue or sword ferns. The hike was fun and informative. We came back around 4:3o. I am excited for our next trip.

(I almost accidentally touched poison oak right after taking this picture…but I survived). PC: James

Bluewitch nightshade in the solanaceae family.

Date: 23 February, 2017

Location: Presidio Coastal Trail (37.940362, -122.56146) and Marine Headlands (87.834775-122.499125)

-Elevation: 55.7 m for the presidio and 234 m for Marine Headlands.

-The first picture illustrates the directions of our first trip (from the University of San Francisco to the Presidio Coastal Trails). The second picture shows the directions of our second trip (from the Presidio to Marine Headlands).

Site description:

-The first site we visited (The Presidio Coastal Trail) is located South to the Golden Gate Bridge. There are many native and small species that grow here. The species are smaller in size due to the high winds in this region. This was a coastal/Sagebrush Scrub. There were various dominant scrub species such as California sagebrush, black sage, and coyote bush. Associated species included poison oak, California blackberry, and California buckwheat. Shrubs were around 2 meters, canopy was continuous/intermittent.

-Marine Headlands, which was the second site that we visited, consisted of endemic species within the Central Western Region of the California Ecoregion. This was also a coastal/Sagebrush Scrub with California Sagebrush and Coyote brush as the dominated species.

Species descriptions and digital collections (3): These pictures illustrate the three species of plants that I have chosen to describe in my blog.

1) Genus and Species: Mimulus aurantiacus

Common name: Sticky Monkey Flower

Family: phrymaceae

Species Description:

This species, which we observed at the Presidio coastal trail, has opposite leaves. The leaves are also long (narrowly elliptic to linear) and have a rubbery feel to them in addition to containing a tertiary venation. They contain irregular dentation. This species flowers a lot. The perennial flowers are bilaterally-symmetrical and have an apricot (orange) color. They also have a funnel-form and are white in the middle (which tells us that the female part is receptive and ready to be pollinated). This species can become bush-like.

2) Genus and Species: Castilleja subinclusa

Common name: Franciscan Paintbrush

Family: Orobanchaceae

Species Description:

This species, which we observed around the Hawks Hill, has bright red flowers. The flowers also seem to appear open and airy. The middle part of the flowers is yellow. This species has early flowering. The stem has short axillary shoots. The leaves are about 3-8 cm long. They are monocot, thin, and also grass-like. The leaves have a lanceolate shape. They are entire and a bit hairy. This species is endemic to the California Coast.

 3) Genus and Species: Lupinus chamissonis

Common Name: Beach Blue lupine

Family: Fabaceae

Species Description: this is a famous legume plant. The leaves are entire, hairy, and compound palmate. They appear to be bluish green. The stem is erect. This species has legume pods and is restricted to the coast. The flower has a whorled inflorescence. The flower pedals appear to be violet to blue.

Narrative:

We left campus at around one in the afternoon and headed to the Presidio coastal trails. We drove in the Mercedes van that was very big. The weather was sunny and nice. The trail that we took had many native species and we learned about new species almost every step of the way. We continued walking until we came across the golden gate bridge and took some awesome pictures. Then we headed back to the car and drove to Marin headlands.

At the Marine headlands, which was across the Golden Gate Bridge, the weather was much colder. But as we walked, it started to get sunny. We learned about species with interesting names, which I have included pictures of in my blog. I remember running toward the sun with my arms wide open, trying to absorb all the heat after freezing in the cold wind. Dr. Paul then drove us to Hawk Hill, where we got to see a beautiful view of the bay and took more pictures. We headed back to campus around five. This was a very fun and informative trip!

Taking notes in the field. PC: James

View from the Hawk Hill

I was fascinated by the mosquito bill species

I now know how to make a comfortable bed if I ever get stranded

Professor Paul teaching us about the White nightshade