SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY A SELF--GUIDED TOUR School of Social Sciences SONOMA- Department of Environmental Studies and Planning STATE UNIVERSITY . A self-guided tour Written by: Kenneth M. Stocking Professor ·Emeritus, Environmental Studies and Planning Robert J. Sherman, Professor of Biology Karen Tillinghast, Lead Gardener, Landscape Services 1st Revision, 1997, by Brian King and Karen Tillinghast 2nd Revision, 2006, by Katherine Musick and Karen Tillinghast ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Our appreciation and thanks to the students, staff, and faculty from Environmental Studies and Planning and Biology who have contributed in many ways toward the development of the garden. Introduction ....................................................... iv Concept of the Garden . ...................... iv Special thanks to the following: Layout of the Garden. v John Bond, Director of Plant Operations, Retired A. Oak Woodland. 1 William Mabry, Director of Plant Operations, Retired B. Yellow Pine Forest ............. ................................. 4 George Smith, Superintendent of Grounds, Retired C. Douglas-Fir Forest .................... ...... ..................... 7 Sam Youney, Superintendent of Grounds D. Mixed Evergreen. 8 E. Grassland ...................................................... 10 Organizations that have contributed time, effort, and plant specimens include: F. Chaparral . 12 California Flora Nursery G. Redwood Forest ................................................ 15 California Native Plant Society, Milo Baker Chapter H. Riparian. 18 Circuit Rider Productions, Tree Project I. North Coast Coniferous Forest. ..................................... 22 Rohnert Park Garden Club J. Closed-Cone Pine Forest . 24 Santa Rosa Garden Club K. Wetland . 26 Saratoga Horticulture Foundation L. Oak Savannah . 29 M. Vernal Pool .................................................... 30 Organizations that have contributed funding include: Bibliography . 31 California Horticultural Society-1996 Butterfly Garden Trail, 1992 Trail Guide Funding Santa Rosa Women's Garden Club-1994 P.E.T.A.L.S. Grant SSU Enterprises-1989 Special Planting Section Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust-1985 Original trail construction and publication of Trail Guide, 1st edition. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Our appreciation and thanks to the students, staff, and faculty from Environmental Studies and Planning and Biology who have contributed in many ways toward the development of the garden. Introduction ....................................................... iv Concept of the Garden . ...................... iv Special thanks to the following: Layout of the Garden. v John Bond, Director of Plant Operations, Retired A. Oak Woodland. 1 William Mabry, Director of Plant Operations, Retired B. Yellow Pine Forest ............. ................................. 4 George Smith, Superintendent of Grounds, Retired C. Douglas-Fir Forest .................... ...... ..................... 7 Sam Youney, Superintendent of Grounds D. Mixed Evergreen. 8 E. Grassland ...................................................... 10 Organizations that have contributed time, effort, and plant specimens include: F. Chaparral . 12 California Flora Nursery G. Redwood Forest ................................................ 15 California Native Plant Society, Milo Baker Chapter H. Riparian. 18 Circuit Rider Productions, Tree Project I. North Coast Coniferous Forest. ..................................... 22 Rohnert Park Garden Club J. Closed-Cone Pine Forest . 24 Santa Rosa Garden Club K. Wetland . 26 Saratoga Horticulture Foundation L. Oak Savannah . 29 M. Vernal Pool .................................................... 30 Organizations that have contributed funding include: Bibliography . 31 California Horticultural Society-1996 Butterfly Garden Trail, 1992 Trail Guide Funding Santa Rosa Women's Garden Club-1994 P.E.T.A.L.S. Grant SSU Enterprises-1989 Special Planting Section Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust-1985 Original trail construction and publication of Trail Guide, 1st edition. iii • INTRODUCTION Welcome to our Native Plant Garden. • The Garden is an ongoing project of the students, faculty, and grounds staff of Sonoma State University. When we moved to the campus in 1966, the four acre garden site was an open field bordered on the north by the creek. There were many native arroyo, red, and sandbar willows • and some buckeyes and maples along the creek. Crowding in upon them were masses of the non-native Himalaya blackberries, fennel, and poison hemlock. In the open fields were many weedy species including wild oats, bindweed, bristly ox-tongue, and the occasional coyote • brush, a native species. The garden was started