Thank you again to everyone who made 2016 a huge success in the herbarium. Here is some important info about the herbarium this quarter:
The times this quarter are Thursdays 3 – 5 pm and Fridays 12 – 2 pm.
I now have the ability to pay for metered parking so please let me know if you’d like to use that option.
Dr. Paul Wilson is guiding us on a moss collecting hike on Feb. 11th and will be talking with us in the herbarium on Feb 10th during the volunteer session.
Last quarter, we mounted almost 1,000 new specimens. That was really incredible and thank you to everyone who helped manage the large number of students who were in there!
We also finished cataloging the Herbarium Library, and boy did we find some treasures. We are still in the process of refiling all the books.
Cathy and Jason are making progress on our lichens and mosses.
The SLO Voucher Flora Project is still happening and we are chipping away at that. All of our records can be searched here:
Plants: http://nansh.org/portal/
Mosses: http://bryophyteportal.org/portal/
Lichens: http://lichenportal.org/portal/
In other big news, our newest Botany faculty member, Dr. Dena Grossenbacher, has arrived to Cal Poly. She starts this quarter. She studies Mimulus and Clarkia, among other
wonderful plants. I’m sure you will all meet her at some point this quarter.
During the volunteer sessions at the Hoover Herbarium, people can take part in any number of activities. One of our primary responsibilities is mounting new specimens. This involves taking dried and pressed plants and glueing them to paper. When we mount plants, we do it in such a way that those specimens will last for hundreds of years. Each specimen is a physical record of what plants occurred where and when. Without this valuable information we wouldn’t know when a species goes extinct, expands or contracts its range, or where species occur. After mounting the specimens are databased and geo-referenced. Then they are filed into the main collection. We have over 80,000 specimens at the Hoover Herbarium.
A herbarium plant sheet, a important archive of our local flora
We are also working on a SLO Voucher Collection, which will contain one representative specimen for each species in the county. Volunteers look through our specimens and pick the one that should be added to the Voucher Collection.
Additionally, we are actively working on our moss and lichen collections. Volunteers can choose what aspects of the work they would like to participate in. Any and everyone is welcome.
The Hoover Herbarium is located on the 3rd floor of the Fisher Science Building (33) in rooms 352 and 359. Parking permits are required Monday through Thursday, 7:00 am through 10:00 pm; and Friday, 7:00 am through 5:00 pm. You can either buy a $6 day pass, a $4 3-hr pass, park in a metered space, or park off campus and walk in. I can pay for metered parking, but you’ll want to arrange that with me first.
IMAGE: By PeterOMalley (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons
The greatest girth of a single trunk coast live oak, measured at a height of between 1.3-1.5 m above the ground, is 30. 15 ft. (9.19 m), the tree being “The Grand Oak” at Highland Springs Resort in Cherry Valley, California.
The nemesis of the Coast live oak, as far as sudden oak death is concerned, is California Bay. The record for this tree is a girth of 30.51 ft. (9.3 m), located in the Rancho San Antonio Open Space in Palo Alto.
The Pechanga Great Oak Tree of Temecula is a Coast live oak that is probably the oldest oak in California and possibly the world, dated at about 2,000 years.
Canyon Live Oak is also impressive. The largest is in the San Bernadino Mountains and is 12.7 m in girth. This is also a species at great risk from Sudden Oak Death. although not in drier locations.
The tallest oak Valley Oak, a white oak which are not affected by Sudden Oak Death. The tallest specimen is in the Covelo Valley in Mendocino County, and stands at 140 feet (42.7 m).
The Field Guide to Plant Galls of California and Other Western States (by Ron Russo, U.C. Press) identifies more than 300 species of galls, including 95 found only on oaks. They are created by wasps.
IMAGE: By Alex Wild, part of the University of Texas at Austin’s “Insects Unlocked” project. [CC0], via Wikimedia Commons
Over 150 species of wasp are known to be associated with oak galls. However just one of these wasp species is associated with another 90 insect species that utilize the gall in some way.
