March 15

Botany Field Journal #4

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)