with Jeanne

Volume 3, No. 3 November 5, 2007

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Although the rain of two weeks ago seems like only a distant memory, the School Programs Committee has asked that I remind docents of the Photo by Wyn Hoag decision last year to refrain from providing hot chocolate to hikers on wet days. Although it is a nice warming gesture, recent experience has resulted in sticky messes, blown fuses (as parents tried to plug appliances into our testy electrical system), and, of course, ANTS. We will try to always have a warm fire in the stove on those cold days.

Speaking of nice gestures, please also refrain from sharing your food with hikers. They may choose to share food with one another, or the teacher may take responsibility for a hungry child, but the sharing of food between our volunteers and students is inadvisable giving food allergy concerns. And finally, please reward your hikers with a smile, some praise and a newt card only. The giving of gifts, even small ones, makes other hikers feel left out.

The Juniper Committee has asked that I remind docents that you must include both the first and LAST name of any hiker you wish to nominate for the Juniper Program. Nominees for whom only a first name is provided—even if the school and teacher are listed—will not be considered. Remember, it may be two years between a third grader’s visit and his or her eventual participation in the Juniper Program. Tracking first names through past teachers and past classes is simply too difficult for the Juniper Committee to take on.

And now, from the Department of Corrections: I must fess up to a major error in the last edition of Trail Talk. I got so excited about ticks, I switched the names and identities of two of them. Please make a note that the “Winter Tick” that I showed questing on the stalk of grass is actually the “Pacific Coast Tick.” The so-called “Pacific Coast Tick” nymphs I showed huddled together on a single blade of grass, were actually Winter Tick nymphs. Which, if you think about it, makes sense since it’s the Winter Ticks that are a single host tick….they wouldn’t have been “questing” as adults since they stay on their same host for their entire life…..Sorry about that!

On to the trails!

In the Oak Woodlands

Standing on the bridge near the Unnatural Trail, I was entertained by a flock of bushtits. These tiny busy birds forage in flocks of up to forty, moving this way and that in the canopy of trees searching for and spiders. Sometimes they flock

Prepared by Jeanne Wirka for ACR Education. Vol. 3, No. 3 (November 5, 2007). All photos are used for educational purpose only. 1 with other species as well. They are year round residents here at Bouverie. While the call of an individual bushtit is an unremarkable “tsit”, the flock together produces a kind of staccato chorus, as if the birds were playing in a tiny steel drum band. If you hear this tinny symphony, look up in the canopy to search for a rag-tag band o’ birds.

Don’t you love those days when you discover something you’ve never seen before on the trail and then have the added satisfaction of going back home or to Gilman Hall and actually figuring out what it is? Well, I had that experience today with a new kind of gall (new for me, at least). Hiking along the Rocky Road Trail, I noticed a rather large coast live oak with little green things lining the midrib and the lateral veins. It looked kind of like caterpillar frass, but when I picked up the leaf, they were clearly tiny galls. I went back to my office and consulted Ron Russo’s new Field Guide to Plant Galls of California and Other Western States [Bouverie library call number 582.02 RUS] but couldn’t find a match for this particular color or arrangement. So, I went to our trusty gall collection (in the cabinet next to the bird cabinet) and found an old live oak leaf with the same shape and pattern, but the galls themselves were brown, not green. So, went back to the Russo guide, looked up the species name from our collection, and Lo and Behold, there it was. The two-horned gall wasp The unisexual generation of or Dryocosmus dubiosus. What makes it tricky is that this is one of the two-horned gall wasp those gall wasps that has alternating generations of unisexual and forms galls along the midrib bisexual forms, each of which produces a different shape of gall. The and lateral veins of Coast ones I found are induced by the larvae of the unisexual generation and Live Oak (top photo). In have little tiny horns on each side (hence the name “two-horned”). The close-up, you can see how galls themselves are green when fresh, but turn brown as they age. The this species got its name larvae will overwinter in diapause [Def: a kind of “suspended” (bottom photo taken in animation during which an (usually an insect) becomes dormant, Alameda County by Joyce does not grow, and awaits specific hormonal or environmental cues to Gross. Used with become active again] and then pupate in the spring. The galls of the permission). next bi-sexual generation will look like brown glossy little clubs and will grow on the edges of the leaves, not the veins. Very, very cool. Keep your eyes peeled for these little guys. The leaf I found will be available at the microscopes for hiking day viewing.

