Monthly Archives: February 2013

February 13, 2013 · 9:35 pm

Plant of the day: African cornflag

Chasmanthe_floribunda1An art-deco spire of flame colored flowers rises from a mound of leaves beside the trail. Each flower is dramatically flattened, hooded and flared. This is African cornflag, or Chasmanthe floribunda, an escapee of ornamental garden plantings. It’s not a common sight in the wild, but it is established in patches, usually on the edges of residential areas, so that it could be mistaken for a native.

This flamboyant bulb is a member of the iris family, and can superficially be mistaken for the similar-looking non-natve, montbretia (aka crocosmia). But though the color and growth pattern are similar, the flowers themselves are completely different–montbretia has open, symmetrical petals while African cornflag blossoms are narrow, curving horns that open at the mouth like a hummingbird feeder.

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February 12, 2013 · 10:06 pm

Plant of the day: Wallace’s spikemoss

Selaginella_wallacei1A small, spiky, green tendril creeps across a vertical slab of rock. It looks like a tiny conifer, crawling across the rock. This is Wallace’s spikemoss, or Selaginella wallacei and I was delighted to see it growing near Carson Falls. For reasons I can’t explain, the spikemosses have been one of my favorite types of plants since I first learned about them in my undergraduate botany classes.

Selaginella species reproduce via spores, as ferns do. Unlike ferns, the spores are produced from “spore cones” that are often found paired at the tip of the branches. Wallace’s spikemoss likes to grow on rocks. It can form into mats in sunny spots, but it is also found in a sparser form in the shade. It is widespread–throughout Northern California, and north into BC and Montana–but not common. You have to keep your eyes peeled for this little charmer!Selaginella_wallacei2

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February 11, 2013 · 10:01 pm

Plant of the day: buck brush

Ceanothus_cuneatus1A small spray of purple flowers reaches across the trail beside Carson Falls, startling for being out so early in the year. This is buck brush (Ceanothus cuneatus, or wedgeleaf ceanothus), an early blooming shrub of the chaparral. It can sometimes cover wide swathes of hillside in color, and is charmingly described as “gregarious” in the Marin Flora. I love the thought of a cheerful, sociable hillside of buck brush.

Various indigenous Californian tribes prized the new twigs of this shrub for basket-weaving material. Miwoks would even groom the plants by trimming and training them to guarantee that they would produce plenty of new shoots. Buck brush wood was also used to make arrows, digging sticks, and ear-piercing needles.

It grows quickly and readily, and so is handy as a revegetation species–but be aware that deer love it as well, if you’re using it in an ornamental or garden setting. Buck brush has nitrogen-fixing nodules in its roots, so it naturally improves poor soils and makes them more suitable for other plants to thrive on. In a given year, an acre of ceanothus can fix approximately 54 pounds of nitrogen.

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February 11, 2013 · 9:09 pm

Silk tassel extravaganza

I stumbled across a single coast silk tassel in the forest above Tomales Bay recently (Garrya elliptica, first written about in this blog here). The small tree was little more than a single lean branch sprawling across the trail–but it was laden with long, creamy white flowers.

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The longer I looked at these intricate blooms the more I was enthralled. They dangle from tiered bracts, six delicate flowers emerging from the side of each furred sheath. The petals are mere ribbons, fused at their tips and bowing open at the center to frame each delicate anther on this male tree. I indulged myself with taking many, many photos of this nearly unbelievably pretty display.

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February 10, 2013 · 12:31 am

Plant of the day: climbing bedstraw

A diminutive,  climbing herb has wrapped itself through the branches of a coastal sagebrush on the bluffs of Point Reyes. Elsewhere it can be seen sprawling across the forest floor. This is climbing bedstraw (Galium porrigens), and once you start seeing it you will find it is fairly common.

There are many species of bedstraw–both native and non-native–in the Bay Area. All are distinguished by having leaves that radiate out from the stem like spokes on a wagon wheel. G. porrigens has tiny, yellowish flowers and leaves that come in whorls of four. The leaves feel sandpapery and slightly sticky to the touch; it climbs by latching on with minute, recurved hairs. Despite being so little it is a perennial, found growing in both California and Oregon.

