asiamott's Journal

Revisiting historic specimen's, I was able to find:
a daisy
a California poppy
a greater periwinkle
a french broom plant
miner's lettuce

I have observed the following 5 most common plants in Alameda County:
Coyote brush
Daisy
Himalayan blackberry
California poppy
Coast live oak

For this assignment, I revisited the chaparral. I visited the chaparral in February for the first time. The environment was very dry and shrub-like. I went back to the chaparral in April and noticed that the plants looked a little less arid and more developed.

This spring break I went on a hike at the Jasper Ridge Reserve located on the campus of Stanford University. There, I was able to see the serpentine grassland we discussed in class. The serpentine grassland contains toxic metals in the soil from minerals of the serpentine rock that inhibit the growth of many plants. This was evident as I looked across the field and saw patches of California goldfields, but at some spots noticed an interrupting appearance of a dry, gray, brush-like grass. Also, alongside the goldfields were a few California poppies and tidy tips.

For the "Tree of Life Exercise" I observed the following five iconic taxa:
Image of mushroom is part of fungi family
The tree represents part of the plant family
The common earthworm is part of the animal family
The wild turkeys are part of the bird family
The California banana slug is part of the mollusk family

For the "Phenology Exercise" I observed a flowering plant. The flowering plant displayed flowering phenology as it had both already blossomed flowers on one side and non-blossomed flowers on the other.

My observations include the following: a plant with regular flowers, a plant with irregular flowers, a monocot, a dicot, a plant in the pea family, a a gymnosperm, a terrestrial plant that is not a seed plant, a plant with pinnate leaves, a plant with opposite leaves, and a plant in the sunflower family.

The effects of spring are very apparent on the southwest side of campus. There are many vibrant flowering plants. In the grass, one can notice the blooming of smaller flowering plants. Also, there seem to be more insects around the plants.

I observed a squirrel eating an oak/nut, a bird eating an unidentifiable object from a tree, and a bee pollinating a flower.

Many of the plants I found in the chaparral were bush-like or small and close to the ground. It appears that they are this way because of their adaptation to the dry environment. Also, many of the shrub-like plants had small and hard leaves.