April 3, 2012
We spent this day at the greenhouse at three stations; one specifically about chili, and the other two about plants found around the world. The botany greenhouse hold 1/10 of all diversity of plants on earth. There are "domes" of desert to tropical forests.
The first rotation included a lesson on carnivorous plants. Each pot containing different species are placed in a bog-like area, surrounded by sphagnum moss which is acidic and contain low nutrients. The venus flytrap secretes digestive juices to digest insects that land on the mouth of the trap. The stimulus to the trap closing is movement, not heat. A plant belonging to the sarracenia family has a large mouth and deep, hallow pitcher. The inside of the pitcher contain hairs that points downward essentially to trap insects that fly in. Finally, the drosera filiformis opens flat and has a surface that looks like morning dew that insects stick to if they land on it. The platycerium is a large plant that has biomorphic leaves and a shield to hug the interior. It has a foliage to add water, funneled into plant. The inside leaves that are older decompose itself to create nutrients so essentially, the plant feeds itself. One of my favorite was the dracula orchird that have gills to attract fungus. Insects lay their eggs on the plant and in turn the plant gives it pollen to pollinate. One of the larger species in the greenhouse is the welwitschia. This plant comes from the harshest of deserts. It is a gymnosperm (conifers) and a conquerer. It bears cones, can be male or female, and grows at a rate of 25mm a year. These plants can be up to 2000 yrs. old. It stores its own water for most of the year to survive. Our greenhouse "curator" actually provided this plant with more water than it receives in the wild, and it is happily thriving. One of the interesting aspect of the plant is that there is still no one who understands how its seeds are dispersed.
The second rotation was a fun lesson with miracle berries and chili. Miracle berries (common name) exists as a tropical plant that blooms in the northern hemisphere fall season. The berries are edible, but they aren't sweet. They do however change your taste for about an hour. The chemistry in this plant much like many other berry plants are created for a specific species, the species that pollinate it. If you suck out the juices of the berries and give it a light rinse around your mouth, then stick a slice of lemon in your mouth, you'll find it tastes sweeter and sweeter with every slice. These compounds masks the sour taste in lemons that humans observed. Those compounds exists in other plants as well such as chili. To birds, chili's pollinators, the plant doesn't taste spicy. The ghost chili which has capsaicin and is coated with olive oil is on of the hottest chili known to man. The spiciness you taste in chilies actually aren't what you taste. Chilies mainly affect your neurotransmitters, the same kind that tells your body to take your hand off a hot stove. Birds that pollinate chilies plants reflect capsaicin in their nerves which makes them feel no pain, or to humans the spiciness. One of the questions our professor spent his research on was, "Why aren't all chilies hot?" Well, hot chilies do not produce as much seeds in drought therefore they have selective niches. A little history i didn't know was that the Portuguese moved chilies around the world; before then chilies didn't exist anywhere else but the tropics. The advantage is that chilies are antimicrobial which is great in the tropics. (see page 9 of field notebook for sketches)
June 3, 2012
(see page 50-51 of field notebook for sketches and context)
The day was mostly cloudy with high winds mostly because the area was near waters and on high grounds. The sun was trying to break through with temperatures of about mid-50s. Most of the park in the lowlands are covered in blackberries, salmon berries, horsetails, buttercups, and ferns. The middle cover contained more salmon berries and blackberries. The high cover was mostly of deciduous such as hazelnuts and big leaf maples, but very few conifers until you reach the historic grounds. I took the Loop Trail from the north parking lot out to the lookouts into the Puget Sound. The vegetation didn't change much until I started uphill towards the location.
The vegetation surrounding the roads contain a lot of grass and weeds. The birds were very active out with American robins to crows, to seagulls. The thimble berries are blooming, however there were no pollinators. Most of the deciduous trees are back in full bloom such as the big leaf and vine maples.
The area was built on top of Fort Lawton with many of the original structures/housing still in good condition.
