Location + Site Description:
Marin Headlands’ geographic coordinates are 37.8262ºN, 122.4997ºW. The elevation of the headland is 584 feet which is surrounded by gorgeous California native flowers along the coastal side. We saw a great amount of flowers from the Apiaceae and Asteraceae families. The trail was about 1 mile or so due to the limited time we had. It included uphill walks up and downhill back down to the parking. The hike offers a beautiful view of the Golden Gate bridge where it is pretty accessible with a parking lot. It seems that this area was very popular at this time, especially with many tourists around!
Species description + digital collections:
1. Sparaxis tricolor
The sparaxis tricolor is commonly know as the harlequin flower from the Iridaceae family. This flower is a bulb-forming perennial plant that grows well in the sun. It is called ‘tricolor’ because it is noticeable that they have three different colors: orange, yellow and a ring of brown. It is one of the prettiest flowers I ever seen!
2. Dipterostemon capitatum
The dipterostemon capitatus is commonly known as the blue dicks from the Asparagaceae family. It is seen as a very pigmented purple color that grows pretty low to the ground at a height of 60 cm. The inflorescence is head- or umbel-like and is pretty dense. When looked at closely, the flower has a white perianth containing 2 to 15 flowers. They are known to flower peak during the month of March, so we came at a great time!
3. Cerastium arvense
Cerastium arvense is commonly known as the field mouse-ear from the Caryophyllaceae family. This species typically grow low to the grown as an upright flower and may grow in a tangled system of rhizomes. The leaves are linear, oblong, with a sort of lobed dentation to it. The inflorescence consist of single flowers to a cluster of many. It has 5 petals and have stipule poking out. The ‘mouse-ears’ resemble the two lobed on each petal!
Narrative:
We left the USF campus at around 1pm, but had a technical problem due to receiving two car keys of the same car (lol). Since it was Easter break, we had to come back to campus before 4pm which was not too bad. The weather was the perfect weather to go hiking as it was sunny but had a slight wind. The hike wasn’t too bad as it was short and consisted of going uphill. There was gorgeous new flowers and families we were introduced as we were doing a ‘mock quiz’ today. I’d say we nailed it since we got thrown candy!
