Seward park: a closer look

Daily Account : Seward Park Day 2
Saturday April 28, 2012
Latitude: 47.551 Longitude: -122.261
Weather: Partly sunny, ~62 degrees

Today I went to Seward Park for a second time to take a closer look at the park with a naturalist. I learned and saw a ton more than last time, and the weather decided to cooperate too. Although much of the park is in the shade of the forest, the open areas were warm and full of sun and life. To start from the beginning, I learned that Seward Park has three types of habitats/climates: riparian, since it is located right on Lake Washington; temperate forest, with the many different types of evergreen trees and plants on the 300 acres it occupies; and finally, the park has a bit of prairie left over from when the Indians used to burn the fields to grow Camas (Camassia quamash), a beautiful flower and staple food.
We went on a botany walk and managed to find our ways through the forest and prairie, and saw many cool things. Commencing with native plants, we identified things like Fringe Cup (Tellima grandiflora), Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum), Vine Maple (Acer circinatum), Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum), Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi), Western Flowering Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii), False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum), Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana), and a few others we couldn’t be certain of. As far as the Nootka Rose goes, I didn’t know that they have two particularly large spines/prickles at the base of each leaf, spines which are much bigger than the spiny stem I’ve noticed in the past. Apparently, spines are actually modified leaflets. This I don’t completely understand as they look nothing like leaves, let alone leaflets, and would like to know more about the “anatomy(?)” of plants so I can understand why they look the way they look. On the same note, we talked about Trillium and False Lily of the Valley, both of which have Monocot leaves. According to the naturalist, as well as a website I checked out later this afternoon, plants with Monocot leaves come from one seed leaf (still not sure what this means exactly), have erect flowers, and grow with veins parallel to each other, with the exception of this detail in Trillium. Corn is also a Monocot. Dicots are most other plants, and include wild ginger (whose leaves have a similar shape to the Trillium), those whose veins are not parallel but more of a net formation or “snakelike.” Apparently Dicots’ flowers are often hidden. Is this true for all of them? I’m definitely going to keep a lookout from now on and try to keep track of the characteristics of both types of plants.
On the way up the trail we also saw an old log with what looked like pinecone bits in it, the work of our Native Douglas Squirrel.
Next we looked at the bark of the different trees around us. On large Douglas Fir we identified, the bark was very fluted/chunky, a giveaway for older trees for which it is difficult to see the needles. An adjacent redwood was quite different, its bark fuzzy and of course very red. What I hadn’t noticed before was how the needles of the Redwood (I think it was a Coast Redwood) grew flat and on a plane, as compared to the Douglas Fir. According to the naturalist, the redwoods in the park were planted by some gardener, as redwood seedlings cannot survive our summers. What I really want to know is why all these trees adapted the way they did. Then again I want to know that about everything so…
We also saw several Madrone trees, however, they didn’t look like they were doing very well, and the naturalist said they have a lot of trouble with pollution, and don’t respond well to disturbances.
The Western Red Cedar, one I’ve seen many times, came with a background I hadn’t heard before. Accodrding to the naturalist, the Western Red Cedar was like the “tree of life” to the native Americans, as they used its bark for everything from baskets and boats to clothing and baby diapers, by peeling off strips of the tree (only a portion at a time so as not to hurt the tree).
We also saw a Bald Eagle on our walk, sitting in a tree which may have had a crows nest in it, because crows kept swooping in and trying to attack the eagle, aims to which the eagle won in domination with its erect posture and loud calls. Apparently eagles can live to be 30-40 years old, and don’t lay a clutch every single year because it is not necessary due to their longevity.
A few things I found were edible that I didn’t know before such as Indian Plum (which by the way smells like pea/cucumber when you crush the leaves), and Fern fronds, also called fiddleheads. The question is whether all ferns have edible fronds or just certain types like the sword fern. We noticed that the Lady fern has slanted leaflets that do not grow on a plane like some other ferns.
We also saw Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor), and Large-Leaved Avens (Geum macrophylum), the latter whose leaves were oddly more rounded at its base and graduating into pointy as you reach the top. It tricks you into thinking there are two different plants, while it is really only a single stem.
There was also a question about Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum). Because it smells so bad we were wondering, who pollinates it? Apparently, the answer is flies because it smells like dead flesh, something I still haven’t really experienced significantly enough to appreciate how bad it smells…not that that’s a bad thing. It’s distinct enough with its huge bulb-like flowers.
As we moved towards the drier prairie remains, we saw more Madrone trees, these looking healthier, along with tiny black mushrooms I have yet to identify, Shore Pine (Pinus contorta), Gary Oak (Quercus garryana), Camas (Camassia quamash), a Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata), and Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum). Apparently the Camas only blooms for a short time like a few weeks out of the year.
One last cool fact about the park is that the park has never been logged, mainly because the peninsula it is now used to be an island seasonally, which is interesting and makes me wonder why it doesn’t become an island anymore.

Species List:
Camas (Camassia quamash)
Fringe Cup (Tellima grandiflora)
Western Trillium (Trillium ovatum)
Vine Maple (Acer circinatum)
Evergreen Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum)
Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi)
Western Flowering Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii)
False Lily of the Valley (Maianthemum dilatatum)
Nootka Rose (Rosa nutkana)
Oceanspray (Holodiscus discolor)
Large-Leaved Avens (Geum macrophylum)
Skunk Cabbage (Lysichiton americanum)
Shore Pine (Pinus contorta)
Gary Oak (Quercus garryana)
Camas (Camassia quamash)
Muscovy Duck (Cairina moschata)
Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum)