Field Journal Entry #6 San Bruno Mountain State and County Park

San Bruno Mountain State Park
Brisbane, CA 94005
Coordinates: 37.6969° N, 122.4338° W

San Bruno Mountain State Park is a state park located in northern San Mateo County, California. It is adjacent to the southern boundary of San Francisco and borders the cities of Brisbane, South San Francisco. The trails is suitable for hiking, walking dogs, and jogging. The mountain area uphold a grassland habitat. It offers the beautiful views of Pacific Ocean and the downtown skyline. There were radio broadcast towers at the top of the trail. We were able to see many beautiful species especially flowering plants since flowers started to blossom this month. Franciscan wallflower was one of the memorable plants in this trip.

Salvia spathacea

Salvia spathacea, also known as california hummingbird sage, is a part of family Lamiaceae. It is native perennial herb, mat-like, and hairs wavy. The leaves are about 8-20cm and the blade is oblong. The inflorescence is clusters less than 6cm wide, and green to purple bracts between 1.5-4cm. The flower is calyx about 1.5cm to 3cm, upper lip generally entire, and corolla tube about 25-35mm. It generally lives in common, oak woodland, chaparral, coastal-sage scrub. The flowering time is around March to May.

Ceanothus thyrisflorus

Ceanothus thyrisflorus, also known as blueblossom is a native evergreen shrub that is a part of the Rhamnaceae family. This plant is mat-like to erect and the stem is spreading to erect. The leaves are green and alternate, stipules are scale like. The blade is about 10-40mm, oblong to ovate or widely elliptic. Its inflorescence is generally raceme or panicle like about 1.5-7cm. The flower is vibrant light to deep blue.

Erysimum franciscanum

Erysimum franciscanum, also known as Franciscan Wallflower, is a native plant that is part of family Brassicaceae. The plant with four petals in a cross shape has yellow-shite color flowers. The flowers are arranged in a raceme inflorescence and its leaves are simple and alternate. This is endangered plant but we were lucky to see this plant multiple times during the hike.

Narrative

We departed right on time around 1pm at the parking lot. It took about 25minutes for us to get there with not much of traffic. The hike was overall easy to moderate. It was good to see plants we saw in the previous hikes since it was a good review for our field quiz. The most plant family we saw was apiaceae, boraginaeceae, and brassicaceae. One of the memorable plant I found out in this hike was Franciscan Wallflower. The shape of the 4 petals with beautiful white yellowish color made me to keep looking at it. It was sad to hear that this is currently endangered plant. The best part of this trip was In n Out. This was the reason why I took this class! It felt more amazing after the workout.

More plants!