silvialo's Journal

For this homework, I took a look around to see the species that I could find right away in no particular order.

Greater periwinkle- native to Europe and Africa
Bermuda Buttercup-indigenous to South Africa
California Poppy-native to U.S and Mexico. When I was walking along a trail, a poppy popped the top part of its flower and hit me. I thought this flower was hilarious.
Common Dandelion-native to North America and Eurasia
Natsturtium-I knew that I had seen this plant before, apparently it is native to Mexico. I saw it there when I was growing up.

1. A plant with regular flowers: I chose this yellow flower that had six petals because it is symmetrical and the petals are similar in shape and size.
2. A plant with irregular flowers: I chose the Bermuda buttercup because it has five petals. They are often bilaterally symmetric.
3. A monocot: I chose this plant that has these purple flowers. Although I do not know the name it bares resemblance to a clivia plant which is considered a monocot. The leaves are what makes it a monocot.
4. A dicot: I chose a daisy as my dicot because it has broad leaves with branched veins
5. A plant in the pea family: I chose a common vetch right outside of Mc Cone hall. It is related to the peas.
6. a gymnosperm: I chose a coast redwood as my gymnosperm
7. A terrestrial plant that is not a seed plant: I chose a fern because they are very ancient plants that reproduce by releasing their sperm and egg when in moist areas.
8. A plant with pinnate leaves: I chose another type of fern. I don’t know the name but I thought it had the characteristics of pinnate leaves.
9. A plant with opposite leaves: I chose a plant that I cannot identify but I had looked up characteristics of something similar to these .
10. A plant in the sunflower family: I chose the yellow flower that always accompanies dandelions.

My observations were a couple of days ago but I had not put them in. I fell in love with tangle wood path and panoramic view area that I went again for that awesome workout and nature. I saw a berry plant, I think it might be a himalayan blackberry but I am not sure. I thought it was interesting how they have few berries. I think maybe its because the season might have just ended or its just beginning. I also saw lichen on a piece of log. I saw a few trees with it but not that many. I wonder why some trees are targeted and not all. I also got to see a fly on a leaf which I thought was cool. Also, I saw these clover like plants. I want to learn more about them and if they are invasive in our area. Lastly, since I am new to the bay I learned the name of the Dark eyed junco which is almost the equivalent of the house sparrow in the location where I lived in LA county.

I saw my first California towhee, here in Berkeley. I am from So Cal and I see them a lot down home. I heard its chirping song and I was pretty sure it was it. It kept singing to another bird. I am not sure if the other bird was of the same species or a different one.

My 3 observations:
For my observations I was really close to Mc Cone hall. I went to this little patch of Bermuda buttercups and was able to see all the activity going on with pollination.
One of my pictures shows a wasp. It was a first for me to see a wasp around flowers and I looked up to see if wasps pollinate and some do. Some are herbivorous even though a majority are carnivorous. I thought this was very interesting.
My second observation was a bee pollinating a buttercup. It was a weird looking bee. I don’t know the species but I was just staring at the things it would do.
Lastly I saw a bumble bee pollinating as well. It was difficult for me to photograph it because it would randomly disappear on me.

One of the most interesting parts of my observations was seeing how these organisms were at work. Sitting there for hours made me think about how a typical day in their life must be. They have their routine and I was super excited to see the different types of organisms that were pollinating. I was able to see at least five types of bees although the others were extremely difficult to photograph. I thought it was super cool that they never faught with each other for these resources.

Chaparral:
I went up tangle-wood trail. It was a very tough hike for me. Most of the organisms that I pictured were plants because there were lots of people there and many birds were being scared off by people and their dogs.

1. Anna’s hummingbird: One of my observations in the chaparral was Anna’s hummingbird. It was feeding on the nectar of some white flowers and then it went and stood in a tree. I read that the chaparral is the traditional habitat of the Anna's Hummingbird and that they are the only humming bird that produces a song. I believe this is true because I heard a sound coming from it. Here is a clip I found online to show you what I heard http://www.naturesongs.com/anhu3.wav
2. Coyote brush: I saw many of these perennial shrubs on the trail. I saw that this plant is part of the sunflower family, which I find interesting because it looks nothing like a sunflower to me. This plant looks like a bush to me. I noticed the jagged edges of the leaves and the waxiness they have. I believe this is an adaptation for the hot summer days where there is not a lot of water.
3. Vetches: This plant is interesting to me because it is drought resistant. It does well in areas where it is dry and also moist areas. The leaves are quite distant from each other. I think it could be an adaptation to prepare for long periods without water.
4. Scotch Broom: Although this plant is not native to California, I witnessed it in the tangle wood path. I read that it is an evergreen shrub that is invasive in Alameda County. I saw many of these plants throughout the slope. I believe the reason why they thrive in that type of biome is because of the types of leaves and the color. They are able to survive and continue to reproduce.
5. Miner’s lettuce : Another organism that I saw in the chaparral was miners lettuce. I saw a large patch under the shade of some planted eucalyptus tress.

Moist Evergreen Forest:

1. Western Sword fern: I saw many of these in the panoramic path of the moist evergreen forest. It is an evergreen fern native to North America. I noticed that they prefer to live in cool areas and are dark in color which can be an adaptation for plants that like to live in moisture.
2. I also have an unknown fern. I don’t know what it is for sure but I believe that it can be a bracken fern. It also was near the western sword fern except this one is a bit lighter in color. It was at bottom by the pathway.
3. Snowberry: I also saw this plant that looked like it had popcorn or marshmallows at the top of it. I just thought it was interesting. I had never seen anything like it. I think this plant benefits from living in moist areas because they need lots of water to produce the fruit.
4. I also saw a red berry. I am not sure what the name of it was but it was a dry plant and it had two or three red berry like things. I think that this plant will do well in moist evergreen forests because they also need lots of water to survive.
5. Last, I saw this beautiful plant with blue flowers with the centers are yellow and the rest of the plant is a medium green. I titled it kingdom plantae because I do not know what it is called.

Chaparral vs. Moist evergreen forest:
Chaparrals have more shrubs and plants that have waxy and small leaves and sometimes the colors are lighter although they range in color. The large difference is the location of the slope and how the sun hits the plants. In the moist evergreen we also see more darker green, and bigger leaves. Chaparrals have trees but there is not much shade like the moist evergreen forest gives.

**On 2/13/12, I saw a tree that I do not know the name of. It was a bare tree with no leaves it was a lighter shade and I titled it kingdom plantae. It kind of looks like it has spikes.I also took a picture of a coastal live oak by my apartment to show that the tree has leaves.

**I also saw plants that were bare and that included the California blackberry. I had assumed it was poison oak because I didn’t know the part “if it is hairy, then it must be a berry” and I did not see any berries or flowers that bloom from it. I did see a plant similar (it could have been the same plant but all the flowers were dead). A plant that was flowering was the lemonade berry and toyon. Both are producing both berries and flowers.

Mammals: I was in VLSB area and as I was walking I was able to capture a picture of a fox squirrel. These a commonly seen on campus.

Birds: I was just sitting down eating my chips for lunch when the two gulls came around me. They wanted some of my food.

Insects: My housemates keep flowers inside of my apartment and lately, I noticed that we are becoming infested with Lady Bird Beetles.

Plants: While I was walking on Canyon road, I saw a french bloom plant. I loved how bright the yellow colors stood out in the slope full of green plants.

Fungi: After seeing the fox squirrel as soon as I turned, I was a white mushroom on the floor. I still am learning about identifying species but I put fungi as the name of the observation.