Common Trees & Shrubs of BLP Page 1

Common Trees, Common Shrubs, Common Vines, and Rare Shrubs of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve (Greg de Nevers 2001, modified by Gwen Heistand 2007)

Common Trees of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve

There are nine common trees at Bolinas Lagoon Preserve (BLP). Each species is easy to recognize if you look at it carefully a few times. The following notes are meant as an aid to identification, as well as an introduction to the natural history of the plants. A good book to help identify most of the common trees in CA is Tom Watts' Pacific Coast Tree Finder.

Key to distinguish the common trees of BLP:

1 Tree deciduous...... 2 1' Tree evergreen...... 5

2 Leaves opposite...... 3 2' Leaves alternate...... 4

3 Leaves compound, digitate...... California Buckeye 3' Leaves simple, palmately lobed...... Big Leaf Maple

4 Leaves ovate, margins coarsely toothed...... Red Alder 4' Leaves narrow, margins smooth...... Arroyo Willow

5 Tree a conifer, an overgrown Christmas tree...... 6 5' Tree not a conifer, irregularly shaped & branched... 7

6 Bark reddish, cones less than 2" long...... Coast Redwood 6' Bark gray, cones more than 3" long...... Douglas Fir

7 Leaves aromatic when crushed...... California Bay 7' Leaves not noticeably scented when crushed...... 8

8 Leaves flat, whitish beneath, with parallel side veins…... Tan Oak 8' Leaves cupped, green beneath, side veins irregular...... Coast Live Oak

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Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens). The redwood is well known to many, and is one of the most abundant trees at BLP. It is the tree species that supports the nests of the herons and egrets. It is an evergreen, and one of only two conifers ("Christmas trees") at BLP. Anytime you see a conifer at BLP you need only ask if it is a Douglas fir or a redwood. Conifers (=cone bearing plants) are ancient plants (literally dinosaur food), and represent one of the early terrestrial evolutionary radiations on earth. Most conifers, including redwoods and Doug firs, are monoecious. Monoecious means the staminate (male) flowers and the pistillate (female) flowers are produced separately on the same plant. The contrasting conditions are perfect flowers, where both staminate and pistillate parts are in one flower; and dioecious flowers, where one plant is exclusively staminate and one plant is exclusively pistillate. Coast redwood is wind pollinated, and is the tallest plant in the world, reaching 365 feet. The seeds are tiny, and are able to germinate and survive the first summer only after fire or flood has cleared duff to reveal mineral soil. Redwood is a relictual species. Its geographic range was once much larger. The current geographic range of redwoods is the fog zone near the coast from Monterey County to Southern Oregon. Fossil redwoods are known from throughout the Northern Hemisphere, including Alaska, Greenland, and across Eurasia. Redwood is a genus of one species, all its closest relatives having succumbed to the ravages of extinction. It is survived by somewhat more distant relatives such as the big tree or Sierra redwood (Sequoiadendron giganteum) and the dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides) of China. A dawn redwood is planted in the picnic area, downstream of the Bird Hide along the creek. Dawn redwood and the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), an aquatic species from the Southeastern U.S., are deciduous redwoods!

Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Another evergreen conifer, this is the most important timber tree in the world. Globally, more board feet of Douglas fir are milled every year than from any other species. Doug fir may be the most abundant tree at BLP, and it looks like it will become even more abundant here in the future. Doug fir cones have little "mouse tails and hind feet" protruding from between the cone scales. The cones are about four times as big as redwood cones. The cones are wind pollinated. Unlike redwood, the seeds of Doug fir are winged for wind dispersal. Doug firs grow from the southern Sierra to British Colombia, and east to the Rockies, including many of the desert mountain ranges of the Great Basin. The ecological amplitude of Doug firs is remarkable. They grow in chaparral, on land slides, in grassland and in the most magnificent temperate old growth forests on earth.