On the Knoll Trail

About once each hiking season, I feel it is my duty to lobby on behalf of the enchanting yet lonely Knoll Trail. What better time of year to tackle the aerobic hillside than during the cool still days of fall. You will be rewarded by pungent fragrance of chaparral plants like Sonoma Sage, the intense deep red color of manzanita wood, and unparalleled views of Sonoma Valley. The forest canopy on the way up the trail is a unique blend of Douglas Fir, Madrone, Manzanita, Knobcone Pine, Black Oak, Coast Live Oak and Interior Live Oak. Near the top of the trail, you will encounter a fairly thick stand of Knobcone Pine.

Prepared by Jeanne Wirka for ACR Education. Vol. 3, No. 3 (November 5, 2007). All photos are used for educational purpose only. 2 Which brings me to a little refresher course on conifers. We have only THREE species of conifer at Bouverie: Douglas Fir, Coast Redwood, and Knobcone Pine. They are all conifers because their seeds are contained in cones. They are not all “pines” nor are their cones all “pinecones,” even though many people lump all conifers under the general name “pine trees.” All conifers have both male cones and female cones. The male cones (the ones with pollen) are generally small and found at the ends of branches towards the bottom of the tree (see photo above). The female cones (the ones with the seeds), are generally larger and found at the tops of trees. Point this out to the kids; this is a good time of year to see conifers loaded down with crowns of cones. Ask them why they think the male cones are at the bottom of the tree. Hint: each tree has both male and female cones. Another hint: Conifers are wind pollinated. Another hint: to make seeds, a tree needs to get pollen from a different tree, not itself. Got it?

Knobcone Pine is our ONLY pine tree. How do Male cones of you know it’s a pine? Knobcone Pine (top) Because only pine trees are smaller and have their needles in located at the end of bundles. We do not have twigs. Female cones Digger Pine (aka Foothill are attached to the Pine, see note below*). branches and trunk They look similar and both (bottom). have needles in bundles of three, but Foothill Pine cones are large and open upon maturity whereas Knobcone Pine cones are tightly sealed and attached to the main branches. This type of Females cones of conifers found at Bouverie, from closed cone is called serotinous. Sealed tight with right to left: Coast redwood (smallest), Douglas Fir resin, the cone may remain on the tree for decades, (mid-size), and Knobcone pine (the two largest). The opening only when a fire passes through. Although cone on the far left is an opened example of the some cones do open in the absence of fire, this fire- tightly closed serotinous cone normally seen on adapted habit makes Knobcone Pine a good colonizer Knobcone pine. after fire. Plus, the fact that the tree is covered with decades-old dryed cones full of resinous chemicals make it not only fire-adapted but fire-promoting.

*Note on common names for Foothill Pine: Although we don’t have them here, I would like to remind folks that the term “Foothill Pine” is much preferred over “Digger Pine,” as the term Digger was used as a derogatory reference to Native Americans. Foothill pines are also called Ghost or Grey Pines as well.

The Knoll Trail is also a great place to see a plethora of both Madrone and Manzanita berries this time of year. If you are hiking with Spanish speaking kids, ask them what they think the Manzanita bush is named for. Manzana is apple in Spanish; Manzanita means “little apple.” A very apt name when you look at the tiny fruits up close (see photo, right). The “little apple” is about the size of a marble.

Prepared by Jeanne Wirka for ACR Education. Vol. 3, No. 3 (November 5, 2007). All photos are used for educational purpose only. 3 On the Canyon Trail

One of the first things I notice on the Canyon Trail this time of year are all the new sprouts of California Polypody fern. While most other plants are packing it in for the winter, the fresh fern fronds paint the canyon walls in festive bright green. Remember, we have 14 fern species at Bouverie. Some of them, like the Wood Fern and the Giant Chain Fern, stay green all year. Others, like the California Polypody and the Maidenhair fern senesce [Def: die back] at the end of the growing season. But, with the first rains and cooler weather, they spring into action again.

