May 6th Citizen Science Invasives Mapping Hike

North Mountain Park, Parked at Mountain View Park
9901 N. 7th Ave
7:30am-10:00am
Sunny, 80s F

iNat Mappers for the morning: @stevejones @mtluczek @alenartz and Cicely @jszalwinski @kgometz
Found majority of P. ciliare (buffelgrass) this time off the trail.
However, on our route, we first started to find P. ciliare (buffelgrass) along 7th Avenue and Peoria.
We headed north from Mountain View Park along 7th Ave to trailhead (100). Followed 100-306-100 in a wide arching loop. Covering no more than 1-1.5 miles. Found P. ciliare (buffelgrass) in the retention basin.

We walked off trail to investigate the retention basin, behind dam. There was a heavy concentration of Cynodon dactylon (bermuda grass) with P. ciliare mixed in.

We also recognized other non-native plant species as present like O. piluliferum (stinknet) and Hordeum murinum (mouse barley). H. murinum also appears to thrive in disturbed sites (according to SEINet). We also saw Schismus spp. regularly (probably S. barbatus) as we hiked and in the retention basin area. We also saw Bromus rubens (Red Brome). O. piluliferum will be important to continue monitoring in conjunction with mapping the Pennisetum.

However, it's also important to note that we found native plants too in the retention basin/behind dam area. Such as Sphaeralcea coulteri (Coulter's globemallow), Bromus arizonicus (arizona brome), and Amsinckia intermedia (common fiddleneck) and Amsinckia menziesii (menzies' fiddleneck) (?).

There was also bio crust along the walk to the retention basin area.

Posted on May 8, 2017 12:30 AM by cflower