IMAGE: By Franco Folini from San Francisco, USA [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
The round galls, called oak apples, on California Live Oak can be a source of fountain pen ink. Find out how to make it here.
Doug McCreary writes, in Living Among The Oaks, “Oak environments are among the richest wildlife habitats in the state; 110 species of birds use oak habitats during the breeding season, and 35 percent of California’s land mammals utilize oaks during
some time of their lives. California’s deer herds are particularly dependent on oak habitats.”
The oaks (Family Fagaceae, genus Quercus) belong to an old lineage of trees and shrubs that dates back to at least the Late Cretaceous (about 85 million years ago). The oldest fossils are most closely aligned with Fagus, the beeches, but there are also suggestions of chestnuts (Castanea) in some of these ancient materials. These fossils are known, to date, only from Georgia, in the south eastern United States. When it comes to the origin of the oaks (Quercus spp.), there is much better evidence. The fossil record reveals that trees similar to oaks first appear about 32-35 million years ago, and trees related to extant species appear by about 25 million years ago. By about 23 million years ago, trees representative of most major groups of oaks have appeared. Dr. Richard Jensen,Saint Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana
Caliente Mountain is the highest spot in the County, and forms the western side of Carrizo Plain National Monument
The oak on Caliente Mountain. is Tucker’s oak, a scrub oak with blue-green, spiny leaves that stands a little over head height but can reach to 7 meters. Quercus john-tuckeri, as it is properly called, is named after John Tucker (1916-2008), Professor of Plant Science at U.C.Davis who also wrote the oak treatment in the Jepson Manual.
Hoover in his “Vascular Plants of San Luis Obispo County” called the oak Quercus dumosa var. turbinella, and that, at that time, Tucker called the same tree Quercus turbinella sap. californica. Added to the confusion is known hybridization with blue oak, Quercus douglasii. The oak is mixed in with California juniper, Juniperus californica, and a mix of chaparral plants including chamise. This association of oak and juniper ca also be found in the uplands of the Great Basin and Arizona, although the species are different. This is part of the great “P-J”, the pinyon pine- juniper association that is very common in the uplands of the arid west.
The “P” of the “PJ” is rare in the Caliente Range, but much more common on the flanks to Mt. Pinos to the southeast. Both oak and juniper are present at the summit. The balance between them varies from place to place, with the junipers seeming to tolerate slightly drier sites than the oak.
You can visit this interesting plant association by driving up the dirt road toward Selby Campground, and branching to the right just before the campground. The road is drivable in a vehicle with normal clearance, but is narrow in places and has some steep drop-offs. During the droughty spring of 2016 there were still a lot of flowers to be found along the road, including a lot of wind poppies (Stylomecon heterophylla) and yellow sheets of Monolopia.
Oak’s companion on Caliente Mt. is the California juniper, Juniperus californica. It is here seen with its distinctive blue-grey berries. These are not true berries, but cones with merged fleshy scales. Berries are very bitter, and were/are used in the flavoring of gin. Gin’s name is derived from the French and Dutch word for juniper.
You don’t have to go all the way to the top of Caliente Mt., as there are large stands along Highway 58 between Navajo Creek and the Carrizo Plain. Another large stand lies on the north slope of the ridge that borders Highway 58 between La Panza Road and Shell Creek.
The stand near Shell Creek is an excellent example of the control of vegetation by slope aspect, as the south facing slope of the ridge is grass covered and has almost no trees. This can be seen as you drive east on Highway 58 toward La Panza Road.
Invasive Species of the Month: Iceplant (Carpobrotus edulis)
Iceplant is a perennial in the Aizoaceae family, native to South Africa and grows in sandy areas on the coast from Eureka to Baja. This succulently leaved plant is overwhelming and carpets the land. I’ve seen outcompete giant Coreopsis and beach spectacle pod. Iceplant competes for nutrients, water, light and space. In very dry places they have long straggling woody stems. The pink or yellow flowers are beautiful and peak in early summer. The leaves root in the soil at the nodes and reproduces by seed. Seeds that passes through an animals gut germinates better.
Iceplant may be pulled and removed–which is the case at Piedras Blancas lighthouse, with spectacular results from the emerged native plant seedbank. Iceplant may be sprayed and the dead matter makes an excellent mulch for native plantings. Frost also kills Iceplant.
According to Cal-IPC iceplant was brought to California in the early 1900’s for stabilizing soil along railroad tracks. It was planted along freeways by Cal Trans until the 1970’s. Now it provides job security for weed warriors.
– Mark Skinner
Carpobrotus edulis or Carpobrotus chilense?
These two species are very similar, and the Jepson descriptions do not fully cover the overlap of features. Generally C. chilense has smaller magenta flowers (3-5 cm diameter) compared to 8-10 cm for C. edulis, which favors yellow flowers, but there is color ‘crossover’. The flower of C. edulis is pedicelled and C. chilense is sessile. The fruit of C. edulis is triangular in cross section, that of C. chilense more rounded and softer.
Carpobrotus edulis on earthquake-elevated mudflat, Shark Inlet, David Chipping
The photograph above shows a massive carpet of Carpobrotus at Shark Inlet. The bench in the foreground used to be pickleweed marsh until the Paso Robles earthquake caused the sand dunes to press down into the mudflat, squishing the edge of the flat above the high tide line and enabling the iceplant invasion.
O.K…. so we’re not Vermont. However we do have some pretty fall color displays. If you like the gold of aspen, you will see the same colors in our closely related cottonwood stands, both trees belonging to the genus Populus. (more…)
Monarch caterpillar feeding on Asclepias fascicularis
All of our local native milkweeds are perennials, but like a lot of our drought-adapted plants, die back and go dormant during the long late summer and fall drought. Many gardeners, knowing there is a monarch butterfly/ milkweed connection, try to keep the milkweeds green all year, or use non-native milkweeds that stay green. Cal Poly’s Dr. Francis Villablanca has shown that winter breeding by monarchs will take place if green milkweed is available, which would not normally happen in the overwintering populations in SLO County. Nonstop breeding on the same plants can perpetuate the transmission of a devastating parasite called OE, for Ophryocystis elektroscirrha.
Normally, the transmission cycle is broken when milkweeds go dormant. The infection can kill adults as they emerge from their chrysalis, while mildly infected monarchs fly poorly, don’t reproduce normally, and die early. These very sick butterflies can then carry spores of the pathogen into the milkweeds in other gardens or along the entire migration route.
You don’t have to tear out a non-native milkweed if you cut it way back. While the infection issue is much greater for the central USA migration paths, it is critical that we take preventive actions on the coast, especially since we are still determining how bad it actually is in California.
Many thanks to Dr. Villablanca of Cal Poly on putting all of this together.
Coffeeberry Frangula californica – Images courtesy of Marlin Harms
Way back in 1992 the Watershed Education Program for San Luis Obispo County, in conjunction with U.C. Extension and the Soil Conservation Service (now Natural Resources Conservation Service) produced a list of native plants suitable for erosion control. CNPS feels that the wildfires of 2016 justifies republication of this list, although we have editied for species name changes and removed a couple of non-native species from the original list. The Highway 41 fire burned two years later, but that was far smaller than the current spate of fires.
