Discovery Park (final) 6/3

My location in Discovery park was off a road that goes through the park to the right. I walked through the fields for probably five minutes until I reached my destination just off of the path. The predominant vegetation was stinging nettles, as well as sword ferns and this plant I believe was cleavers, that sort of scrambled over the other plants. The stalk was finely hairy, with leaves stemming out in a circular fashion from the same location. The underside of the thin leaves were very sticky, while the rest of the plant was not. The trees were mainly just red alder and big leaf maple, with the small alder cones scattering the ground everywhere. The ground was very soft an covered in what appeared to be oregon beaked moss. The soft ground must have made a good environment for rodents, or some species that digs holes, because there were multiple dirt piles right next to holes that were dug. There as no sign of what animal could have made them.

Another prevalent plant species on the forest floor was what appeared to be part of the carrot family. It stood about eight inches tall, with the base of the plant having four stalks that branched out, starting at a light purple color and then blending to a green. The stalks were very densely hairy, while the leaves were not. (actual size drawing of the leaf pictured in physical journal).
I spotted a type of white rot fungus on a fallen branch of an alder, covering the entire underside, and when I touched it the wood was very crumbly due to the digestion of the lignin which holds the wood's form.
On almost all of the stinging nettles I observed there was spittle from spittlebugs, but I did not see spittle on any of the other vegetation.
I then wandered uphill, and found a tall shrub standing about fifteen feet high that had a base with about seven trunks that dispersed up and out. The branches had cones almost identical to alder cones, as well as the catkins that are very common. However, the leaves were not identical to the leaves of the Sitka Alder, so I am unsure what exactly it was, perhaps some other type of alder not shown in the book. I also came across some interesting fungi (pictured in iNaturalist linked photos). One of them was very large and located at the base of an alder and had rust colored spores that turned the plants underneath the fungi that rust color, meaning that it must be relatively old as well as producing lots of spores. Right next to the tree with the large fungi was a small dead tree that had lots of holes in it, most likely from woodpeckers, which I heard but did not see. There also appeared to be remnants of a nest in one of those holes with lots of twigs and grass poking out. It appeared to be abandoned, and there were other smaller holes that resembled woodpeckers.
The weather was overcast, not too warm, but the sun broke through the clouds occasionally. My area was very shaded by the large trees, and there were very few things flowering. Perhaps no wildflowers were there due to the lack of substantial sun and the predominance of other, mostly larger plants that may have preferred a more wet environment. The forest was very deciduous, or at least my section was, and there were a decent amount of dead maple and alder leaves decomposing on the ground, perhaps helping to make the forest floor so soft.
i also observed this strange dirt pile on the side of a hill that almost looked crystallized in a sort of basalt rock fashion, and I have no idea what could cause that (see iNaturalist links to photos for picture).
Species List:
red alder
bigleaf maple
sword ferns
oregon beaked moss
himalayan blackberry
cleavers
spittlebug
stinging nettles
horse tails
unknown fungi
siberian miners lettuce
youth on age

Posted on June 4, 2012 09:04 PM by drwlyons