Coast Live oak (Quercus agrifolia). Perhaps the most beautiful tree at BLP (everyone is welcome to their own opinion on this). These muscular, twisted ancients are one of the liveliest of trees, in terms of animals that use and depend on them. Coast live oak is an evergreen (thus

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"live"), with cupped leaves, the edges of which have a few sharp teeth. The acorns produced by this species are the basis of important food chains, including little known and charismatic species such as specialist weevils, gray squirrels, jays, acorn woodpeckers, deer, and bears. Jays may cache 5,000 acorns per year. Like redwoods and Doug firs, whole books have been written about this species (Glen Keators' The Life of an Oak gives great detail). The flowers are catkins (long pendant strings of stamens), are monoecious and wind pollinated. New growth in spring (right now!) paints the coastal bluffs a remarkable variety of greens. Oak forests are transitional to Douglas fir forests in our area, and we may owe the beautiful oak forests we see today to the burning practices of Native Americans. Frequent burning excludes Doug firs and favors oak forests. Oaks are notably resilient to fire. Coast live oak is a CA endemic. Like 30% of the flora of California, coast live oak grows no where else on earth. Far up the ridges you can find canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) at BLP, but most visitors never see this species. There are a few black oaks (Quercus kelloggii) in the forests above the Griffin Loop, but none along BLP trails.

Tan Bark oak (Lithocarpus densiflora). High on the ridges, on the Griffin Loop Trail and Zumie's Loop, one encounters tan oaks. The leaves are larger than coast live oak, and flat, not cupped. The veins are strikingly parallel, and unbranched, unlike coast live oak. This ancient redwood forest associate has a remarkable distribution. The genus Lithocarpus contains 300 species. 299 species of Lithocarpus grow in southeast Asia, one species grows in CA. The spines on the acorn cap, and stiff, erect catkins distinguish Lithocarpus from Quercus. There are virtually no big, old tan oaks left. Most tan oaks were destructively harvested for the bark, which is high in tannic acid and supported the hide industry (leather), the primary cattle commodity of CA from 1860 to 1910. The sweet, somewhat cloying odor of the flowers is a characteristic smell of June. The smell attracts flies that pollinate tan oaks, unlike its wind-pollinated relatives in the genus Quercus. Tan oaks are particularly hard hit by sudden oak death in our area. Look at them and enjoy them now.

California Buckeye (Aesculus californicus). The largest seeds of any plant in CA are produced by this CA endemic. The seeds are transported uphill by squirrels. The seeds are poisonous. Native Californians used them to poison fish, and (after leaching) used them as a famine food. The nectar is toxic to introduced honeybees, but not to native bees. This deciduous tree is the first to leaf out in spring (February) and the first to drop its leaves in response to summer draught (July). ACR is the proud protector of two of the largest buckeyes around (in Volunteer Canyon). With leaves this tree is unmistakable. It is the only tree in CA with opposite, digitately compound leaves. The fruits are also diagnostic. When bare the winter buds and leaf scars, as well as white bark, can be used to tell it from big-leaf maple, our only other opposite-leaved tree. Aesculus is a north temperate genus with about 25 species across North America and Eurasia, for

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instance the Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra) and the horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastaneum) of the Balkans.

↑ California Buckeye seed (looks like a deer’s eye) California Buckeye digitatley compound leaves California Buckeye flower →

Bay Tree, Bay Laurel, California Laurel, Pepperwood, Oregon Myrtle (Umbellularia californica). Bay trees are unique in numerous ways. They are members of the avocado family (Lauraceae), a largely tropical family. Bay trees are essentially a north temperate outlyer, the black sheep of the family. They are the first tree to flower in spring, starting at Christmas, and often being in full bloom by mid-January. The yellow flowers are fragrant, and on a calm day fill the canyon with sweet perfume. The flowers are three-merous (in whorls of three or multiples of three; six sepals, nine stamens). The anthers dehisce (open to shed pollen) by little doors, unlike most anthers which open by slits down the side. The leaves are strongly aromatic, the dry leaves crunched underfoot giving one of the characteristic odors of summer forests in lowland CA. Crushed leaves inhaled will clear your nasal passages, but use caution! Too strong a dose will knock you out. The fruits are miniature avocados, with thin meat and a large seed. The seeds are acorn-size, and are an important food of jays, gray squirrels and others. Native Californians ate them roasted, in small quantities, never as a staple. They are highly stimulant, like coffee. The tree is almost but not quite a CA endemic, ranging from San Diego County to SW Oregon where it is called Oregon myrtle and is used for turning bowls.

Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum). This beautiful riparian tree is the golden yellow of fall. When the maple leaves turn they light up the forests of West Marin like no other. The seeds are paired samaras, winged nuts covered in irritating hairs. The leaves are opposite, which separate

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them from all but the buckeye. Maple leaves are palmately compound, unlike the digitately compound leaves of the buckeye. The largest maple at BLP is just upstream of the Horse Trough in Garden Club Canyon. It is a beauty worth a pilgrimage to visit. There is a big leaf maple fallen across the stream just upstream of the Bird Hide. Across the creek from the dorm in Volunteer Canyon there is a virtual forest of maples. Acer is a north temperate genus of over 100 species. The maple by

Scheerin Bridge is the Norway maple ↑ leaves & seeds (Acer platanoides). flowers →

Red Alder (Alnus rubra). The red alder always grows within hearing distance of the waves, or so it is said. Inland it is replaced by the White Alder (Alnus rhombifolia). A deciduous, riparian tree, the alder is characteristic of disturbed areas and creeks, from Santa Cruz County to Alaska. The flowers are monoecious and wind pollinated. Like many wind pollinated trees they bloom before putting on leaves to allow wind penetration of the canopy. The staminate (male) flowers are pendant catkins, the pistillate (female) flowers are cones that grow woody in fruit. The seeds are tiny (like redwood) and survive only in bare soil, often meaning disturbed areas. Essentially, alders are flood specialists. They are very much like a short-lived version of a redwood, reproducing after fire or flood, but living only 40-60 years. Alders harbor nitrogen-fixing bacteria in nodules on their roots, which allows them to colonize nutrient poor areas like gravel bars. Alders have thin bark (like willows) and support lots of insects, thus are a magnet for birds.

Arroyo Willow (Salix lasiolepis). Willows are the smaller version of alders, deciduous, riparian and wetland trees. The branches are a warm yellow-orange, the leaves long and narrow. Willows produce flowers in erect catkins, the staminate and pistillate catkins on the same plant, but often well separated on the branch. They are monoecious. Unlike most deciduous plants with catkins that bloom before the leaves come out, most willows are fly pollinated, not wind pollinated. Smell the flowers, they are fragrant (to attract flies). Wind pollinated flowers have no reason to produce scent. The seeds are wind dispersed, and willow fluff is a dramatic event each year when it occurs. There are great hedges of willows parallel to Hwy 1 at the mouths of Picher and Garden Club Canyons.

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Common Shrubs of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve

There are 17 common shrubs at Bolinas Lagoon Preserve (BLP). Each species is easy to recognize if you look at it carefully a few times. The following notes are meant as an aid to identification, as well as an introduction to the natural history of the plants. Two books that will help with shrubs are Native Shrubs of the SF Bay Region by Roxana Ferris and An Illustrated Manual of CA Shrubs by H. E. McMinn. The first is simple and for beginners, but lacks keys or an index! The latter is all-inclusive and well illustrated, but beginners may find it intimidating. I have included our four woody vines (lianas). Most of our shrubs are evergreen, and have simple leaves. This makes them somewhat more challenging for beginners to distinguish than the trees. Don't worry, they will soon distinguish themselves to you.

Hazlenut (Corylus cornuta). If coffeeberry is not the most abundant understory shrub at BLP than hazel is. There are usually ten or more stems from the base of this deciduous shrub. The leaves are alternate. The flowers are monoecious (separate on the same plant). The male flowers are displayed in pendant catkins, the female flowers are hidden in bracts with only the tiny red stigmas protruding. Whenever you see the staminate catkins you stop for a treasure hunt, looking for the pistillate flowers. They are hard to find, but worth the search. When in leaf the plant is unmistakable, with soft-hairy leaves that feel like velvet. "Stop and shake hands with hazel" is what Mrs. Terwilliger says. The fruits are a small filbert (Corylus avellana). The fruits are enveloped in a parchment-like sac covered in irritating hairs. Squirrels harvest most of the nuts before we get a chance, but if you get a ripe one they are good.

Coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica). This is perhaps the most common understory shrub in our forests. It also grows in full sun in shrub associations. It is usually single-stemmed, not branched from the base. The leaves are evergreen, shiny above, ovate, about three inches long, and are displayed alternately on the branch. The leaf margins are minutely serrate, but not spiny like toyon. The flowers are small, the fruits are black, with two seeds, the adjacent faces flat, the outer faces round. The seeds look like coffee seeds, thus the common name. The genus Rhamnus is well known as a laxative. The bark of another CA species slippery elm (Rhamnus purshiana) is harvested and sold as Erutan (nature spelled backwards). Coffee berry fruits are eaten by coyotes and gray foxes (who can climb trees, whereas coyotes can't). Eating the berries results in what Ray Peterson termed "the coffeeberry quickstep." The shrub is the host plant for the pale

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swallowtail caterpillar, one of our most stunning. The caterpillar weaves a silk pad on a leaf to which it returns at dawn after feeding at night. The larvae of the coffeeberry leaf roller moth (Sorhagenia nimbosa) roll the leaves into a protective tube, sew it shut with silk, and live and feed in the tube. The flower buds are galled by an undescribed gnat of the genus Dasineura, causing the buds to inflate like a tiny balloon. The gnat larvae live and eat in the bud balloon. This gnat is a type of gall we call "the unseen flyer".

↑ fruit

← leaves & flowers

offeeberry leafroller →

Coyote Brush, Chaparral Broom (Baccharis pilularis). This is by far the most abundant shrub of open areas, especially the old farm fields. Coyote brush is the first woody invader of meadows, old fields and landslides. If there are no cows to thrash them, coyote bushes will take over a meadow. This is a natural process of colonization, the first step in the successional process leading to forest. The former dairy pastures on Bourne Ridge and Zumie's Loop are now dominated by coyote brush, 30 years after the removal of grazing. Deer do not browse coyote brush, it is chemically protected. Each individual shrub is exclusively male (staminate) or female (pistillate), making the species dioecious. The situation is complicated by asexual reproduction, leading to clumps of male or female shrubs. Coyote bush is one of the few things that are blooming during our hot, dry time of the year. A good place to spend some time watching for insects, since it’s the only game in town!! Coyote brush is home to 275 insect associates (!) including three prominent galls. One of these galls, a fly (Rhopalomyia californica) and its parasitoids, are the subject of a research project by professors from UC Berkeley. A remnant of their research and research tents is the informational sign on the left side of the Bourne (Griffin Loop) trail as you climb above the turn off to Volunteer Canyon.

← Male flowers have yellow in them (produce pollen)

Female flowers are white and produce fluffy seeds →

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Coastal Sage (Artemisia californica). On steep, south facing slopes is a grayish shrub with leaves dived into thin, string-like leaflets, the coastal sage. Rub the leaves and smell your fingers, it has a strong sage aroma, a smell that will forever anchor the plant in your mind. (This is the plant that folks call “cowboy cologne”.) There is a sage bush planted at the SW corner of the Osher Volunteer Center. The big stands of sage are in Garden Club Canyon and Volunteer Canyon. Coastal sage is draught deciduous, like monkey flower. It drops most or all of its leaves in the summer. It does this more in hotter, dryer locations. The summer fog of BLP allows it to keep lots of leaves all summer.

