WEEK 3

Date: Sunday, April 21, 2013
Weather: Mostly sunny with a few clouds, dusk
Temperature: ~55 degrees F
Time: 6:00pm - 7:00pm
Location: Ravenna Park

A repeat view of my site

*Plant species description on page labeled "Field Guide: Plants"*

This past weekend I was fortunate to spend time with family on our annual visit to 'Pott's of Gold', a cabin located on Hood Canal (see post titled "Interest at a Young Age" for more details). My relaxing weekend was filled with card games, trips to the beach, and even some bird watching! However, this adventure left only a small window of time to visit my observation site. After arriving home on Sunday evening, I trekked straight over to Ravenna Park to make some observations before the sun went down. On a happy note, this was one of the first times I got to experience my site without using an umbrella or heavy rain jacket. The sun's warmth trickled down to the forest floor through the branches above, landing softly on the creek and a number of new, blossoming species that I was eager to discover. 

Although I had a few surprising discoveries during my trip, my favorite was the identification of three of the four fern species that exist in Ravenna Park, which I learned about while taking field notes during class. The first fern is the Western Sword Fern (polystichum munitum), featured in last week's blog post, is distinguished by it's dark, pinnately compound leaves with individual leaflets and seeds on the underside. This week however, some leaves were rather dry, wrinkled, and dead looking in comparison to weeks passed. They seemed a darker green than before and as some of the stalks turned brown and dead, there were still more growing up and out of the center. 

Western Sword Fern (polystichum munitum)

The next identifiable fern, also featured in weeks passed, is the Lady Fern (athyrium filix-femina). The lady fern has curvy, lady shaped leaves that are bi-pinnately compound and come from straight from the ground. The leaves are lobed with fine-toothed leaflets and are a lighter green than the Western Sword Fern. These two ferns were hanging out together right at the edge of the creek on a deep, muddy landing. 

Lady Fern (athyrium filix-femina)

A studied drawing of the Lady Fern (athyrium filix-femina)

The last and most exciting 'fern-find' of my trip was discovering the Licorice Ferns (polypodium glycyrrhiza) that were growing from both a Big-Leaf Maple and also, one of my other new discoveries, the Pacific Yew (taxus brevifolia). The ferns are known for living on trees and being pinnately compound with shiny, fine-toothed, broad-based leaflets. These parasitic plants are epithetic, catching the greatest amount of sunlight from water directly from the tree trunks. The Licorice Fern gets its name because the root is said to taste like black licorice. 

Licorice Ferns (taxus brevifolia) grow on the upper branches
of this Big-Leaf Maple (acer macrophyllum)

Licorice Ferns (taxus brevifolia) grow on the lower branches
of this Pacific Yew (taxus brevifolia)

The Pacific Yew (taxus brevifolia) appears in my first blog post, as I quite mistakenly misnamed it to be another Big-leaf Maple. The tree has soft, flat, thick needles in two rows and a brown and purple-colored bark that is smooth and flaky. The needles are discussant, meaning that they grow against the base of the branch, which is one of its most identifiable factors. The Pacific Yew is said to have bright red berries, but they were dried up at the time. This Pacific Yew features big shaggy moss (rhytidiadelphus loreus) on almost all of the lower branches, so much so that I could only identify it by the needles found at the very tips of its branches.

Thick,flat needles of the Pacific Yew (taxus brevifolia)

While I was checking out my site, hopping from tree to shrub, looking for any sort of new growth or budding leaves, I spotted a never-before-seen species right in the heart of my site. Apparently, for the past few weeks I have missed this Pacific Bleeding Heart (dicentra formosa), and I am willing to wager that this is because the small, heart-shaped, purple flowers had not blossomed yet. The flowers bloom in small groups, two to three at a time, and droop down toward the ground. The leaves are fern-like and pinnately compound with very small, finely cut leaflets. The plant at it's full extension reaches no more than a foot off of the ground and was found on a muddy hillside right behind a Western Sword Fern. 

A small patch of the Pacific Bleeding Heart (dicentra formosa)

The Pacific Bleeding Heart (dicentra formosa) at full height

My next discoveries were drawn from our in-class exploration, as I was able to clear up a few things with my knowledgeable and helpful TAs. The 'strange looking tree' that I had yet to identify last week, with smooth and light colored bark, budding fresh small green leaves and an abnormally high amount of projections from the base is said to be the Beaked Hazel (corylus cornuta), or Beaked Hazelnut Shrub. This is identifiable as being a multi-stemmed shrub with small protrusion on the ends of branches, the tiny green leaves on the very tips of branches that will host tiny nuts when they become pubescent. The small leaves have very fine, double serrated edges. I had noticed the yellow catkins on a previous visit, reminiscent of a Big-leaf Maple, however this identification as a Beaked Hazel makes much more sense. 

A repeated image from Week 2, now identified
as Beaked Hazel (corylus cornuta)

The plant that seems to have given me the most trouble through the weeks is what I now claim to have found to be the Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus). This shrub covers much of my observation site, on both sides of the creek, and its identification has confused both myself and my TAs. In my Week 2 blog post I chose to do my drawing study on this plant and mistakenly (again) called it the Vine Maple (acer circinatum). Last week, I thought my identification as a Vine Maple was genius, given that on my first visit I assumed it to be a sticker bush. However, this 'small broad-leaf tree, close to the ground with tall clusters of leaves' is actually, no tree at all, but a member of the Rose Famiy. The Thimbleberry has 5-lobed, star-like leaves with rounded, wrinkled leaves that are toothed and hairy. This identification could have been made much easier had I found it between June and August, when the shrub is fruiting and has crimson, edible berries. When I drew the plant, the leaves were only 2-3" in diameter, however, as shown in the second image below, some of the plants have grown larger leaves that even exceed the size of my hand. This is no surprise that I got it confused with a maple! 

Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus)

Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus) in comparison to my hand

New leaf growth on a Thimbleberry (rubus parviflorus)

 My adventure ended with the observation of a number of new species that remain a mystery to me. I plan on identifying them in my Field Guide, as well as asking a few of the TAs their opinions on the following pictures of plants and shrubs. They are a good starting point for something to look for in weeks to come! 

Unidentified Plant Species #1

Unidentified Plant Species #1

Unidentified Plant Species #1

Unidentified Plant Species #2

Unidentified Plant Species #3

Now is a great time to hop over to my Field Guide on plants to learn more about some of the species featured above! Follow the link below!

http://herzomeg.blogspot.com/p/field-guide-plants_23.html