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February 8, 2013 · 7:37 pm

Plant of the day: serpentine springbeauty

Claytonia_exigua1Clusters of tiny pink flowers grow on the bare rock and dirt beside the trail. If you don’t look close you might not see it at all–it is that small, and blends in with the reddish hue of the rocks. The flowers rise from a nest of long, strap-like leaves. Where found flowerless, the leaves look rather like a sea anemone with lean, purple-tinged arms.

This is serpentine springbeauty (Claytonia exigua), a diminutive plant that is adapted to survive in the harsh chemistry generated by this type of soil. It can be found on rocky slopes of serpentine, shale and sandstone.

Serpentine springbeauty is actually a cousin of the common (and tasty) miner’s lettuceClaytonia_exigua2

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February 7, 2013 · 10:38 am

Botany challenge!!

OK, my dear plant-loving eco-geeks of the world: here is a special challenge for you. How many different species can you tell are present where this picture was taken, based on this photo?

What clues do you see?

???

(Hints: The picture was taken in Marin, and all the species are native. I’ve written about at least four of them in this blog, but–despite the title of botany challenge–they are not necessarily all plants).

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February 6, 2013 · 9:33 pm

Plant of the day: deer fern

This shy little fern isn’t very common in Marin, but it’s a lovely one to get to know–and where it does grow it’s often abundant. It looks sort of like a small, lean, blunted sword fern–though when you look close it’s really quite different. Deer fern (Blechnum spicant) is interesting because each plant has two different types of fronds–a handful that are fertile, with spores underneath, and the rest which are sporeless and sterile.

The fertile fronds have much narrower leaflets, pared down like the skeleton of a fish. Two rows of deep brown spores coat the underside of the leaflets. Each plant throws up several of these fertile fronds, rising upright above the drooping mound of sterile fronds. These leaves have thick, rounded leaflets that are a bright, darker green above and a paler, duller green beneath.

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February 6, 2013 · 10:26 am

Carson Ridge hike with CNPS

There are some of us who love meandering along trails, looking closely at flowers and foliage, debating taxonomy. We are a small but enthusiastic subset, it’s true–but what fun to be with folks of similar mind!

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Last weekend I tagged along with the Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society. Our hike rambled out through the serpentine chaparral of Carson Ridge, then down into a peaceful valley to admire Carson Falls.

This hike showcases the wealth of nature in Marin–there are undeveloped hills and valleys spreading as far as the eye can see, in all directions but south-east, where the Bay and its surrounding cities shine like gems. It’s amazing to think that the vast landscape we were hiking into is protected–mainly, where we were, by the Marin Municipal Water District. But MMWD land abuts County open space, State Park land, and National Parks as well, forming a great swath of public land, free for both wildlife and people.

CNPS16It was not a fast hike–but that is how I like it. There was plenty of time for photos, and I learned a lot, both from my highly knowledgeable fellow hikers and from our adept leader Amelia Ryan (who, in full disclosure, I’ve been friends with since I was six). The sun was shining, scenery was beautiful, the falls were lovely, and the company was good. What a treat.

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February 5, 2013 · 9:22 pm

Plant of the day: western leatherwood

It’s easy to walk right past one of the rarest shrubs in California. Especially at this time of year, western leatherwood (Dirca occidentalis) is little more than a bundle of slim branches hidden in the dappled shade of the forest.

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But despite being understated, this is a lovely plant. It produces its leaves and flowers from the same bud. First fuzzy, pussy-willow-type buds pop out all over the multiple, reddish-brown stems that rise from the ground. Then small but intricate yellow flowers emerge–first the long pistil, and then the many drooping stamens. As the flowers fade, the fuzzy young leaves begin to appear. In my limited experience with dirca, as it is often called, these things happen at different times on a single plant so you can see buds, flowers and young leaves all at the same time.

Dirca grows only in the San Francisco Bay Area–and even here it is a very rare sight. It tends to grow on moist hillsides, in partial shade. In the place where I saw one, it was under oaks and alongside hazelnut. The older stems were mottled, splotched with patches of white and gray.

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