Bush Monkey Flower, Sticky Monkey Flower (Mimulus aurantiacus). One of our most charismatic shrubs, this one blooms virtually all year long. I have seen flowers on this species every month of the year. The leaves are a food plant for calcedon checkerspot butterfly larvae (Euphydryas calcedona). It is evergreen, but draught deciduous. What this means is that it loses most (but not all) of its leaves when it is water stressed (every summer). Put it in your garden and water it, and it will grow, look sleek, and flower all year long. The leaves are opposite, narrow, and sticky. The orange, tubular flowers have a white stigma, the two lips of which are mobile. They close after the bee enters. When the bee backs out with pollen from the same flower it passes the now-closed stigma, thus preventing self- pollination. (take a small stick and diddle some flowers … watch the stigma close!

Toyon, Hollywood, Christmas Berry (Heteromeles arbutifolia). Toyon is an odd member of the rose family. Its closest relatives (Photinia) are in East Asia. It is evergreen, with large (5-6"), flat, alternate leaves with prominent marginal teeth. At BLP it often attains the stature of a small tree. This shrub is so abundant on dry hills in the LA Basin that it lends its name to the Hollywood Hills. The red berries ripen at Christmas time and are an important food for wintering birds like towhees, robins, and thrushes (see the Natural History Note: Shrubs with Red Berries). The white flowers are strong nectar producers, swarm with insects when blooming (late, June-July). Toyon is one of the few native plants honeybees actually make honey from.

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Wild Lilac, Buckbrush (Ceanothus thyrsiflorus). One of the sweetest smells you will ever experience is the flowers of the wild lilac. The leaves are covered in oily glands that produce a characteristic odor most noticeable in summer. The flowers are loaded with saponins which cause them to foam when rubbed with water. They make a nice shampoo or soap. The flowers are the original inspiration for the "Chrysler" logo. The leaves are alternate, small, narrow, slightly rolled over, and have three veins from the base. There is a great stand of buckbrush in Garden Club Canyon, just upstream of Parsons Pond. Big wild lilac bushes produce pounds of tiny seeds each year, virtually none of which germinate immediately. The seeds wait up to 80 years in the soil and germinate after a fire. Ceanothus is an important member of the repair crew after devastation events. Ceanothus (and mountain mahogany, Cercocarpus) harbors bacteria in nodules on its roots that fix atmospheric nitrogen.This "home grown nitrogen" allows it grow in infertile soil (landslides, bare soil, burned areas). Ceanothus is a North American genus of about 50 species with its greatest diversity in California (32 species). It is an example of a prominent pattern of recent adaptive radiation in CA.

Ocean Spray, Creambush (Holodiscus discolor). The shrub gets its name from the large clusters of small flowers (in May), which together can be imagined as the foam on breaking waves. It is nowhere common, but can be found among the wild lilacs in Garden Club Canyon, and along the Griffin Loop Trail. The leaves are alternate, simple and coarsely toothed. The old flower clusters have a subtle, delicious aroma when crushed in the fall.

California Blackberry (Rubus ursinus). This is one of our most common shrubs. It is a secondary invader, establishing (with poison oak) among the coyote bushes in old agricultural fields. It also forms great walls and humps to 10' tall in the alder bog in VC. The compound leaves are evergreen, alternate, spiny, and three-foliate. The berries are rare, but delicious. 2000 was an unusual bumper crop. The introduced Himalayan blackberry (Rubus procerus) is rare at BLP, as we pull it wherever we see it. It is the species most people in the Bay Area use for blackberry pies.

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Oso berry (Oelmaria cerasiformis). The dull maroon stems of the oso berry are one of the joys of winter. This deciduous shrub forms clumps that tower to 10 feet tall on brushy slopes. It is common on both sides of the driveway as you walk into Volunteer Canyon, as well as in the alder bog. "Oso" means bear in Spanish, and I imagine bears used to eat them when they lived here. The plum-like fruits are slightly bitter, but behind the bitter is a wonderful flavor. This is the first shrub to leaf out in spring (January), and it flowers as it leafs out. The shrubs are either staminate or pistillate (dioecious), the leaves are alternate, simple, and reminiscent of willow leaves.

Wood rose (Rosa gymnocarpa). If you fix on the leaves of this semi-deciduous shrub you will recognize the leaves as small rose leaves. The leaves are alternate, pinnate, the leaflets are toothed. The stems and branches are clothes in soft, straight spines. The flower is a perfect small rose flower, and the fruit is an edible hip (red). Be careful though! The hairs inside the hip are irritating, so the hip needs to be eaten cautiously.

