lisad22's Journal

Lat: 46.8402028, Lon: -122.294231
Day, 2012
3/31/2012

This afternoon we explored Pack Forest. The weather was quite overcast and slightly rainy and misty at times but still comfortable (maybe around 50 degrees F). Upon walking into the forest (around 11:30-12:00), we entered a predominantly coniferous area. The trees were all fairly tall with leaves and branches mainly on the upper halves of the trees. They may have been Redwoods but I'm not sure. Going deeper into the forest, we walked into a much more boggy and deciduous area. There was significantly more lichen species and moss around most of the deciduous trees. There were also more downed trees and understory which made it feel a lot like an old growth forest. We walked through a lot of mud when not on the wooden bridge walkway, and there were many puddles as it had been a fairly rainy week. One of the interesting species we encountered was Indian Plum (or osoberry). Josh explained that Indian Plum is a summer fruit and people use it to make jam. Then we started talking about why fruits like Indian Plum come out in the summer and contain so much sugar; it is in order to attract animals and get them to eat the fruits fast. This helps the animals fatten up before winter but also makes sure the berries get eaten rather than attracting bacteria (which are really attracted to sugar).

On our second trip into pack forest (1:00-2:30pm) we went straight into a predominantly deciduous area. Previously, Josh explained that the phenology of Pack Forest is a little behind that of Seattle because of the higher elevation. When we were out with Kat, we looked at a lot of smaller ground plants such as mushrooms, fringe cup, coltsfoot, stinky Bob, plantago, etc. We also looked at a lot of lichen such as Usnea wirthii, Leucolepis acanthoneura, gold crust lichen, etc. Lichen was especially interesting to me. Kat explained that lichen are a fungal cell that prefer deciduous species. That explains why there was so much of it in the more deciduous areas of Pack Forest. Also, on this particular outing, we saw a Long-tailed Vole! Originally we classified it as a Red Tree vole (which made sense because it was right be a Western Red Cedar). But, upon looking at the books, Kat determined that it must be a Long-tailed Vole because of the geographical constraints. The vole was particularly exciting to see because it didn't seem to mind that we were all so close trying to get good pictures of it. It only ran away after sniffing someone's leg.

Species List:
Winter Wren
Lichen
Salal
Huckleberries
Fringe Cup
Sword Fern
Red Flowering Currant
Western White Pine
Plantago
Cardamom
Douglas fir
Western Red Cedar
Big Leaf Maple
Sweet Coltsfoot
Long Tale Vole
Gold Crust Lichen
Oregon grape
Herb Robert
Ant hill
Aquatic Horsetail
Stair step moss
Morale

Lat: 46.7514948, Lon: -121.8148908
Day, 2012
3/31/2012

This afternoon we also visited Mount Rainier National Park. The temperature was noticibly cooler than at Pack Forest (maybe about 35-40 degrees F) and the elevation was also higher. These weather conditions made it possible for the park to withstand a lot of snow on the ground, around 3-6 inches in most places, but up to possible 2-3 feet in other areas. The entire park, or at least the trail we visited, was completely deciduous. There were many downed trees, lichen, and dead trees everywhere. An interesting thing about the park was that there were a lot of new, younger species growing out of the older downed species. We saw a lot of little Western Hemlocks growing out of downed Cedars and Mountain Hemlocks. It was interesting to learn that this is something only seen in deciduous forests rather than coniferous forests. There was also an abundance of ferns (mostly Sword Ferns) all over the forest grounds. They looked like mats of green covering most of the ground, especially nest to nearby trees. Because the forest was deciduous, we saw a lot of Shelf Fungus both on living and dead/downed trees and also many different species of lichen. We saw Mathusala's Beard hanging from the leaves of many branches, Pink Spotted Lichen on the trunks of trees, orange lichen, as well as spotty light green Fructose Lichen also on tree trunks.

The dominant species seemed to be Western Hemlocks and Cedars. We saw one huge Douglas Fir but other than that, there weren't too many.
What I found to be the most interesting was the fact that new plants could grown on dead ones. Dead/downed trees were covered in moss and tons of lichen. We actually saw a rather large grown tree growing out of the side of a downed tree. That seemed to be the trend of this trail: moss, lichen, and other species (especially tiny Western Hemlocks) growing out of or on top of pretty much anything downed or dead. Another interesting part of this trail was a small creek we passed by called Copper Creek. This creek was a dark orange/bronze color which may have been coming from the minerals draining down from upstream. The color was so pigmented that it was actually spreading and dyeing the nearby soil and plants like Sword Ferns that covered a good portion of the ground.

