Life in Our Watershed Investigating Vernal Pools

winter spring summer/fall

Flower Facts

Version 3 Mather Field Vernal Pools

z White Flowers z Orange Flowers { Popcorn-flower { Vernal Pool Dodder { Soap Plant { Spokepod z Pink, Red or Purple { Valley Tassels Flowers { White Hyacinth { Checkerbloom { White Meadowfoam { Douglas's Beardstyle { White Navarretia { Downingia { Elegant Brodiaea z Yellow Flowers { Field Cluster Lily { Biscuit Root { Filaree { Butter-and-eggs { Red Maids { Fiddleneck { Sacramento Beardstyle { Field Owl's-clover { Scarlet Pimpernel { Fremont's Tidy-tips { Vasey's Coyote-thistle { Frying Pan Poppy { Vernal Pool Monkeyflower { Hawkbit { White-tipped Clover { Narrow-leaf Mule's Ear { Winter Vetch { Vernal Pool Buttercup { Vernal Pool Goldfields z Blue Flowers { Yellow Star-thistle { Itherial's Spear { Miniature Lupine

z Green, Brown or No Flowers { American Pillwort z Special Illustrations { Little Quaking Grass { Flowers & Pollination { Medusahead { Pea Family { Pale Spikerush { Sunflower Family { Purple Needlegrass { Water Starwort { Woolly Marbles

Mather Field Vernal Pools

common name White Hyacinth

scientific name Triteleia hyacinthina

family Liliaceae (lily)

habitat grassland

size plant up to 15 inches tall, flower 1.4 to 2.5 cm across

fun facts Flowers are generally beetle pollinated.

© Carol Witham description Member of the lily family. Each flower has three petals and three sepals. But in Triteleia the sepals are colored like the petals so that the flower appears to have six petals and no sepals. The flowers are white with a green central vein.

You may recall that Brodiaea have three stamens and three stamenoides. Dichelostemma have three true stamens and three stamenoides which have reduced stamens at their tips. The Triteleia have six true stamens and no stamenoides. life cycle White Hyacinth is a bulb producing perennial. Early in the season, the plants produce one or a few grass-like leaves. By the time the flowers are ready to bloom, the leaves have dried up and the flowers bloom in umbels (clusters) on a tall leafless stem. Only older plants with well developed bulbs have enough stored energy to produce flowers in April or May. It can take four years or more for Triteleia to bloom the first time. ecology Triteleia bulbs are an important food source for burrowing rodents such as Botta's Pocket Gophers. The bulbs have a nutty flavor and Native Americans ate them as well.

common name Frying Pan Poppy

scientific name Eschscholzia lobbii

family Papaveraceae (poppy)

habitat grassland (shallow soils)

size plant 4 to 8 inches tall, flower 1.5 to 2.5 cm

fun facts Early Spanish-Californians made a hair-oil from the plant © Ken Davis which made their hair shiny. They believed that it also made their hair grow. description Member of the poppy family. All members of this family have four petals. The flowers are yellow. The leaves are delicate and fern-like.

Frying Pan Poppies are the smaller of the two poppies at Mather Field. The similar California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is a much larger plant with much larger golden or orange flowers. life cycle Frying Pan Poppy is an annual plant. It germinates in the fall and blooms during the first warm days of March. It may continue to bloom into May in favorable locations. It prefers shallow soils where there is less competition from annual grasses. ecology Frying Pan Poppy leaves are very nutritious and are eaten by a variety of native herbivores such as rabbits. investigate Can you figure out what insects pollinate the Frying Pan Poppy? Are these the same insects that pollinate the related California Poppies? Compare Frying Pan Poppy and California Poppy. Is it easy to see the difference?

common name Hawkbit

scientific name Leontodon taraxacoides

family Asteraceae (sunflower)

habitat vernal pools, wetlands

plant 8 to 10 inches tall; size flower 20 to 40 mm across

fun facts The genus name (Leontodon)

© Carol Witham means "lion tooth". This plant is not native. description Member of the sunflower family. Each flowerhead is actually made up of 5-50 individual yellow flowers. In Hawkbit, all of the flowers making up the flowerhead are ray flowers. The center ones just have shorter petals than the outer ones.

The flowers of Hawkbit look-like those of the common Dandelion which may grow in your yard. The leaves of Hawkbit are in a basal rosette (arranged at the base of the stem) and the flowers are borne on 8-10 inch tall, leafless stems. If you look at the leaves with your hand lens, you will see that the hairs on the leaves are forked at the tip like a snake's tongue. life cycle Hawkbit can be an annual, biennial (living for two years), or a perennial depending upon the habitat. At Mather Field they are probably annuals. They germinate after the pool water has begun to evaporate. They bloom in late May after the Goldfields and other native sunflowers have set seed. ecology Hawkbit is one of the few non-native species which can colonize vernal pools. At Mather Field it is particularly abundant on the lower terrace. Hawkbit was introduced to California from Europe.

common name Vernal Pool Buttercup

scientific Ranunculus bonariensis var. name trisepalus

family Ranunculaceae (buttercup)

habitat vernal pools

size plant 2 to 8 inches tall; leaves 6 to 20 mm long; flower 6 to 10 mm across © Ken Davis fun facts Vernal Pool Buttercup shades out other plants with its floating leaves. description Member of the buttercup family. The small flowers have tiny yellow petals. The head of seeds is much larger than the flower was and resembles an unripe berry.