Species account:
Salmon berries
Horsetails
Buttercups
Deer ferns
Sword ferns
Stinging nettle
Big leaf maples
Vine maples
Hemlocks
Himalayan blackberries
Oregon grape
Thimble berries
May 13, 2012
(see page 37 of field notebook for sketches and context)
Weather: ~80 degrees, no cloud cover, little wind, calm waters
I spent a quick afternoon out canoeing around the Union Bay Natural Area to find many, many waterfowls and birds out. There were definitely areas of water where species of birds were absent; there was a baseball game that day with lots of noise. Some of the most common ones I saw on water are the Great Blue Herons. I passed a family of Canadian Geese with six goslings. My canoe got too close to the nest and I believe the male goose got very angry. One of my favorite birds, the red-winged blackbirds, were plentiful out with their mates and snacking on cattails. There are a couple mallards out farther into the lake, but I believe most were shovelers I couldn't identify. While canoeing back, i looked overhead to find what I believe was an eagle because the head/neck was white.
Species Account:
Mallard ducks
Great blue herons
Eagle
Canadian geese
Red-winged blackbirds
May 12, 2012
(see pg. 31-36 for sketches and context)
~high 50s, sunny, no cloud, no wind
Skykomish Scenic River:
This was our first stop on the field trip. We arrived around 9am and it was already warming up. The area was at low elevation, next to a river. There was a wide flood zone with mostly thimble berries, salmon berries, small leaf maples, and hazelnuts. The cottonwood was right next to the river covered in sand. We saw a western trumpet honeysuckle. One of the most interesting thing i learned was about scotch brooms. The stigma is inside of the flower therefore it can only be pollinated by a very heavy bumblebee. And they're part of the pea family.
Index:
A temperate forest with a canopy of big leaf maples, conifers; both covered in moss. This area receives 2x the rainfall than Seattle. There was an immense amount of licorice fern growing on deciduous trees. There were many butterflies out that resembles the cabbage butterfly, although I could not identify them. Walking through the area, there were many wood ferns, pacific bleeding hearts, and stinging nettle. We found fungus such as the garoderma applenatum.
Money Creek Campground:
This was probably my favorite place out of the day due to the fact that this campground possesses old-growth trees. The ground was covered in forget-me-nots and devil's club as well as the trailing yellow violet. Near the river, we flipped over rocks to find larvae of all kinds, probably mayfly. I'm always excited to see these because they are indicators species. This campground is not polluted. We stopped to talk about the wild ginger for a long time and I'm very surprised at how strongly they smell of ginger. Fungus we found were platismatia glauca and hypogymnia imshaigii which have inflated lobes that are hallow inside. What causes that? What benefit does having an adaptation like that do?
Tumwater Campground:
We stopped here for lunch. It was a quiet place next to the river where we found the letharia vulpina, a bright green lichen that is only present in eastern washington. The color is due to the vulpinic acid which are poisonous. This poison when ground up were used to kill wolves in the area.
Leavenworth:
This was out last stop. The temperature was in the high 80s at this point in eastern washington with no visible clouds and absolutely zero wind. The area is a woodland. The ground were diverse in plants such as yarrow, pinus poderosa, common peony, death canvas. We found two adult western fence lizard and a smaller male, I believe. These guys have blue bellies to attract females, and they show them off doing "push-ups." We caught as wester orange tip butterfly. We took a hike uphill and back down a rock wall to find douglas firs that were still covered in black dirt, reminisce of the 1998 fire. We also found indian paintbrush.
Species account:
- ramnasia
- small leaf maples
- thimble berries
- hazelnut
- sakaton
- japanese knotweed
- salmon berry
- wester trumpet honey suckle
- scotch broom
- hermit warbler
- indian plum
- snowberries
- bracken fern
- western fence lizard
- pinus ponderosa
- yarrow
- common peony
- balsam root
- plastimatia glauca
- aramadopsis
- death canvas
- western orange tip
- candeleria concolor
- letharia vulpina
- hypogymnia imshaugii
- wild ginger
- mayfly larvae
- trailing yellow violet
- algus trifollen
- douglas fir
- devil's club
- forget-me-nots
- garoderma applenatum
- pacific rens
- lady fern
- wild lettuce
- frynch cup
- stinging nettle
- wood fern
- pacific bleeding heart
- trillium
- false lily of the valley
- licorice fern
- big leaf maple
- western red cedar
- trailing blackberry
- dogwood
- sheep sorel
