kates17's Journal

Today I went out with my family and walked around the nature preserve near their house. The trail winds through dense forest and over the creek near the fish ladders. I believe this forest would considered old growth, as it contained big, small, young, old, downed, and dead trees. It also exhibited a wide array of taxa and was high in species richness and diversity. There was a variety of moss and lichens that covered most surfaces, and there were also various fungi and mushrooms growing on nursing logs and other interesting features. There were dry, steep hills and murky wetlands surrounding the trail. It was a surprisingly warm day, at some points almost 70 degrees F. However, during our afternoon walk (around 4 pm) it had cooled to the low-mid 60s. Skies were blue with scattered clouds.

Mill Creek Nature Preserve:

entrance to the trail from Holly Park on Mill Creek Blvd.

the sky

the creek

the creek

moss-covered tree

tree stump

2 Homo sapiens in a tree

We observed the following species:
Western skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus)
Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus)
Genus Xanthoria
European holly (Ilex aquifolium)
Dull Oregon grape (Mahonia nervosa)
Red-flowering currant (Ribes sanguineum)
Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)

We also observed a few other species that I did not recognize. One of the strangest things I saw was a large, light yellow gelatinous blob. I have no idea what this could be, but it looked like it was occurring naturally.
I also observed several tiny mushrooms. I'm not sure how to identify these either.
There were also some interesting and colorful shelf fungi growing on a downed tree growing beside the creek.

Today Amy and I visited the UW Botany Greenhouse during a break between classes. We didn't have much time, but we saw some interesting plants. We saw the Venus Flytraps (Dionaea muscipula) that Susan included in her lesson earlier in the quarter. I learned that carnivorous plants thrive in bogs because they are low-resource environments. Carnivorous plants gain many nutrients from the insects they trap and digest with enzymes, therefore, they require less from their environment.

I am fascinated by the marine plants Doug has set up. Lilies are my all-time favorite flower, so naturally I gravitated towards the beautiful purple African lily (Nymphaea) floating beside water hyacinth. I found water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) interesting because of the material it uses to float. It sits on bobules filled with the botanical equivalent of styrofoam. If you cut one of the bobules open, you will observe many air bubbles, which makes the material very lightweight. It uses a large leaf as a sail to move across the water. There are also fish in the water, but Doug says these are more for looks than marine derived nurients.

I noticed that the large lily pads in a pool by the door were being eaten alive by aphids. Later in the week I will volunteer to help spray these aphids off and catch them in the net (maybe I will feed them to the poison dart frogs!)

There were a couple of beautiful flowers that I also snapped pictures of, but I can't remember their names! I have posted these observations...maybe someone can take a look and tell me what they think?

Today I took a walk around the Botanic Gardens with Amy and my friend Jessie. We observed many native and non-native species. I recognized native species like the daffodil (Genus Narcissus) and lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) and but I was amazed by the assortment of blossoming trees from around the world. There were also non-native conifers, such as the English oak (Quercus robur). I also learned to identify the water oak (Quercus nigra).

The temperature was in the low 50s and it rained while we were there, but only a sprinkle. The sky was partially cloudy. There is a trail leading through the Botanic Gardens identifying most of the species. This was helpful because it allowed me to connect a species to a specific example.

There were many beautiful cherry blossoms. I plan to paint these and put them in my journal when I have time. I think I need a specific field guide to identify these species...

Species List:
daffodil (Genus Narcissus)
lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta)
English oak (Quercus robur)
water oak (Quercus nigra)

Today I took a nice walk around Wallingford (from Burke & 40th) and down to Gasworks Park. It was sunny outside and very warm (temperatures in the low 70's!). I observed several flowering trees, shrubs, and flowers. The residents of Wallingford have very diverse gardens! I did not know how to identify the majority of the plants I saw.
I have posted many of these plants but I need to get a good field guide. I went to the UW bookstore, but they did not have any copies of the one recommended in class.

There are notes on each of these species included in the description. I especially like the flower in Genus Euphorbia, although I'm not sure of the specific species. The petals on the lime green flowers have a very interesting structure. When I happened upon the western black currant, I recognized it immediately by its characteristic black berries. I know these berries are edible, so I tasted one and it was very tart. I recognized the Japanese maple because my mother had one in our garden when I was a kid. She also had one of the purple unidentified plants, but I never learned the name. Perhaps someone will be able to identify it for me?

The mimosa tree is in our backyard in Wallingford. The tree is worth quite a bit of money (according to our landlord) who is very protective of the tree. It has grown much larger than the usual mimosa (each branch extends about 30+ feet at an obtuse angle), so he has rigged up some bracing on the branches. The only thing in bold on the lease to our house is "YOU WILL NOT CLIMB ON THE MIMOSA TREE!!" My roommates and I joke around at the house about the "tree rules" we came up with, which include "no offending the tree, no looking the tree in the eye, no raising your voice to the tree...etc." Haha.

I'm not sure what the strange shrub growing over the edge of my neighbor's garden wall is called...but I am intrigued! Hopefully someone will be able to provide some insight.

I wrote briefly about my walk around campus in my physical journal (rather than online). Surprisingly, we saw very little animal taxa. All I noted in my field journal was a couple of mallards and a Woodlouse (Arthropoda) also known as a pill bug. I need to add this to my observations. I also saw a few Great Blue Herons flying overhead, but they were far out of the scope of my iPhone camera (which died shortly after starting the walk). Earlier in the day, I met up with Amy and we spent some time reading on the lawn near the Fisheries building. We made chains out of the great abundance of daisies in the grass. Daisies are EVERYWHERE in Seattle! I seldom see a patch of grass that is not covered in patches of little white daisies (in the spring/summer, that is). I also need to add this to my observations.