Week Three

Date: Sunday April 21st, 2013

Weather: Initially cloudy, sunny with some clouds later on

Temperature: ~53 degrees F

Time: 3:00 PM - 4:20 PM

Location: Discovery Park

As we got to our site, it was a little chilly and began to drizzle. "Is it ever going to be nice when we visit our site?" we pondered as we zipped up our jackets all the way and stuffed our hands into our pockets. Nevertheless, we soon got into the observational spirit as we began to notice new and changing things around us! One of the first things we noticed is that the Red-flowering currant had began to fruit, even though some of the inflorescence was still flowering. 

Look at how it fruits from the base of the inflorescence towards the apex!

We also noticed that the cones on the Alaskan Yellow Cedar was beginning to mature. The female cones looked a little farther along than the male cones. Perhaps it is to avoid the males wasting their pollen before the females are receptive? I'd be interested to see if there is alternating variation in the timing of the emergence of reproductive structures between individuals; it seems like that would be a good way to ensure outcrossing and avoid self-pollination. 

Knoby little cones the Alaskan Yellow Cedar

While we were looking at the cedar, we noticed a Fly of some sort. Normally, I ignore most insects simply because I have no idea how to identify them, but we managed to get a pretty good picture of it. Hopefully we find more soon! Maybe I should take an entomology class...

WHOA. 

Resuming our search, we found yet another species at our original small-scale location! And I thought we had been so thorough in our search last time. Turns out we had missed a Dovefoot Geranium hiding at our feet. However, it is yet another invasive weed. They are quite pretty though...

The palmate leaves typical of something in the Geraniaceae

Also, the species we tentitively identified as Spiraea spp. seems to be mostly done flowering, as most of the petals have fallen off of the plant. 

No real sign of fruit yet though.

The Bigleaf Maple continues to mature; it looks more like a bigleaf maple every time we come back. The leaves are certainly a lot bigger. 

Check out how the stigma on the bigleaf maple is exposing its receptive surfaces! 

Also, the flowers on the Elderberry are looking a lot more prickly, since the stamens have completely unfurled and seem to be active. 

Pointy stamens... now fully erect. 

Moving on, we found the fruiting body of some sort of fungus, and from the looks of it, it is probably from last year, or at least a couple months ago. 

Almost looks like a flower... minus leaves and no reproductive structures

We found yet another plant in the Rosaceae! It looks like a Prunus or perhaps something else? It is so hard to tell without flowers. Fortunately, we won't have to wait too long to see what it is because the flower buds are looking pretty ready to burst. 

Yet another Rosaceae. Seems like everything is in the Rosaceae. 

A while back we observed how the flowers of the Indian Plum were already drying up. Now they aren't so dry...

Fruits of the Indian Plum are about...

It might have been because it was rather cold and wet last time we were looking at Douglas-Firs last week, but the male cones looked a lot more open and mature this week. 

What a bright orange!

Despite all the amazing phenological changes we were seeing, we managed to tear ourselves away from our familiar area and delved deeper into the park in search of new and exciting lifeforms. Almost right away, we started to see new things, like Snowberry, Pacific Madrone, Black Hawthorne, Red Alder, Nootka Rose, a grass in the Barley tribe, some sort of true moss, Oceanspray, a potentially invasive Strawberry, Sticky Currant, Stinging Nettle, Grand Fir, Western Hemlock, maybe Lamb's Ear, Quaking Aspen, yet another unknown Rosaceae that is probably some introduced Cherry Blossom, Salmonberry, Sitka Spruce, Vinca Vine, Herb Robert, Lodgepole Pine, Ponderosa Pine, Salal, Fringecup, Licorice Fern, Pacific Flowering Dogwood, and a species of Butterfly Bush. WHEW!! So many species!!! This was actually really overwhelming, because I felt like we stayed in a very similar ecological niche the whole time, and simply expanded our search area. Although, I believe there is some sort of ecological principle that states that the wider the area you search for species, the more species you will find. Seems like common sense, but there is sure to be some sort of name for this concept. Oh well! 

The Ericaceae flowers of the Pacific Madrone

For some reason I thought identifying species of grasses would be somewhat easy, but as it turns out I've forgotten most of the terminology for describing grass flowers, so I can't do a quick identification. Next time I visit my site, and have the time, I hope to key out some grass species to force me to relearn the lingo. Being able to identify grasses, rushes, and sedges down to genera levels is a very helpful skill in habitat quality/type evaluations. I hope to develop and use these skills in my future career!

Blogger is weird and won't let me rotate the picture...
But here is a grass in what I think is the Barley tribe!

White-flowering Currant really means Sticky Currant.
 I should have grabbed some to make sure it wasn't just an escaped cultivar of Red-flowering Currant. 

Don't mess with this bad boy. 

Fringecup; the first species we've found in the Saxifragaceae!

We actually came across quite a few species that I had no idea what they were. There were a few deciduous trees that had yet to leaf out, let alone flower, so we were left guessing on that front. I heard that UW used offer a twigs class, but due to budget cuts it was discontinued. Sadness :(   However, there were a few other more herbaceous plants that seemed a little easier to potentially identify.

