lmcthe01's Journal

Weather: Sunny, cool
Climate: moist
Landscape: low-land forest
Time: 10:00 AM
Location: N 47.71136, W -122.37200

Upon arriving at Carkeek Park, the first thing I saw was an abundance of buttercups near the entrance to a trail on the East side of the park. These buttercups were growing alongside sword ferns, and deciduous trees. I came across a pair of yellow spotted millipedes in a log just off of the trail. These millipedes can easily be identified by their yellow spots bordering their bodies. Both observed millepedes were adults, since younger ones have fainter coloring of grey and light yellow. These bugs share their log home with other species such as moss and deer ferns. I earlier observed deer fern in Pack Forest Park, and described it in the coinciding journal entree. I found an abundance of wild raspberry bushes near a stream in the park. These bushes are just starting to bear fruit as they are currently entering into their season. I found the most common lichen of the Washington area called parmelia sulcata. This lichen was sitting on the ground in a mess of logs and leaves, providing lots of moisture and nutrients in which its livelihood depends on. Lichens have the ability to go dormant instead of dying when there is not enough food to support them, or for when their climate is not moist enough. I heard a lot of different bird sounds while I was there. I got to see Robins feeding on multiple occasions near the stream, but was unable to get a picture. I also encountered stinging nettles on multiple occasions. These obnoxious plants give off a toxin in their thorns so if you accidentally run into one it feels similar to a bee sting. Stinging nettle is a native perennial of Washington and it is also used in acupuncture. I also saw Oregon Grape, another very common native plant to Washington. Upon leaving Carkeek park I saw a honey bee pollinate a flower and collect pollen. Honey bees have a pollen storage spot behind their wings which is an incredible adaption. This way they can carry more pollen in one trip back to their hive! Carkeek park has a variety of natural landscapes to offer including low-land forest areas, streams, and open fields; making it a perfect place to observe natural history!

Species List:
deer fern (blechnum spicant)
sword fern
bumble bees (genus bombus)
parmelia sulcata
oregon grape
raspberry (rubus glaucus)
stinging nettle (urtica dioica)
banana slug (limax maximus)
yellow spotted millipede (harpaphe haydeniana)
buttercups (ramunculus)

Weather: smoggy, warm
Time: 1:30-3:30

Today we took a tour of waterfowl around UW's Naturalist Area. The first bird we talked about was the Great blue heron. We viewed the heron flying over the Puget Sound right off of the shore. These birds nest on the main campus as well, in Heron Rockery near Drumheller Fountain. They congregate together to nest in large groups. The males and females are not sexually dimorphic. Females and males both incubate the eggs, incubation usually lasts 25 days. The baby birds will then have their first flight after a couple of weeks. Great blue herons eat fish and small amphibians, and swallow their food whole. These birds are common throughout the U.S and like to hang out near water. They have 6 foot wingspans, and like most birds the males with the longer plumage's tend to attract more mates.

The next bird we saw was the Northern Shoveler. This bird gets its name from it's shoveled shapes beak. Its beak is narrow at the base, and wider near the tip. Shovelers are dabbler feeders, meaning they filter food out from the mud with their beaks. We observed this big swimming around in a marsh looking for food.

The next waterfowl we learned about was the Buffeehead which is only around in the winter, and is currently up in Alaska hanging out. This waterfowl is the smallest duck of them all. The Bufflehead is also a dabbler feeder. These birds are sexually dimorphic because the males are brighter colored. Predators that eat the Bufflehead include owls and bald eagles.

We also learned about another type of duck called a Merganser. The most common type of this bird is the hooded merganser. They fully dive under water when they eat, and they primarily eat fish. These birds have a third membrane under their eye lids to act as goggles providing better underwater vision.

Species List:
Hooded Merganser (Lophodytes cucullatus)
Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola)
Mallard duck (Anas platyrhynchos)
Northern shoveler (Anas clypeata)
Great blue heron (Ardea herodias)

Today I took a tour of birds in the UW Naturalist Area. The first bird we saw was a red-winged blackbird. We saw a female perched on a cattail, and a male perched on an alder berry tree nearby. The UW Naturalist Area is a low land marsh, and the blackbirds we saw were perched right next to the water. Red-winged blackbirds are sexually dimorphic. The females are brown and spotted, and the males are black with a spot of red on either side of their body. The male red wing blackbirds are the ones that usually sing.These birds have up to 25 calls. Red-winged blackbirds are not monogamous, however the male will raise it's young with it's primary female.

Another bird we saw was the Black-capped chickadee. This bird got its name because it has a black cap on its head, and its call sounds like "chickade-de-de-de". An interesting fact about the chickadee is the more "de-de's" they add to the end of their call, the more trouble they think their in. This bird feeds on seeds, berries, insects, and insect eggs, and nests in cavities of rotting wood.

We also saw a song sparrow fly over an open field in the naturalist area. I had also previously seen a song sparrow in Pack Forrest Park. Song Sparrows are primarily brown with dark brown and white spots on their chest.

We then learned about the different types of swallows that are found in the Seattle Area. Swallows hang out over water, and like to feed on insects while their flying around above the water. The two swallows found in our area are the violet green swallow, and the barn swallow. You can easily tell them apart because the bark swallow has a fork in it's tail.

The last bird we learned about we did not actually get to see. This was the gold finch, Washington State's bird. Gold finch's have all yellow bodies with a black spot on their head, and black and white stripes on their wings.

Species List:
Gold Finch (Carduelis tristis)
Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia)
Violet Green Swallow (Tachycineta thalassina)
Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica)
Black-capped Chickadee (Chickidy Poecile atricapillus)
Red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)

Location: UW campus
Weather: sunny
Time: 2:00 PM

Today I was led on a tour of trees and shrubs around campus. The coolest thing that I learned was that the leaves of the Ginkgo tree help memory and concentration. The ginkgo tree is native to China, and has very distinct leaves that look like little fans. I also learned that the leaves of the madrone can be used for cramps and stomach aches. Among the other trees we saw was a horsechestnut growing near the compost on UW farm, and a Giant Sequoia near Anderson Hall. The horsechestnut was introduced, but sequoias are native. The sequoia has very strange sponge-like reddish-brown, stringy, very thick bark that is good at preventing fire. Sequoias are the largest tree on Earth, and are among the oldest. I found it interesting that a lot of the trees around campus were planted in the 30's and did not grow there naturally, even though they are native to the area.

Species List:
Ginkgo tree(Ginkgo biloba)
Madrone (Arbutus)
horsechestnut (Aesculus)
Giant Sequoia (Sequoiadendron)

Today Doug took me on a tour of moth pollinated plants in the UW greenhouse. Since moths are night pollinators, they like white flowers because they are easy for them to see at night. These flowers usually smell sweet. They also give off more of an odor at night because producing scent is costly for a plant. Plants only wants to produce scent when it is likely to get pollinated. Moths pollinate with a long straw like structure called a proboscis. When a moth is not pollinating their proboscis is curled up on their head. The flowers that moths pollinate have a structure that can fit the moths proboscis inside. All orchids that are moth pollinated have a long spur which is a tube like structure that hangs off of each flower. Each flower has one spur, and one pollinia. A pollinia is a pollen package that is connected to a viscid disk. Since most orchid flowers are perfect, they get pollinated by accident when the moth comes to suck up nectar out of the flowers spur. The moth breaks off the orchids pollinia, which gets stuck to the moth by the pollinia's sticky viscid disk. The moth then goes to pollinate a second flower, the pollinia gets scraped off onto the stigma, the male part of the flower, as the moth picks up another pollinia.

Not all moth pollinated plants have spurs, some have tube like structures instead like epidendrum falcotum. Among moth pollinated plants with spurs are the datura, and Darwin's orchid. Darwin's orchid got its name because Darwin hypothesized that the plant was moth pollinated because it had a spur. However, the giant moth that pollinated the plant was not found until after Darwin had died. The moth that pollinates Darwin's orchid is known as xanthopan morganii predicta and is native to Madagascar. Another interesting plant I learned about is both moth and hummingbird pollinated depending on color. The white flowers moths pollinate, while the crimson flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds. Research is currently undergo too figure out who pollinates the intermediate colored flower that is lite pink. This flower is called ipomopsis aggregata and is native to western North America.

