Location: San Pedro Valley Park, Pacifica, CA
Use the Map Above to see where we went this week and how you can get there yourself.
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Location Description
Hello Everyone! This week’s trip was a very fun one. We went to the San Pedro Valley Park in Pacifica. The weather turned out to be amazing that day! It was a little chilly, but the fantastic view and the sun made it all the better. If you wanna get away from the crowded San Francisco beaches then this is a place that you should visit. It’s far away enough so that not as many people are crowding the place, but close enough to be a reasonable drive away. The plants we saw only added to the allure of the place. Periwinkles, oaks, and redwoods lower in the valley gave the place a pristine feel. Higher up on the hills, the plants had some unique characteristics to them. The hills were very clearly sectioned between two types of plants. One part of the hills was almost completely overrun with manzanitas. The other part of the hills were almost completely devoid of manzanitas. Instead, they were filled with various other herbaceous plants and other shrubs such as coyote brush and coffee berry. It was almost kind of eerie how quickly the landscape changed from one portion of the hill to the other. This separation of habitats is likely due to the difference in soil conditions. Manzanitas are more adapted to growing in poorer soil and grow in pretty dense thickets, so they tend to dominate the landscapes they were adapted for.
Before I begin describing the different plants I saw, I will give you all a quick history lesson. During the battle of the Bulge in WWII, General Anthony McAuliffe was completely surrounded by German soldiers in the dead of winter. Many other American lives were depending on him and his soldiers to defend the line. However, when the Germans demanded McAuliffe surrender, he replied with the single word “Nuts!”. With unimaginable heroism and sacrifice, these men ended up holding off the Germans. Afterward, they were forever remembered as the guys who said “nuts” to the Germans. It is with this historical moment in time that I begin.
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NUTS
The beaked hazelnut (Corylus Cornuta) is a plant which truly embodies the perseverance of General McAuliffe’s words. Despite being in a relatively dry place with poor soil conditions, this plant thrives on! These plants are perfectly edible and taste a lot like any other hazelnut that you would eat. However, most hazelnut that is cultivated for consumption and things like Nutella is a European variety known as Corylus Avellana. One fun fact about hazelnuts is that approximately 25% of the world’s hazelnut production goes into making Nutella. If you ask me though, I think 100% of the world’s hazelnuts should go into making Nutella. That stuff is more addicting crack. Don’t tell my mother this, but I used to lick Nutella straight out of the jar when I was little.
Plant description (Corylus Cornuta): The hazelnut shrub usually grows to be between 1-8 meters tall but has been seen to have grown up to 15 meters. The stems have a grey-brown color to them and can have glandular hairs. Although these plants haven’t grown their leaves for the season yet, they have an ovate shape with a rounded base, an acute tip, and a characteristic doubly serrate edge. The beaked hazelnut also has pendant (downward hanging) male catkins. These plants are monoecious although the female flower is fairly inconspicuous compared to the male catkins. The only thing you differentiating a female flower from a bud is the characteristic bright red stigma and style. Lastly, the beaked hazelnut’s fruit has an interesting husk-like covering made from a type of involucre. This husk eventually trails off making it look like it has a beak.
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Acorns: The Budget Nut
Unfortunately, we didn’t run into any more of the usual nuts that we humans like to consume. However, we did run into some more unconventional types of nuts — Acorns!!! I know what your thinking “Acorns aren’t nuts!” but they actually are nuts! That’s nuts right!? The definition of a nut is technically any hard fruit that contains a seed on the inside and an acorn fits that requirement. My fun fact about acorns is that the reason why they taste so bitter compared to conventional nuts is because they have tannins inside of them. Tannins are actually the same type of compounds that are used in the process of tanning leather (and are not good for human consumption). However, if you cook certain acorns thoroughly enough, they can actually be a nutritious and delicious snack. Many native American tribes in California actually consumed them quite regularly.
The tree which seemed to have produced the acorns that we saw on the trip were from the Quercus agrifolia tree (coast live oak). The Quercus tree is a big type of Oak tree which has characteristically very wide branches that spread out at the top of the tree to form a sort of canopy. The tree definitely looked like it could’ve been a part of an elven forest.
Plant Description: The coast live oak is one of the few evergreen oaks. The tree that can grow up to 25 meters high. The bark is lightly furrowed, meaning that it has wavy ridge-like features. The leaves are interesting because their adaxial side bends to form a convex shape, almost to the point of being revolute but not quite. The leaves also have an elliptical to round shape, are lightly spine-toothed around the margins, and have a rounded tip. In addition, the leaves can be tomentose or glabrous. The fruit/acorn is distally acute, long slender and has a bright green color to it. This genus of oak trees generally has a wide range of other characteristics across all of its species. In addition, these oaks can hybridize with each other, making it hard to tell the differences between them.
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FAKE Acorns
The Bluegum Eucalyptus tree (Eucalyptus globulus) will be the final plant I will be presenting today. Unlike the coastal live oak I just talked about, this tree actually doesn’t produce acorns. Instead, blue gum eucalyptus trees produce a type of fruit that resembles a type of acorn that comes straight from the depths of Mordor. It looks like someone took the skin of a warty toad and decided to cover it across an acorn with a (valved) top that looks like it could fit a Phillips head screwdriver. It is because of this demonic acorn-like appearance that I have dubbed them fake acorns.
Aside from their unique looking fruit, one interesting fact about the Eucalyptus tree is that it was brought to California from Australia and is often considered invasive. Eucalyptus trees grow, tall, fast, and produce many seeds. Aside from taking up canopy space, eucalyptus trees are also known to be particularly detrimental to some environments because of how flammable they are. The same eucalyptus oils that we use in our candles can easily be kindling for a forest fire. In addition, eucalyptus trees burn much hotter than other trees and their characteristic peeling bark often catches ablaze and flies off to start new fires.
Picture key: Top (leaves), Middle = fruit, Bottom = tree
Plant description: Usually the blue gum eucalyptus does not grow to be more than 60 meters tall. This tree’s bark often peels off in irregular strips. The twigs are square or winged. The leaves have a lanceolate shape with a slight curve and are 10 – 30cm long. In addition, the leaves have an alternate arrangement and are the same color on both sides. The tree has a sessile, stalked umbel inflorescence. The flower itself has a fused ovary and hypanthium. The number of ovaries comes in pairs of 3. The flower has many different stamens. I have already provided a description of the fruit and the seed above.
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Lastly, here is that beautiful view I was talking about in the location description.
