Date: 06 May, 2017

Location: The Presidio (37.792789, -122.456763), elevation: 55.7 meters

This picture illustrates the directions from the University of San Francisco to the Presidio Ecology trail.

Site description:

The trail at the presidio that we went on was very close to school. We started on the Ecology trail and walked the trails towards the El Polin Spring. We saw many plants here including coyote brush, blue eyed grass, yellow monkey flower, and California Poppies.

Species descriptions:

Genus and Species: Clarkia franciscans

Common name: The Presidio Clarkia

Family: Onagraceae

Species Description:

This native annual species is extremely rare. It’s found only in two populations in the Presidio and three in Oakland. It’s usually found in serpentine grasslands. The leaves are wide at the base and get more narrow at the tip. They are lance-shaped and small. The petals are wedge shaped and they can vary in color from pink to lavender. The middle of the flower has more of a whitish color and the base is bright red-purple. The stem is delicately hairy.

Narrative:

Natalie, Sameer, Patrick, and I decided to go find this rare flower together. We met up at 1:30 in front of the library and started walking to the Presidio. James decided to ran to the Presidio so he met us on the way there. We practiced some of our specimen ID on the trail and actually ran into multiple Clarkias. It was a bit hard to take a selfie but we succeeded. It was a fun short trip despite the windy weather and the selfie struggles.