Species List:
Ipomopsis aggregata
epidendrum falcotum
datura
Darwin's orchid
xanthopan morganii predicta

Weather: sunny, clear
Time: 1:00 PM

On 90th and 24th ST NW, there is a 7x2 block natural area with lots of interesting critters, mushrooms, and wild flowers. Most of the mushrooms I found I have yet to identify successfully. One of which had a bright red cap and pink spores. The red mushroom did not yet have a colony, suggesting it was a young mushroom. Among the flowers i saw were water forget-me nots and Creeping Buttercups. Water forget-me-nots are small blue flowers with white middles and 5 pedals. The creeping buttercups i saw were gold in color and also had 5 pedals. The Buttercups were considerably larger than the forget-me-nots. Both flowers were growing in the same location. I also saw a small purple flower I have not identified with 6 pedals and long grass like leaves. I found a lot of bugs in the naturalist area by picking up logs or smashing them open. Among the bugs i found was tipula paludosa, a spider mite, earthworm, termite, millipede, and a dusky slug. I also found an unidentified worm that was black and white striped and very small. Most of these bugs live off of the decaying logs along the floor of this forest-like naturalist area.

Species List:
water forget-me-not (myosotis scorpioides)
unidentified striped worm
unidentified red mushroom
dusky slug (arion subfuscus)
spider mite
earthworm
unidentified purple flower
creeping buttercup (ranunculus repens)
termite
north american millipede (narceus americanus)
eurhynchium praelongum

Weather: Sunny, clear skies
Time: 2:30 PM

Today we did a tour of lichen and moss around the farm UW farm. I learned that one of the most common lichen are Parmelia silcata, which looks very similar to another lichen I saw called hypogymnia physodes. Both lichen are a light minty green color. Sulcata is distinguishable because it has a darker green spot in the middle, while physodes does not. These lichen were both found growing on a bench near the entrance to the greenhouse. A Lichen is a combination of either fungus and alga, or fungus and cyanobacterium. Lichen are a perfect example of a mutualistic relationship. The fungus provides shelter for the alga, or cyanobacterium and the fungus is provided with glucose. I also learned of another mutualistic relationship that takes place on the ends of plant roots where ectomycorrhiza help plant roots obtain more food and nitrogen. I also learned that the most common moss is red roof moss, which can be found all over campus and has a distinctive red veil. While we were learning about lichen, I happened to see a honey bee hanging on a plant. I then came across a bumble bee resting on a leaf on my way to the library after class near Heron Rookery. Bumble bees are a lot bigger than honey bees, and they can also sting multiple times where honey bees die after they sting once.

Species List:
Paper Birch (betula papyrifera)
Physcia
Azalea (Genus Rhododendron)
Bumble Bee (Genus Bumbus)
Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)
Parmelia sulcata
Hypogymnia physodes
ectomycorrhizae
fly (order diptera)
holyhock rust (Puccinia malvacearum)
powdery mildew (Blumeria graminis)
red roof moss (Ceratodon purpureus)

Location: UW Farm and near the Chemistry Building on UW campus
Weather: sunny, breezy
Time: Aprox 2:00

Today I learned about the different types of mushrooms that are decomposers. These decomposers are also called saprothops and they break down dead organic material including wood chips, dead trees and logs. Wood is made up of lignan, cellulose, hemill, and pectin. The lignan protects the other compounds. In order for mushrooms to use the compounds that the lignan protects they have to find a way the get through the lignan. Soft rot and brown rot mushrooms cannot actually strip the lignan off of wood, so they go around it. The soft rot and brown rot mushrooms we saw included agrocybe praecox, pleurotus pulmonarius, agaricus bisporus, and caprinus iagopus. We saw one white rot mushroom called trametes velisicolor that was attached to a log on the UW farm near the permacultural area. Its common name is the turkey mushroom because it looks similar to a turkey tail. This mushroom is fuzzy on top and is used in Asia for anti cancer medicine. The turkey mushroom also has white spores.
I saw agaricus bisporus near the compost bins on the farm. Its common name is the button mushroom. Under the right conditions with lots of extra nutrients these mushrooms can be grown to be either portabellos or cremini mushrooms which are edible. This mushroom has pink spores. I also saw agrocybe praecox near the chemistry library. A defining feature of this mushroom is its cracked caps and dark brown spore color. We saw a variety of ages of this mushroom. One way to tell if the mushroom is young is that it will have veil tissue, which it will have before it becomes mature and starts producing spores. The spores come out of gills on the underside of mushroom, the young ones will have veil tissue instead of these gills. An easy way to figure out what spore color a mushroom has is to find one growing over another and the top of the buried mushroom will have a spore print of the other on the cap of it. This is how we figured out the spore color of agrocybe praecox. Besides mushrooms I also found a centipede underneath a log in the permaculture area. The critter was pretty small, not nearly the size they get on Maui!

