Chaparral & Scavenger Hunt National Park Service Teacher Key U.S. Department of the Interior High School Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

Use this key to accompany Optional Biodiversity Bonus! These abbreviations are used within the key to identify the haparral oastal the typical communities that the grow C & C iNaturalist is a citizen science Sage Scrub Scavenger Hunt project and online social network within: activity that is part of of naturalists, citizen scientists, and biologists built on the concept of the Southern California mapping and sharing observations of Fire Ecology Wildfire biodiversity across the globe. alkabout • CH = W . Find it in your app store or visit inaturalist.org. You can have the • CSS = Coastal Sage Scrub Guidelines students create their own account or create a classroom account. It is free! After a short rest, tell the students • OW = Oak Woodland that they will be participating in a During their visit, have the students scavenger hunt. take pictures of at least three plants or animals in the chaparral and • G = Grasslands Have them read the background upload them to a class inaturalist information and instructions and account for identification. • I = Invasive answer any questions they may have. Before the field trip, visit: With each find, the students are to https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/ write the name of the flora or fauna getting+started and answer the question, share or watch the video at: https://vimeo. the provided information with com/162581545 your group, or complete the task for more information about how to associated with it. use iNaturalist and have the students • Scavenger hunt download the app. Students can use the Scavenger answers are Hunt Word Bank for identification When you return you can analyze the purposes. data collected to help determine how healthy the ecosystems in the park written in Continue the scavenger hunt along are based on the biodiversity data the trail until your next stop. collected. BROWN. Find a plant that has re-sprouted from its This is the only reptile in the Santa This obligate resprouter could give you an Look for the blue flash and harsh call roots after the fire. Can you identify this Monica Mountains that gives birth to itchy rash if you touch it! of this intelligent bird. Unlike blue jays, plant? Do you think it is an: live young. Their babies can grow their Leaves of three, let it be! Expect this plant in these birds do not have a crest on top • obgligate resprouter own “rattles.” shaded and sheltered areas. It is often under of their heads. Watch for them to pick • obligate seeder trees and along the banks of streams. In the acorns from the oaks and bury them • facultative seeder winter it loses its leaves (deciduous) but the Southern Pacific for later feeding. bare stems are potent irritants as well. Students can find any plant that Rattlesnake is resprouting and identify it. Poison Oak (OW) California Scrub Jay The one in the picture is Laurel Crotalus oreganus helleri Toxicodendron diversilobum Aphelocoma californica .

Look for these birds running after a lizard This facultative seeder can resprout These lizards hide during a fire and A version of this obligate resprouter is or rodent in the chaparral. These track as fast as 15 days after burning in a then invade the burn site for food and the namesake for the word Chaparral. stars can run 15 miles an hour with faster wildfire. The genus name Malosma sun. Watch for them to do “pushups” to It is derived from the Spanish word, spurts when needed. They only fly when translates to “apple smell”, referring to flash their blue bellies and defend their Chaparro (dwarf oak). necessary but can leap straight up in the air the aroma of the plant. territory from other males and show off fast enough to catch a hummingbird! Smell this plant, what do you smell? for the ladies! Greater Roadrunner Plant name: Western Fence Lizard Scrub Oak (CH) Geococcyx californianus Laurel Sumac (CSS) Sceloporus occidentalis Quercus berberidifolia Malosma laurina This obligate resprouter is not found This top predator depends on the This facultative seeder is susceptible to Listen for the pecking and drilling in mature chaparral but is found in ecosystem it lives in. What are three catching & spreading fire because of its of these birds and look for their burned areas where sunlight is more ways this animal depends on its dry branches and resinous wood which “granaries” in dead trees. These birds prevalent. physical environment? is why it is also called “greasewood.” hoard acorns in holes in trees and Mountain Lion will use the same “granary” tree for Coyote Brush (CSS) (Puma, Cougar, Panther) Chamise (CH) generations. Baccharis pilularis Puma concolor Acorn Woodpecker Student answers can vary: Adenostoma fasciculatum Melanerpes formicivorus food, water, shelter