David Chipping
Lupinus albifons
Trees and Shrubs
Alnus rhombifolia
White Alder 1,2
Acer macrophyllum
Big Leaf Maple 1,3
Acer negundo var. californicum
Box Elder 4
Artemisia califomica
California Sagebrush 5, 12,26
Baccharis pilularis Coyote Brush 12, 27
Ceanothus cuneatus
Buckbrush 5, 6, 12
Cornus glabrata
Creek Dogwood 1, 16, 18
Frangula californica
Coffeeberry 5, 10, 28
Hazardia squarrosa
Goldenbush 6
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Toyon 5,12,28
Myrica califomica
Bayberry (Wax-Myrtle) 1, 16
Plantanus racemosa
California Sycamore 1, 16
Populus trichocarpa
Black Cottonwood 1, 16
Querus agrifolia
Coast Live Dak 5,12,17,27, 28
Rhamnus crocea
Redberry 5
Ribes divaricatum
Wild Gooseberry 8
Ribes menziesii
8, 24
Ribes menziesii var. hystrix
8,20
Ribes speciosum
Fuschia flowered Gooseberry 8
Rosa californica
Wild Rose 1
Rubus ursinus
California Blackberry 1, 9, 20
Salix lasiolepsis
Arroyo Willow 1, 16, 18,22
Salvia mellifera
Black Sage 5, 6, 26
Salvia spathacea
Hummingbird Sage 20
Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea
Blue Elderberry 1, 5, 11, 12, 28
Umbellularia californica
California Bay, California Laurel 2, 5, 12, 16, 24
There is an intense infestation of Jubata grass on the California coast. As almost everyone knows it mars the most
beautiful places such as Big Sur. On their web site California Invasive Plant Council (CalIPC) describes that Jubata grass is native to northern Argentina, Bolivia, Peru Chile and Ecuador. It was grown in France and Ireland from seed collected in Ecuador. It may have come to California from France and was first seen in 1966. Jubata grass has been called the “marriage weed” as honeymooners dragged the plumes behind their cars in Big Sur. Oy! What a mess!
Jubata grass flowers from late July to September. No pollination is necessary for reproduction. Flowers are female
only, which produces viable seed. Each plume may contain 100,000 seeds! Plants may have 1 to 30+ plumes. I started removing Jubata grass in the mid 1990’s with Jack Biegle and John Nowak, just north of Oso Flaco boardwalk.
I’ve been at it ever since and removed hundreds from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes, San Luis Obispo, Cambria and
Vandenberg. I’m happy to report that from the many hundreds that were in the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes there are only about twenty remaining.
After last week’s hot spell (last week of September) when Los Osos hit 98°F in the shade; a good feeling came over me. Back in the day when I was a kid I always remember a hot Indian summer before a normal rainy year. So keeping this in mind I’m hoping this fall will bring lots of the wet stuff and get all the plants you purchased at the sale off to a good start. So I’m going to go over some of the basics for buying the right plant for your garden.
First, it’s important to think of others that come to visit your garden. I’m not just talking about your friends but other critters, such as birds, squirrels, gophers, moles, deer, rabbits … you get the picture. If you have a deer problem, it will limit your selection. Likewise, if you want to bring bees, birds, and beneficial insects to your garden such as Monarch Butterflies you can do this by selecting your plants ahead of
the sale.
Second, most important, if the rains don’t come you will need to be Mother Nature and water until the plants become established. This would mean a good soaking over the Winter, twice a month until April. After that pay attention and water at least once a month over the first Summer depending on your soil type. Los Osos, Nipomo, etc. more water and clay soils less water every three weeks during the summer, just watch closely.
If you’re lucky and you already have established plants then the idea would be to select something that can co-exist with what you already have. Remember like playing music, less is best. Avoid the temptation to create a botanical garden and focus on simple design. Also, remember that bugs always want to destroy our best intentions. I like to use water spray on leaves to control aphids, spider mites, thrips, and to knock down oak moth caterpillars. If needed, consult your local nursery for other options.
Lastly, picking the right plant for the right spot. Sounds simple, but this is the most difficult task. Like a small boat on a large sea, the wrong plant in the wrong spot will die for sure and you won’t be happy. Going back to my first topic, look at the big picture, sun, shade are very important. Soil, drainage, are number two on the list. Think about when you go out on a hike, what’s growing on the trail. Well-drained, sunny slopes have manzanita, ceanothus, buckwheat, and lupine but shady areas have more organics, oaks, ribes, ferns, coffeberry, and hummingbird sage, love it there.
So in conclusion, I’m expecting a good chance of rain, if my gut feeling and childhood memories come through. Of course, we will have lots of good people working the sale this year so if you have special plant request, email me at gritlys@gmail.com and I will see what I can do. For now, happy gardening; Suzette and I will see you at the plant sale.
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