Huckleberry (Vaccinium ovatum). Huckleberries are members of the large genus Vaccinium (150 species), which gives us the cultivated blueberry (Vaccinium angustifolium), the cultivated cranberry (Vaccinium macrocarpon) and many wild knockoffs. Blueberry relatives are abundant and diverse in wet climates (the Pacific Northwest, the East Coast, tropical mountains). Huckleberries at BLP grow from about 600 feet elevation to the top of Bolinas Ridge, the area of drip from summer fog. With this supplemental water they do wonderfully. There are a couple of huckleberries cultivated in the Bird Hide yard. The leaves are shiny, small (1/2"), alternate, and very hard (leathery).

Snowberry (Symphoricarpos albus). The snowberry is an obscure shrub, except in fruit. It is deciduous, and when the berries ripen white they stand out like Christmas tree ornaments on the bare limbs. The leaves are opposite, round, and non-descript. The tiny white-to-pinkish flowers are tubular, and packed with hairs to exclude nectar thieves. They need to protect it, as they produce nectar in abundance. Hummingbirds often visit the flowers. There is a bush on the left across Scheerin Bridge, as you start up the Griffin Loop, just past the redwoods. There is another on the Rawlings Trail on the left just beyond the second bench.

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Lianas (= woody vines)

Poison-oak, PO (Toxicodendron diversilobum). This is perhaps the first and most important plant to learn well, intimately. The choice is: you become intimate with this plant or it will become intimate with you. Oil in the stems and leaves causes an uncomfortable itching dermatitis in many people. It is important to be able to identify the plant in all seasons, including when it is leafless. The alternate, compound leaves are trifoliate, which separates it from all but the spiny blackberries (Rubus). In winter look for the intricately branched stems, and brown fruits, with one white seed with black lines. After the seeds are gone the inflorescence persists and is a good field character. The fruits are an important winter food for birds (towhees, jays, chickadees, juncos, chipmunks). These same critters cache and disperse the seeds, allowing PO to colonize new areas. Toxicodendron is a genus of two species, poison oak west of the Rockies, and poison ivy (Toxicodendron radicans) east of the Rockies. They look alike and behave alike, so for all intents and purposes they are the same (except to botanists). PO can be a tiny herb on the forest floor, a free standing tree with stems 8" diameter, or a woody vine (a liana) climbing to the canopy of Douglas fir trees. PO climbs using adventitious roots (aerial roots produced along stems) to attach to bark. It provides some of our most brilliant fall color (pink, orange and red, in August). PO is a member of the largely tropical family Anacardiaceae. Many members of the family contain toxic compounds similar to PO, and we speak of anacard sensitivity for people who react to most or all anacards. Other familiar anacards (to which many people are "allergic") include cashews (Anacardium occidentale, extremely toxic raw!), mangos (Mangifera indica), pistachios (Pistacia vera), and pepper trees (Schinus molle, don't eat them!). PO sap was used by the Miwok to burn tattoos.

Morning glory (Convolvulus occidentalis). Like honeysuckle, this liana is a climber, twisting around limbs and stems to gain support. The leaves are heart shaped, bleed white latex (sap) when cut, and are deciduous. The bowl shaped flowers are large, and are folded in a unique way in bud. It is common in shrub associations, less so in forests. The seeds are large, black, and have a rugose (bumpy) surface. The family is pharmacologically interesting. Seeds of a species in a closely related genus (Ipomaea purpurea) contain a metabolic precursor to LSD and were used by the Aztecs in religious ceremonies.

Honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula). A beautiful liana that climbs by twining, or scrambles through shrubs. The leaves are opposite, evergreen, and often joined at the base, especially toward the branch tips. The flowers are yellow to red (we see mostly pink at BLP), nectariferous,

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Virgin's Bower (Clematis lasiantha). The virgin's bower is a powerful liana, sometimes covering whole trees. Check out the single plant covering the Bird Hide! The leaves are opposite, compound, 3-7 foliate, and deciduous. The flowers are yellow and spectacular, the fruits may be even better, like a Medusa hair day in miniature. There are a few virgin's bower plants at Henderson Overlook where you can see the remarkable grooved stem.