The flowers on this chaparral plant start out yellow and turn red as the summer arrives. It This is California’s state bird that is This obligate resprouter is also referred These annual non-native grasses are called plays an important role in ecosystem recovery found in many habitats. It likes to eat to as Christmas Berry because of its red “flashy fuels” because they are highly after a fire. Its seeds have a thick coating that seeds, invertebrates, and berries such berries in the winter season. combustible and burn faster than chaparral. sometimes only a hot fire can crack. These plants as the poison oak berry. Listen for Many are considered invasive and take over help the recovery by transferring much needed an area if it burns too frequently. What is nitrogen, lost through the fire, from the air back their call which sounds like “ChiCago the term used to describe this change? into the soil. Larger plants in the next stage of ChiCago!” To y o n recovery after a fire need this nutrient to thrive. Type-conversion California Quail Deer Weed (CH) (CH) Grasses, Annual Non-native (G, I) Callipepla californica Heteromeles arbutifolia (Bromes, Cheatgrass, etc...) Acmispon glaber These trees resprout from the trunk This nocturnal predator exists in wild This plant is sometimes called This is the most common bird in the and upper limbs within three months and urban places and can run up to 65 “Cowboy Cologne.” Without ripping chaparral. Listen closely for its song following a fire. This is referred to km/hr and jump up to 4 meters when pieces of this facultative seeder off, that sounds like the bouncing of a ping- as epicormic sprouting. Look for hunting small mammals. Have you ever rub your hand over this plant gently pong ball. these native trees along the trail that seen one of these animals in the city? and smell your hand. What does it burned in the fire but are now showing smell like? epicormic sprouting. Wrentit Coast Live Oak (OW) Coyote California Sagebrush (CSS) Chamaea fasciata Quercus agrifolia Canis latrans

This pretty facultative seeder is in the same family as Althaea officinalis or Look for this common chaparral bird Also called California Lilac, some of Don’t “monkey around” with this fire marsh-mallow plant. One use for this foraging on the ground in leaf litter or these common of the chaparral following facultative seeding flower or European native plant was to make the in the shrubs for insects. They have are obligate seeders while others are you may get a sticky surprise! sugary confection marshmallows. distinguishing white spots on their facultative seeders. upperparts. Monkey Flower Greenbark Ceanothus Bush Mallow (Sticky or Bush) (CH, CSS, OW) (or Chaparral Mallow) Spotted Towhee (CH) Mimulus aurantiacus (CSS or CH) Pipilo maculatus Ceanothus spinosus Malacothamnus fasciculatus The berries of this plant are an Look for the glimpse of a red-brown tail This plant only blooms once, then dies. You may see this common non- important food source for birds as well on this large bird of prey soaring high in Look for its tall stalk with white flowers venomous snake cross the trail. as a popular ingredient in jams and the sky. They may be hunting the small but don’t get too close to the leaves of Although they resemble rattlesnakes, pies. Have you ever eaten these berries mammals, reptiles, or smaller birds in the this plant with their needle-sharp ends! you can tell the difference by their before? chaparral and grasslands around you. narrow rather than triangle shaped Chaparral Yucca head. Elderberry Red Tailed Hawk (CSS or CH) (Picture: Juvenile) Gopher Snake (OW, CH) Hesperoyucca whipplei Sambucus nigra Buteo jamaicensis Pituophis catenifer

Most of these shrubs with smooth, The pads and fruit (tunas) of this plant This native herb that follows fire is It’s not hard to spot this opportunistic, crooked, burgundy colored branches are edible, but don’t pick these off, they nature’s own “band-aid” erosion non-native, and invasive plant that has are obligate resprouters with some that are covered in spines! Have you ever control measure. It is also California’s seeds which can be used to make a popular condiment for hot dogs. are facultative seeders. Its name means eaten nopales or tunas? state flower. “little apple” in Spanish referring to its little berries. Chaparral Prickly California Poppy Black Mustard Manzanita (CH) Pear (CSS) (CSS or G) (G, I) Arctostaphylos Brassica nigra Opuntia oricola Eschscholzia californica