Discovering Diversity

Upon my visit to Wild Wood Park my senses were bombarded by a plethora of various living organisms. Not even  fifteen feet up the trail a lizard crossed my path. It was perhaps three inches in length and at firs glance the color of sand, upon close inspection however I realized it was covered in relatively regular white spots about the size of a pen head set upon an irregularly alternating background of black and light brown scales. The small lizard then took off before I could jot down any more details. I was however quick enough to snap a quick picture of the lizard before it disappeared.

A little down the path I spotted a plant that I am particularly familiar with; it was a mustard plant. I stooped down and wrote out a description of the plant. A bed of leaves almost flush to the ground with each leaf, while not jagged in the traditional sense of the word, is jagged, going from at wider bit before becoming thinner and immediately becoming thicker again until getting to the tip where the wide part tapered off to the end of the leaf. Sprouting from the center of the leaf bunch was a tall singular stem about 6 inches tall that ended in a half sphere of yellow flowers, each with three or four petals each.

The second mustard plant I came across was growing among a bush of wild prim roses. This one was marginally taller standing in at about seven inches tall. Leaves were the same growth pattern as with the the main stem and flower growth pattern and position.

The third plant I came across was different from the first two in that there were leaves growing on the long stem, unlike on the first two plants, which only had the flowers, in addition the leaves growing on the stem were of a different pattern, however the base leaves followed the same pattern. The stem was almost two feet tall. The flower growth was the same as on the first two plants though.

The next specimen I came across was the largest mustard plant I came across growing to be about three feet tall, this plant followed the same main growth pattern as the first two plants with similar base leaf pattern and yellow flowers at the tips of the main stem, however it had a lager branching structure with many more flower clusters than the smaller plants.

Significantly further down the trail I came across a strand of mustard plants. These plants showed a range of variation, all of the mustard plants however shared the traits of having thick leaf growth at the base of the plant with a central stem that branched out and ended in a cluster of yellow flowers. Some had triangular shaped leaves growing up the main stem, however the majority had stems devoid of stems. 

I also came across a variety of other wild life on the trip, including an especially fortunate sighting of a Greater Roadrunner, who followed me along the tail for almost 100 yards. Like Muir I was immersed in a wild landscape filled with wonders.

I also was able to get photos of yucca plants in various stages of growth, and even a yucca plat in bloom.

Blooming Yucca

Yuccas abut to go into bloom

Yucca Post Bloom

Standard Yucca Plant

Yucca flower

Natural History is . . .

Rancho Sierra Vista

• Poison Oak
• Morning Glory
• California Poppy
• Bolus
• Wild Cucumber(ID by Petra)
• Coast Live Oak
• Western Scrub-Jay (ID allaboutbirds.com)
• Sycamore (ID by Petra)

Poison Oak

One of the first things we encountered on our adventure was a creek bed overgrown with various flora, one such species that I was sure to point out to my companions was a small bush of Poison Oak tucked innocuously in among several Coast Live Oak tree stumps. We noticed that the Oak trees appeared to be in bloom, with small tufts of long brownish tassels hanging from the branches with flowers so tiny they hardly looked like flowers at all. 

The large quantity of flowers on the trees most likely increase the chance of fertilization and then acorn production, leading to a higher chance of a sapling growing after the acorns have been distributed.

Coast Live Oak with
new, old, and dead leaves

One of the next things we encountered on our journey was a large grassy field, filled with grasses, flowers, bugs, and birdsong. A particularly persistent Blue Jay was constantly doing rounds of the meadow, making sure to keep a sharp eye on us, and catching the abundant insects who were buzzing just above the long grass.

Western Scrub-Jay

Small purple, pink, and white flowers

Small brown beeetle

In addition to the Jay the meadow contained small purple, pink, and white flowers and crawling on the long grass were various beetles, the most abundant being ladybugs and brown beetles the size of my finger nails.

There were small pockets of California Poppies close to the trail, the vast majority without flowers, further up the trail however the Poppy in full bloom could be observed in abundance. The broad flat branching leaves grow close to the ground and outward, this allows the poppy to gather as much sunlight as possible while preventing any nearby competition from getting enough sun to grow enough to endanger the Poppy plant's sunning habits.

California Poppy
(Normal top, in bloom bottom)

Under a Coast Live Oak We found a small bolus, about the size of a golf ball, sitting in the leaf litter that Dr. Karsten has explained to us is a wasps nest of sorts. The Cast Live Oak and the wasp have evolved next to each other to form this symbiotic relationship, with the tree creating a bolus to keep the small parasitic grubs away from the main body of the tree, and the grubs eating the spongy foam that the bolus is made of until it is ready to metamorphose into a wasp and join the rest of the hive. Another bolus was found on the tree, except this one was much larger (about the size of a small bowl) and still attached to the tree, although by the holes present it is obvious that the young wasps had left.

Various Boluses 

The Morning Glory's Hostile Takeover

Morning Glories
(vine top, in bloom bottom)

A shared trait between the Morning Glory vines and the Wild Cucumber is the tight corkscrewing tendrils. These tendrils wrap tightly to whatever structure is closest to them at the time of growth and are incredibly difficult to remove from whatever the vine has attached to. This tight corkscrewing tendril appears to be used to help the vine get optimum sun. The vine is able to "climb" up whatever higher structure is nearby, be it a fence or a bush, the tendrils make sure the vine is not knocked down when the first gust of wind blows by. By "climbing", the vine can get higher than the surrounding plants and drown them in the shade. This includes any unfortunate bush they happen to be attached to which results in the death of the host due to lack of sunlight.

Previously Unidentified Vine from Charmlee

Wild Cucumber
(ID : Petra)

In addition to identifying the Wild cucumber Petra kindly pointed out a large Sycamore tree that was growing alongside the trail. If she had not pointed it out I most likely would have walked right by without a second glance and would have never noticed the interesting looking seed puffballs that a Sycamore has. Looking at how the balls were arranged reminded me of a hydrocarbon chain, I wonder if there is a certain stability associated with that particular arrangement?

The fuzzy leaves of a Sycamore
and its fluffy seed-balls

Throughout the entirety of our adventure we were surrounded my multiple facets of life, however it is probably the one spot of death that I found most fascinating, for atop the burned out branches of a bush were the climbing vines of the Morning Glory and beneath it lay several dark slate gray lizards all puffed up doing push-ups and chasing one another over and under the blackened twigs in what I assume is a dominance display to fight for the best patch of dirt under the burnt out bush.

The only spot of Death

Fierce Lizard Doing Push-ups