Species List:
Mountain Hemlock
Methuselah’s beard
Western Hemlock
Pacific Silver Fir
Shelf fungus
Salal
Gravis scripta lichen
Fruticose lichen
Liver wart

Lat.: 47.0857019, Lon.: -122.70616569999999
Day, 2012
4/1/12
10:30am-2:00pm

Today we visited the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge. Before exploring, a guide informed us that most of the buildings and trails follow footprints of an old farm that used to be there. He also said that this particular area could have actually become a landfill. I'm so glad it didn't. When we began the trail, the sky was overcast and it wasn't rainy. A light rain and slightly strong wind did pick up within about an hour or so into the trip. As for temperature, I would say it was around 45-50 degrees F though it seemed much cooler once the wind kicked in.

As we saw yesterday at the Mt. Rainier Trail of the Shadows, this particular area was comprised of a lot of deciduous trees with moss and possibly sword ferns growing out of them. The understory was mainly leafless trees and branches covering the water that this trail followed. However, if you looked deeper past the deciduous trees, on the other side of the trail there were many tall trees not covered in most and with not much visible understory. These trees also looked like they could've been evenly spaced which suggests to me that they may have been coniferous and/or second growth. In the more deciduous parts, we saw a lot of birds such as Red Breasted Robins, Brown Creepers, Song Sparrows, Great Horned Owls, Marsh Hawks, and even a Red-tailed hawk really up close.
The Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge also had a long pathway out into a tree-less flat area with some grass and connecting water. It was here that we saw Bald Eagles in the distance, a Marsh Hawk diving ("kiting") for food, Blue Herons flying and landing in the grass, and many ducks and geese swimming around in the water or gathering together on the grass. The Marsh Hawk kiting for prey was particularly interesting to me. It would fly up, hover a bit, and then soar down close to the ground diving for its prey. It did this for at least 5 minutes. Although I didn't get to see it actually come up with any food as I was not that close, I'd imagine it eventually got what it was after.

Species List:
Red flowering currant
American robin
Song sparrow
Canada geese
Great horned owl
Brown creeper
Sword fern
Salmonberry
Red tail hawk
Common merganser
Marsh hawk
Bald eagle
Great blue heron
Big leaf maple
Elder berry

Lat.: 47.652349451369396 Lon.: -122.31024686535949
Day, 2012
4/5/12
1:30-3:00

Today we visited different sections of the UW Botany Greenhouse. I don't recall what the first section was called but there were many leafy green plants and it was humid and warm. The most interesting parts of this section for me were the Lodoisia pam tree with its double coconut (and world’s largest) seeds, and the Monstera deliciosa. What interested me about this plant is that it grows as a vine where it is dark. Once the vines make it to a tree, the plant becomes phototropic and its leaves turn from heart-shaped to being huge with holes. The reason for the holes wasn’t known but they could be there to let rain through if the plant doesn’t need that much, to let sunlight through for lower plants, or to make the leaves look like they’ve already been eaten by bugs. It would be interesting to know the actual reason for their holey appearance.

With Susan we went into the “Desert” section of the greenhouse, which was very dry and inhabited by many cacti and other pokey plants. Interesting here, was the Welwitschia. This plant is native to the Namibian Desert where it hardly ever rains. However, at the UW greenhouse, Doug watered the plant and it is now thriving more than it would’ve had it been in the Namibian Desert for the same amount of time. This shows that the Welwitschia doesn’t actually prefer living in the desert. This was interesting because it made me think of all the other plants that may not actually prefer their current or native habitats. But there’s really no way to know unless you remove it and test it.
With Josh, he showed us the Synsepalum dulcificum or “miracle berry” that changes your sensory perceptions so much that it can make you taste the sweetness of a lemon. It was interesting to learn that this sweetness is actually always there but we just can’t taste it because it is masked by all the sourness. Josh also showed us the ghost chili, which is the hottest chili in the world, about 10 times hotter than a habanero. We learned that the heat of a chili doesn’t affect our taste buds, it affects the pain receptors in our brain telling us we are in physical pain when eating a hot chili. In this was, the plant is “fooling us” because this apparently doesn’t happen to birds (who may be evolved to eat chilies).

Species List:
Theobroma
Lodoisia maldvia
Monster delisiosa
Western hyasin
Dischidia
Welwitschia
Pepperoni
Venus fly trap
Serasenia
Epiphyte
Dracula orchid
Chiles
Soma sensory berry