Spring Observations!

The theme of my observations this week is pretty straightforward: I like flowers.

Our campus, along with most of California and probably this region of the world, is largely covered with weedy little plants growing in every available space. I had seldom even noticed them, until last week when my field methods class was practicing vegetation sampling. The professor selected a small patch right outside McCone (across the pathway from an area where our class once overturned a log and identified all kind of stuff underneath) and plopped down a quadrat tool. We then proceeded to count all the different species growing inside it, and I was amazed at the diversity of life contained in what I had previously just disregarded as annoying weeds!

Ever since, I've been making an effort to keep more of an eye out for differences and peculiarities in the natural vegetation everywhere I go, and one thing has become evident. These areas of weeds are now all beginning to blossom, revealing their true form and beauty! After our mini-plant lab on Tuesday, I was excited to take a stroll and appreciate the subtleties of a few of our local specimens, and these are my five favorite.

It might be worth mentioning that I also noticed an increase in birds being out and about, but failed repeatedly at photographing them, so I opted for the flower theme instead. I'm also curious as to why the common ivy I so love (I've already observed it several times for the class) appears to be dying while everything else is happy, healthy and blooming.

Posted on March 14, 2013 08:44 PM by