in the winter of 1973- 74. Much of the planting was done on the local • adobe soil but large amounts of specialized rock were trucked in from appropriate sources to help simulate native substrate. The oak woodland, serpentine, and most of the chaparral • communities contain this imported material. Many of our larger trees and shrubs were planted from one-gallon cans during the first winter. • Records of planting and their successes and failures are being kept. • CONCEPT OF THE GARDEN The Native Plant Garden is designed to demonstrate the concept of plant communities and to identify a number of the species found in each. Our garden is grouped into 12 plant communi­ • ties as identified in A California Flora, Munz, 1968. A plant community is a group of plants, all integrated in a particular ecosystem, and usually • dominated by one or a few species. The dominant species are the most successful competitors for such things as light, nutrients, and water. They are, therefore, usually the most abundant and • generally the tallest plants in the community. All plant communities are products of interacting factors which make up an ecosystem: climate, • soil type, geologic features, depth of groundwater, topography, microorganisms, and animals . Starting with these basic influences, distinct plant communities evolve. The communities you see today in the Garden are in most cases not mature enough to • represent their ultimate development. Use your imagination to project their development in to • the future; then return to the Garden periodically to see how each community has progressed. iv v • INTRODUCTION Welcome to our Native Plant Garden. • The Garden is an ongoing project of the students, faculty, and grounds staff of Sonoma State University. When we moved to the campus in 1966, the four acre garden site was an open field bordered on the north by the creek. There were many native arroyo, red, and sandbar willows • and some buckeyes and maples along the creek. Crowding in upon them were masses of the non-native Himalaya blackberries, fennel, and poison hemlock. In the open fields were many weedy species including wild oats, bindweed, bristly ox-tongue, and the occasional coyote • brush, a native species. The garden was started in the winter of 1973- 74. Much of the planting was done on the local • adobe soil but large amounts of specialized rock were trucked in from appropriate sources to help simulate native substrate. The oak woodland, serpentine, and most of the chaparral • communities contain this imported material. Many of our larger trees and shrubs were planted from one-gallon cans during the first winter. • Records of planting and their successes and failures are being kept. • CONCEPT OF THE GARDEN The Native Plant Garden is designed to demonstrate the concept of plant communities and to identify a number of the species found in each. Our garden is grouped into 12 plant communi­ • ties as identified in A California Flora, Munz, 1968. A plant community is a group of plants, all integrated in a particular ecosystem, and usually • dominated by one or a few species. The dominant species are the most successful competitors for such things as light, nutrients, and water. They are, therefore, usually the most abundant and • generally the tallest plants in the community. All plant communities are products of interacting factors which make up an ecosystem: climate, • soil type, geologic features, depth of groundwater, topography, microorganisms, and animals . Starting with these basic influences, distinct plant communities evolve. The communities you see today in the Garden are in most cases not mature enough to • represent their ultimate development. Use your imagination to project their development in to • the future; then return to the Garden periodically to see how each community has progressed. iv v Pagel LAYOUT OF THE GARDEN • A. OAK WOODLAND As the map indicates, the Garden is located east of the lake and north of the physical education Oak Woodland communities are found in the low and mid elevations of the Coast Ranges and in complex and nearby parking lots. Visitors may start the self-guided tour at the Native Plant the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Munz identifies three Oak Woodlands. The Northern Garden sign, at the southeast comer of the Lake and follow the route indicated on the map on • Oak Woodland (coast ranges from Humboldt to Napa Counties), the Southern Oak Woodland the back cover. (valleys of interior California from L.A. to San Diego counties), and the Foothill Woodland This guide describes the major species within each community as well as some of the other • (foothills and valley borders of the inner Coast Ranges from Trinity to Santa Barbara Counties, commonly associated plants which are listed at the end of each section. Communities