First unknown. Looks reminiscent of something I've seen in someone's garden

Close-up on the flowers of the first unknown. Wish I took some with me. 

Second unknown. Also has a whorled leaf arrangement. 

We managed to find another insect on our first unknown though! It looks like it might just be a Common Housefly though...

Believe it or not, this fly is not actually defying gravity; this picture is simply sideways. 

So many plants!!! All this made us rather planted out, so we searched for some diversity of the avian variety. Unfortunately, the only bird that was photogenic enough to let us take a picture was an American Robin, once again.

Oh hey, long time no see.... not. 

 Despite this, we did manage to see a Chestnut-back Chickadee and a Bushtit, even if it was just fleeting glances. I'm always impressed by the aerial acrobatics that they manage to pull off; they fly to the edge of a shrub from the interior, flip so they are upside down, then quickly grab a twig as they pick a bug off of new shoots, leaving them hanging upside down momentarily, until they fly off. I wish I could do that! We managed to hear some of the other birds around the park though, like the Stellar's Jay, American Crow, Anna's Hummingbird, and Pine Siskin, among others.

This week, we were supposed to describe eight different plant species as well as we could, so here goes nothing!
Fringecup (Tellima grandiflora): Herbaceous plant. Most leaves basal, although some are on the stalk of the inflorescence. The leaves are generally heart-shaped and shallowly/broadly lobed, and has the palmate venation that is characteristic for Saxifragaceae. Flowers appear to have a fused calyx, and many (5-10?) tattered looking petals that are reddish in color. 10 stamens. I did not get a chance to closely look at the pistol. Many flowers along the raceme. Appears to like filtered light and moist conditions.

Heart-shaped Leaves of Fringecup

Can you count the number of stamens?

Vinca Vine (Vinca minor): Low growing herbaceous vine, opposite leaves. Forms small thickets along the ground. A soft purple color to their flowers. The petals have a propeller shape to them, which is characteristic for their family (Apocynaceae). The 5 sepals are unified into a tube, with just little lobes to distinguish them. The 5 petals also do the same, although to a lesser extent. The 5 stamens are actually attached to the corolla tube, rather than the receptacle. They are frequently used in gardening.

Vinca Vine

Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa): Large conifer tree in the Pine family (Pinus genus). 3 longish needles per fascicle. Bark appears almost armored; with bark-like spikes coming out at a 90 degree angle from the branch for just a bit, then running parallel to the branch. Younger branches appear more knobby than spiked. Immature female cones are a bright purple, and the male counterparts are borne on the same structure, just at the terminal point. Some female cones are developing along the branch. Cones are about 6 inches long, with spikes at the end of each scale. Although our site was fairly mesic, they prefer slightly xeric sites, and are typically found on the east side of the cascades. Apparently, when it is hot and sunny outside, the bark will give off a vanilla-like scent.

Purple immature female cones

Armored to the teeth

Alaskan Yellow Cedar (Xanthocyparis nootkatensis): Large, somewhat squat conifer tree. Scales instead of needles, the scale tips are pointy and jut outward before coming inwards to connect to the next scale. Foliage is a yellow-green, and bark is stringy like most cedars, with a slight yellow tinge. Cones are knobby little globes (~1 cm in diameter) with about 6 scales.

Distinctive cones of the Alaskan Yellow Cedar

Pacific Madrone (Arbutus menziesii): Tall evergreen broadleaf tree. Distinctive red pealing bark. Leaves are a dark-green and are thick, sometimes older leaves are spotted. Flowers are white and urn-shaped, characteristic for its family (Ericaceae) and are many, borne upon a typically terminal raceme. The tree is cold, giving it the nickname "the refrigerator tree".

Ericaceae flowers

Reddish pealing bark

Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis): Medium-sized shrub, younger branches are coated with many small thorns, while older branches are unarmored and smooth. Leaves are alternate, and are doubly-serrate with pinnate venation. Flowers are a bright pink, with 5 sepals, 5 pointed petals, and many stamens. Berries are an aggregate of drupelets, and look like orange raspberries. The sweet edible fruits are popular with all sorts of wildlife.

Salmonberry

Western Flowering Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii): Medium to large deciduous tree. Opposite leaves with characteristic dogwood pinnate venation that runs parallel to the leaf edge towards the leaf apex. Leaves are more or less entire, with an acute/acuminate apex. Flowers actually really small, and the entire inflorescence creates a white button-like structure surrounded by 4-6 white bracts. Inflorescence will later swell up to a red "berry" like fruit. Can perform the dogwood test; carefully break a leaf laterally and the leaf halves will remain attached to each other due to a spiral lining in their xylem.

Dogwood leaves with last year's fruit

Red Elderberry (Sambucus racemosa): Tall woody shrub (2-6 meters tall), opposite compound leaves, with 5-7 leaflets per leaf. Leaflets are obovate in shape, serrate margins, with an acute apex. Flowers are cream colored, with 5 stamens with bright yellow anthers, 3-5 lobed stigma, 5 petals. They are also fragrant  attracting hummingbirds and butterflies. Inflorescence is generally cone shaped, with multiple cymes coming off of a primary panicle. Fruits are a characteristic bright red drupe, which is popular with birds.

Elderberry.

That's all for now. More next week!