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Rare Shrubs of Bolinas Lagoon Preserve

Oregon Grape, Barberry (Berberis pinnata). This is not a common shrub at BLP, it is extremely rare. I know of two clumps, one at Henderson Overlook, and one on the south facing slope of Volunteer Canyon. It is more common on rock outcrops on coastal bluffs, and grows from southern Oregon to Baja CA. The hard, leathery, pinnate leaves with spiny margins are distinctive, as are the yellow flowers. This is an oddity to familiarize yourself with at Henderson Overlook, just downhill of the western end of the guardrail.

Flowering current (Ribes sanguineum). The flowering current is one of our stronger smelling plants. It perfumes the air, not with its flowers, but with the glandular leaves. The leaves are alternate, deciduous, and coarsely toothed. The flowers are pink and hang in arching racemes. It is rare at BLP, but a great flowering current bush is cultivated in the well fence in the PC picnic area (near the Bird Hide). Once you psyche out what it looks like search for one bush on the left as you walk up Bourne Ridge.

Blue Elderberry (Sambucus mexicana). Hollow stems, opposite, pinnate leaves, yellow flowers in flat sprays, blue berries. Occasional in the forest.

Red Elderberry (Sambucus caerula). Rare, in the alder bog in VC. Opposite, pinnate leaves, flowers in pyramidal clusters, brilliant red berries which are poisonous.

Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus). The thimbleberry may be our most spectacular tasting berry. They are scarce; many people never see the berries. They pop off the receptacle like a raspberry and have the strongest flavor burst of any of our local berries. They are deciduous, with simple, alternate leaves larger than your palm, and fuzzy-hairy. The stems come up in thickets to 8' tall. The best place to find them is in the creek bed in VC, just upstream of the lower bridge (there is also a good patch on the Northern side of the creek in Garden Club Canyon just below the bridge to the redwoods).

Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.). Superabundant on Bolinas Ridge, but low elevation BLP is too wet and cool. Sixty species globally, 59 in CA, nine in Marin. An important plant group to get to know, but BLP is too wet for manzanitas. This is a classic group of CA plants, a genus that has radiated (formed lots of species) in CA. One species (A. virgata) grows only on Bolinas Ridge and Inverness Ridge.

Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum). A woody member of a group we think of as primarily herbaceous (froggy toes, baby blue eyes). The flowers are produced in scorpoid cymes (curved

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lines, like a fiddle neck or a scorpion tail). Generally a plant of hotter, dryer places, thus rare at BLP.

Pitcher Sage (Lepecinia calycina). Another plant of hot, sunny, dry chaparral, this one tends to be abundant immediately after fire, then decline as forest cover develops. The flowers are white bells an inch long, the leaves are aromatic (minty).

Bayberry, wax mytrle (Myrica californica). A wonderful coastal shrub, this one is one of the group I refer to as the "missing shrubs." It should, by all rights, be common at BLP, but is not. There is one planted in the VC native plant garden, at the west end of the dorm. One grows on the south facing slope of VC. I suspect that this and a number of other shrubs were eliminated from BLP by logging and grazing, and have not yet recolonized the area.

Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum). The most abundant shrub in CA, it covers more acres of land than any other shrub. But BLP is too cool and moist, so it is rare here. Abundant at higher elevation on Mt. Tam. Tiny, needle-like leaves in clusters (fascicles, thus the species name). This plant is self-inflammatory, it actually tries to burn by producing alkaloid and terpenes.

Cotoneaster (Conoteaster pannosa). This is the only non-native plant on this list. From China, it escapes from cultivation and grows happily on the coastal slope from the Golden Gate Bridge to Tomales Point (the GGNRA-Pt. Reyes area). The fruits are red and bird dispersed (see Shrubs With Red Berries).

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