Species List:
Centipede
oyster mushroom (pleurotus pulmonarius)
button mushroom (agaricus bisporus)
inky caps (caprinus iagopus)
turkey mushroom (trametes velisicolor)
agrocybe praecox

Location: University District
Weather: overcast

While walking to class i took pictures of plants and tried to differentiate between which ones were cultivated which ones were growing wildly. I saw a berberis shrub that had lower green leaflets, and higher red leaflets. I would assume the berberis was going through its seasonal color change, but it is not yet fall. This leaves me to assume the different coloration is due to age, and the berberis is two-toned because it is not yet matured. I also saw ceanothus and lavandula growing near each other on 15 street near the Grant Lane entrance to UW. I believe all these plants were cultivated for aesthetic purposes. Lavandula is an odd plant that looks like and is related to lavender, but does not smell like it. I also saw lusitancia and berberis growing around the same area. These plants were harder for me to determine if thy were planted, or existed naturally. I did however see a common dandelion that was growing wildly alongside some planted deciduous tree near Brooklyn and Pacific street.

Species List:
berberis
ceanothus
lavandula
lusitancia
Square
Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)
Buttercups (Genus Ranunculus)

Today I took a tour of the Botany Greenhouse and learned about some plants that I was formerly unfamiliar with. I was first introduced the the Miracle Berry that increases the perceived sweetness of foods. I ate a frozen berry and then took a bite of lemon and the lemon was suddenly sweet. The effects of a frozen fruit are not as strong as a fresh one, the effect wears off in about 2 hours. I was then introduced to the Ghost Chili, called Bhut Jolokia in its home country of India. The chili's seeds are dispersed by birds who have been favored by evolution to not be able to taste the heat. Birds evolved this trait before chilis existed. I also learned that the largest seed comes from the Coco de Mer, a Type of Palm Tree with an accordion shaped leave. Its seeds can weigh up to 60 pounds. I learned about another palm native to Brazil called Monstreal. This palm has holes in its leaves to discourage butterflys from using it as a hatching ground so it wont get eaten. It has a fruit that tastes like pineapple that will hurt your mouth if you eat it before its ripe. I also learned about Eichornia, a plant that floats on the water. It is good for sewage treatment because it sucks up a lot of nutrience, and was introduced because of its pretty flowers. This plant is thought of as a weed in most of the tropical places that it originates from. One of the coolest plants that I learned about was Welwitchia. This plant is native to the Nibian Desert of Africa where it gets less than 25 mm of rain a year. Its leaves feel stale, and they are also highly reflective. This plant can live to be 2000 years old. The one in the greenhouse is only 10 years old, but because Doug gave it as much water as it wanted it is the size of a Welwitchia that is 100!

Species List:
Miracle Berry (Synsepalum dulcificum)
Ghost Chili or Bhut Jolokia chili pepper (Capsicum frutescens)
Coco de Mer (Lodoicea maldivica)
Monsreal (sp?)
Dischidia (Asclepiadaceae)
Water Lily
Eichornia (Eichhornia)
Welwitchia (Welwitschia mirabilis)
Peperomia (Piperaceae)
Haworthia (Xanthorrhoeaceae)
Sphagnum Moss (genus Sphagnum)
Platycerium (Polypodiaceae)
Dracula Orchid (Pleurothallidinae)