rtdecca's Journal

For this assignment, I decided to go on a trip to Golden Gate Park. Knowing full well that there would be many many planted/non-indigenous species there, I made it my mission to find the indigenous ones. First, I kept coming across an interesting weed with blue flowers that I assumed was indigenous because of it's commonness across the park: part of the plants iconic taxa. Next, I was walking through the park and kept catching glimpses of a very quick bird, and when I finally caught a shot of one, I assumed it too must take kindly to the park because of the amount of them I saw: part of the bird iconic taxa. Lastly, I wanted to find an insect that I couldn't identify, so I lifted up a log. I found termites, and then I saw an interesting bug protecting a bunch of eggs. I could not see the full bug, nor would it move, but I made the assumption that it was part of the insect iconic taxa.

During lecture, I was fascinated by the effect of rain on the ecology of either side of a mountain, so I decided to go for a hike on the Northern side of the mountains in Tilden Regional Park. As I hiked about a mile on the North side of the mountain, I saw a plethora of leafed out plants. However, I had a lot of trouble finding any bare plants. I had an equal amount of trouble finding any flowering plants as well. Finally, when I thought the North side of the mountain did not support any flowering plants or they were out of season, I found a shrub with small white flowers growing out of brush.