Category Archives: Native

October 23, 2012 · 9:03 am

Plant of the day: giant horsetail

Along a damp ditch, bristly green bottle-brushes grow to my knees. This is giant horsetail, or Equisetum telmateia. Some call it a weed, but horsetail is one of my all-time favorite plants. They form low thickets of supple green stalks with long, skinny stick-like leaves that sprout out in all directions. When I was a kid I’d pick my teacher bouquets of them on my way to school—my quirky version of the proverbial apple.

As an adult I learned there are even more reasons to love horsetails than their good looks. The Equisetum species are considered “living fossils”, which means that they have changed very little over the last hundred million years or so (though they have shrunk some; back then they grew as tall as trees!).

Grab a handful of horsetail plants next time you walk past a patch. It scrunches pleasantly in your palm, but the slim stalk and leaves tend to bend, not break. They are jam-packed with silica, which makes them strong as well as flexible. This earned the plant the alternate name of scouringrush–it’s been used to scrub dirty dishes, to polish metal, to clean floors, and even as sandpaper. Some herbalists recommend drinking a tea made from the dried young stalks for strong and supple hair, skin and bones. Watch out, as large amounts of the raw plant can be harmful or toxic.

The bottle-brush part of the plant that you usually see is sterile, but in the spring giant horsetail sprouts a fertile stalk that is leafless and topped by a pale cone-like structure that releases spores. It also spreads by rhizome, which may be why some call it a weed—it can be dense and hard to get rid of since new plants sprout up from the roots.

There are four species of Equisetum in the SF bay area, but only two of the brushy type. Giant horsetail is probably more common in these parts, though its bushy cousin Equisetum arvense snagged the  official nickname of “common horsetail”. You can identify giant horsetail because its stem is larger–generally greater than 5mm across–and if you look close at its twiggy leaves, you’ll see that each is ribbed with several grooved ridges. The grooves also are a way to identify it, though the giant-ness is easier.

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October 22, 2012 · 9:31 am

Plant of the day: white alder

White alder looks almost the same as its cousin, red alder, which I wrote about in my last post. This tree grows a bit taller, but the main way to tell them apart is by looking at the underside of the leaf. In white alder (Alnus rhombifolia) the leaf margin is flat instead of tightly rolled underneath. It also produces its catkins slightly earlier, in January instead of from February through March.

White alder has flat leaf margins

Red alder has inrolled leaf margins

Both species are common in Marin, but you’re less likely to see white alder growing right along the coast.

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October 21, 2012 · 10:33 pm

Plant of the day: red alder

Tall, straight tree trunks line the banks of the stream–each trunk elegantly splotched with patterns of white and gray. This is red alder, or Alnus rubra, one of the two common species of alder in this area.

This fast growing species is important as an early colonizer of disturbed habitats–landslides, stream banks, logging sites, or even forest clearings where a big old tree has fallen down and made a gap. I’ve seen hundreds of young alder sprouting up on the gravel left behind a retreating glacier, and it was one of the first plants to grow back in the wasteland left by the Mt. St. Helens volcanic eruption back in the 80s.

Around here, alder tends to prefer the moist soils of canyons, streamsides and wetlands. Besides the characteristically blotchy bark you will know alder by its tiny woody cones and its broadly serrated leaves that seem almost dented by the lateral veins that run across them from midrib to margin.  Red alder can be identified by the way the edge of the leaf rolls tightly under itself, so when you flip one over you see a dark green ridge running around the rim of its paler underbelly. The other local species of alder (white alder, or Alnus rhombifolia) has a flat edge.

Red alder contains the compound salicilin, which is similar to acetylsalicylic acid–aka aspirin. Native Americans used extracts of the bark to treat a wide range of maladies from tuberculosis to headache (as well as stomachache, wounds, eczema, diaper rash and more). Cones and catkins were also used. Some tribes rubbed rotten wood on limbs to sooth aching bones. A red dye can be made from the bark–one use for this was to dye fishing nets, supposedly making them invisible to fish. 

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October 19, 2012 · 8:24 pm

Plant of the day: mugwort

Spires of grayish-green leaves grow on the roadside, each topped with a spike of unassuming pale flowers. This is California mugwort, or Artemisia douglasiana. It’s flowers are rayless aster-type flowers, diminutive tassles of pale beige or yellowish threads. The leaves are velvety with white hairs that are especially dense on the underside. When you rip one in half it clings together with fibrous shreds.

Mugwort can grow to be 8 feet tall according to the Marin Flora, but I’ve usually seen it growing to about knee high. The plant has a pleasant sage-like smell when you crush it—not surprising since it’s a close cousin of California sagebrush. It’s also known as Douglas’ sagewort, or dream plant.

You’ll find mugwort growing in a wide range of habitats—from moist seep springs to toasty hillsides.

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October 15, 2012 · 9:37 pm

Plant of the day: Oregon ash

Oregon ash is a stately tree of the riverbanks. It grows tall and upright, creating an umbrella of sweeping branches and bright green leaves. In the late summer the female plants become heavily decorated with winged seed-pods called samaras–these trees are dioecious, meaning each plant is either male or female (instead of both, as most plants are).

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Right now, the seeds are ripening as the leaves are yellowing and beginning to fall.

The range of Oregon ash (Fraxinus latifolia) is from British Columbia to Riverside County near LA, in a belt along the coast. Look for pinnate leaves, where each “leaf” is composed of five to nine large, paired leaflets. The photos here were taken in Cascade Canyon of Fairfax, and also on the Marin Municipal Water District.

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October 14, 2012 · 8:14 pm

Plant of the day: beaked hazelnut

Broad, fuzzy leaves are beginning to turn brown on this charming shrub of the understory. In a month or so, the branches will be bare skeletons, ready for the winter.