Two other buttercups occur at Mather Field. One has large, maple-shaped leaves, yellow flowers and seeds that are covered in hooked spines. The other is white-flowered with fern-like leaves and grows in the water. life cycle Vernal Pool Buttercup is an annual. It germinates in wet areas soon after the rains begin in the fall. It has two forms, one suitable for wet vernal pools and one for dried vernal pools. Its early leaves have long stems so that they can float on the surface of the water. Leaves produced after the water begins to evaporate have shorter stems. Vernal Pool Buttercup blooms in April. ecology Vernal Pool Buttercup is usually one of the dominant species in the pools in which it occurs. It grows very fast and produces leaves which float and shade the bottom of the pool. Fast growth helps it to compete well against

other plants. The shading leaves reduce the competition from other species buy preventing sunlight from reaching their seedlings.

common name Douglas's Beardstyle

scientific Pogogyne douglasii name

family Lamiaceae (mint)

habitat vernal pools, wet grassland

size plant 1 to 4 inches tall, flower 9 to 20 mm long and 7 to 10 mm across

fun facts Crush a leaf to make a minty © Ken Davis smell on your hands. description Member of the mint family. The stems are brown to greenish and, like all plants in the mint family, square (four-sided). The leaves have lots of stiff hairs sticking out from the edges. The small red-purple to violet-colored flowers have a long lower lip that is pale pink with a bright violet spot.

The flowers of Douglas's Beardstyle are much larger than the similar Sacramento Beardstyle (Pogogyne zizyphoroides). The enlarged lower lip has a distinct bright spot which is missing from the Sacramento Beardstyle. life cycle Douglas's Beardstyle is an annual plant. It germinates in the vernal pool bottoms just after the water has dried up. It blooms from June to July or August, after most of the rest of the vernal pools plants have made seeds and died. ecology Douglas's Beardstyle only occurs in a few vernal pools on the Mather Field vernal pool site while the more common Sacramento Beardstyle grows in almost all of them. This indicates that the Douglas's Beardstyle has very special requirements for germination and growth that only a few vernal pools can provide.

common name Red Maids

scientific name Calandrinia ciliata

family Portulacaceae (purslane)

habitat grassland (disturbed)

plant with stems up to 1 foot; size © Ken Davis flower 8 to 30 mm across fun facts Flowers are only open when the sun is shining. Also known as "poor man's weather vane". description Member of the purslane family. The bright red-pink flowers with five petals and numerous stamens are distinctive (unlike any others). The plants are sprawling. life cycle Red Maids is an annual plant. It germinates as soon as the rains begin in the fall. It can bloom as early as February or March and is generally in seed by the time the vernal pool plants begin to bloom. ecology Red Maids occur in grasslands and fields. They are particularly plentiful in disturbed areas where they can be the dominant species. Red Maids were used as a pot herb by early settlers and their seeds are a favored food of doves. investigate Red Maids are native, but often grow in disturbed areas. Natural disturbances can be caused by burrowing rodents or digging predators. Can you find Red Maids growing on soil which was disturbed by animals?

common Vernal Pool name Monkeyflower

scientific name Mimulus tricolor

family Scrophulariaceae (figwort)

habitat vernal pools

size plant 1 to 5 inches tall, flower 10 to 25 mm

fun facts Mimulus means mime or mimic, an action often associated with © Kent Valentine monkeys. description Member of the figwort family. The bright red-pink-and-yellow flowers are tube shaped at the base and have five irregular lobes or petals.

The Vernal Pool Monkeyflower is rarely confused with any other species in the vernal pools. Downingia are similarly face-shaped but are much smaller and generally blue or purple. life cycle Vernal Pool Monkeyflower is an annual plant. It is endemic to vernal pools. It germinates as the pools dry in the spring. Vernal Pool Monkeyflower blooms in April-May. ecology Vernal Pool Monkeyflower often does well in slightly disturbed areas. Look for them on old gopher mounds which were submerged under water during the winter. Whether they like the fluffier soils or the reduced competition from other plants is not certain. investigate Judging from the shape and coloration of the flower, Vernal Pool Monkeyflowers are insect pollinated. Can you figure out which insects?

common name American Pillwort

scientific name Pilularia americana

family Marsileaceae (marsilea)

habitat vernal pools, wet grassland

size entire plant about 5 cm tall

fun facts American Pillwort is related to ferns. It makes spores instead of

© Carol Witham seeds. description Member of the marsilea family. This plant is a fern-ally (a close relative of ferns). In ferns the leaves are called fronds. The stem is underground. The plant is often irregularly shaped with fronds sticking up out of the ground in lines that follow the underground stems. The plant's spores are borne along the underground stems and resemble small, round, and hairy pills or peas.

There are a couple of other delicate, green plants that might be confused with American Pillwort. Flowering Quillwort (Lilaea scilloides) tends to be a bit larger and has both underground and aboveground flowers. Quillwort (Isoetes orcuttii) has similar fronds, but they are straight and come from a single point in the soil. life cycle American Pillwort is related to the fern. It grows from spores instead of seeds and does not make flowers. It is most easily observed on the drying mud around and in vernal pools early in the spring. ecology American Pillwort is a very unusual little plant. Dig one up to show off its little pill-shaped spore packets. Stick it back in the ground and it will be just fine. By producing its spores underground, the American Pillwort pre-plants itself and guarantees that next year's generation will have just the right growing conditions!

SPECIAL ILLUSTRATIONS