Beaked hazelnut (Corylus cornuta) is found across the country–except for the south. Around here you usually see it in moist forest understories, shaded canyons or streamsides. It has slim, sometimes drooping branches decked with light green, jagged-edged leaves. The flowers are monoecious, meaning that each flower is either male or female–but both sexes appear on a single plant. The female flowers look like tassels of small crimson threads; the male flowers are drooping pale catkins. But often this plant reproduces clonally, growing in dense clusters that are genetically identical.

Grouse, deer, rabbits, voles, and other critters use these shrubs for food and shelter. The tasty nuts have been compared to filberts, and commercial hazelnuts, and can be eaten raw or cooked. Native Americans wove the slim and flexible branches into baskets and baby carriers.

It’s the only hazelnut found in California.

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October 11, 2012 · 4:38 pm

Plant of the day: California white oak

The changing leaves of the oaks are another sign of the shift in seasons. Brown is quickly overtaking green, especially in the drier hills. Only the large, lobe-leaved oaks are deciduous–the species with small leathery foliage hang on to their leaves year-round.

California white oak (Quercus lobata) has lobed leaves that are paler beneath and rich, shiny green above. Their acorns are slim, with a large cap-shaped cup that resembles a Rastafarian’s hat. They can be distinguished from their cousins that also have pale underbellies because blue oak has–wait for it–a blueish cast to the upper surface of the leaf. And Oregon oak has a furry coat on its underside (as well as plump, squat acorns). I use the memory-trick that Oregon oaks need such things to grow in the chilly north, whereas Californian oaks have no need for extra insulation.

Identifying oaks can be notoriously tricky, since they cross with one another easily and the results have a mixed blend of characteristics. I tend to stick with the Marin Flora and that keeps me happy. The California white oak pictured here, for example, has shallower lobes than the classic examples. But lobes aren’t an issue in the Marin Flora–so I can happily feel comfortable with my ID.

Note the pale underside of the leaf

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October 9, 2012 · 12:47 am

Plant of the day: coffee fern

A brown scrap of leaves clings to a rocky cliff, strung together on threadlike stems. Though this little fern looks thoroughly dead in the last gasp of autumn heat it’s actually still alive. The green leaves of this perennial fern turn brown in late summer, giving coffee fern or coffee cliffbrake (Pellaea andromedifolia) its common name.

You can tell this fern from the similar-looking birdfoot cliffbrake because it has rounded leaves, rather than leaves that come to a point. When the leaves are not dried out, you can see that each leaflet rolls under at the edges (shown in the photo, below).

Pellaea_andromedifolia2

Coffee fern in winter lushness

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October 6, 2012 · 9:03 pm

Plant of the day: pepperwood

Scrappy and graceful, the pepperwood (Umbellularia californica, or California bay laurel) is often overlooked and underappreciated, but it’s one of my favorite trees. It can take on all sorts of forms, from skinny trunks packed close together in the understory to stoic ancient giants. Near the coast they can become windswept, so an entire stand of trees melds together into a single undulating canopy of green. They host many other species–from birds and beetles to the moss and ferns that grow on their trunks. Pepperwood often are full of cavities where critters roost or nest, and if you climb them often–as I did as a kid–you quickly learn to check the crooks of the branches for racoon scat.

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Right now the nuts of the pepperwood are beginning to ripen; inch-long orbs of green or purple or yellow peek out from among the leaves. In the early winter, tiny pale yellow flowers will begin to bloom. They are easy to miss, but worth looking for: each tiny blossom is an intricate display (see the photos above). I particularly love the decorative dots of pollen arranged on spatula-shaped stamens. The leaves are wonderful too, both to look at and eat: the distinctive peppery aroma adds a nice flavor to beans or tomato sauce.

Recently pepperwood has gotten a bad rap because it’s a vector for sudden oak death but doesn’t die from it. Some people advocate cutting down pepperwoods to protect their oaks. Perhaps this method might slow the spread of the disease–but it won’t stop it. Personally I’d rather keep the mature pepperwoods around then have to start a forest over from scratch.

I should note that pepperwood is the less-used name for this tree; but personally I think it’s much better than the staid and unevocative bay laurel. I also like the heritage of the word–it’s what my grandfather always called it, and those who use it nowadays tend to be old-time Californians. A tribe I’m happy to be in.

 

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October 5, 2012 · 10:19 am

Plant of the day: madrone

The bright red-orange berries of madrone trees are ripening, giving hillsides and forest canopies a crimson tint. This tree is a stunning sight at any time of year, with large dark-green leaves, crooked trunks and smooth, rust-colored bark. But right now the madrones are particularly gorgeous as they add their brilliant berries into the mix. And there are a lot of them! Each tree is decked with so much fruit that it takes on a reddish glow. 

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Look for madrone (Arbutus menziesii) as one of the many species growing in mixed hardwood and conifer forests. You can see them even while driving: look for bursts of red scattered across the dark green wallpaper of a forested hillside. It often is found growing along with Doug fir, tanoak and other oaks–usually on well-drained, rocky soils.

Madrone berries are edible, and were used widely by Native American tribes such as the Miwok and the Salinan. The fruits were eaten raw–but in small quantities. Sometimes they were chewed for flavor, but not swallowed. They were more often eaten cooked or dried, or made into unfermented cider (water used to make the cider was boiled by adding hot rocks to a watertight basket, and stirring them so they wouldn’t burn through).

Berries were also made into necklaces, and used for bait in fishing. The leaves were chewed to treat stomachache and cramps, or used to make a wash for poison oak.

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