Looking from the small to the tall, you may notice that many of our big Douglas Fir trees and Coast Redwood have giant burls on them. What are these big bumpy warts anyway? Most of us know burls as dense weird growths of wood at the base or on the trunk of a tree that often make cool pieces of furniture or artwork. But how do they form? Well, remember from plant anatomy that the stem of any plant has multiple nodes where new leaves or branches form. The stem area between the nodes is called the internode. Stems grow because the internodes expand. At each node is an axilary bud. When it receives the appropriate hormone signal from the plant, the bud becomes a leaf or a new stem. Often the buds never develop and sometimes they are suppressed by the hormones released by the apical bud, or growing point. [That is why in certain plants you prune the tip in order to get the plant to make more branches; getting rid of the tip allows the axillary buds to bloom.] Anyway, back to the trees. A burl forms when the axillary bud starts to grow, but then something goes wrong and things go haywire. If you cut open a burl, what you find are many more buds that would have been exposed on a branch, had that initial bud grew normally. The internodes between the buds never get to expand so all of the bud growth occurs on top of itself, literally. So, think of a burl as a bud traffic jam.

All that the Rain Promises and More is the apt title for David Arora’s acclaimed book on fungi [Bouverie Library Call Number 589.2 ARO]. Even with the little bit of teasing rain we had back in October, some of our fungi have gotten busy and sent up their fruiting bodies (remember that a “mushroom” is really just the spore producing “fruiting” part of a fungal organism that may be quite extensive below the soil or within a rotten log). Today I saw a number of beautiful graceful white fungi including this Oyster mushroom (photo left) that reappears each year on a Douglas Fir snag on the left side of the trail between creek accesses 3 and 4. Also known as the “tree oyster” this highly delicious species of fungi grows on dead or dying hardwoods and conifers. I also saw another white gilled mushroom (photo right) just before Indian Flat, where the Canyon Trail flattens out and is bordered by the intermittent stream. I do not know what it is, but thought I’d challenge you fungi-philes to ID it for me. Remember, when IDing mushrooms, some of the things to look for are 1) does it have gills or pores; 2) is there a volva (cup) at the bottom of the stalk or an

Prepared by Jeanne Wirka for ACR Education. Vol. 3, No. 3 (November 5, 2007). All photos are used for educational purpose only. 4 annulus (ring) near the top; 3) is it woody or shelf like; 4) what color are the spores (you can sometimes figure this out in the field by tapping the cap of the mushroom over a piece of dark or light paper; and 5) what substrate is it growing on (soil, duff, dead wood, live wood, etc.).

Moving on from Fungi to , I noticed a lot of skinny red- eyed flies hanging out at the ends of twigs and grasses up near Creek Access 4 and 5. I was curious because unlike most flies I have had to pleasure of getting to know, these ones seemed totally relaxed and willing to let me get within 4 cm of them with my macro lens. In fact, I got close enough that I was able to get a photo (left) detailed enough so that when I emailed it to Richard Wassen, he was able to identify it as the Tiger ( humilis ).

Tiger flies are very common in orchards and vineyards in California. The tiger fly is a tropical species, originally introduced to Germany to control pests in greenhouses. The fact that this species is a predator may explain why the flies are so slow (ask the kids why this might this be?). A tiger fly sits on a leaf until something flies by, then buzzes out to catch it. Upon returning to its perch, it siphons out the victims flesh through a hole it makes with its proboscis on a soft part of the exoskeleton, between the head and the thorax. Yum, guts through a straw! They mostly prey on small flies (other members of the order Diptera). In vineyards, they are significant predators of leafhoppers. The larvae live in soil and prey on onion maggots, earthworms and other small invertebrates.

All TRUE flies are in the insect order Diptera, along with mosquitos, gnats and midges. So….What makes a fly a fly? And what distinguishes true flies from similarly-named but non-Diptera bugs like “mayflies” or “dragonflies.” All true flies have only a single pair of wings along with a pair of halteres, which derived from an ancestral second pair of wings. Halteres are truly amazing structures. They are tiny knobbed protrusions that the insect uses to maintain stability while flying. In essence, they are like little gyroscopes that vibrate along a single plane; when the body of the fly changes direction, the halteres exert a strain on one side of the body which sends sensory information to the fly’s brain.

You can’t see the halteres in my Tiger Fly photo, but take a look at the haltere’s on this crane fly on this photo I The two knobbed structures behind the wings borrowed from Wikipedia. Can’t you just hear the male of this crane fly are its halteres. Halteres in flies thinking “Whoa, check on the halteres on that the order Diptera are thought to have baby!” evolved from an ancestral pair of hindwings.

Prepared by Jeanne Wirka for ACR Education. Vol. 3, No. 3 (November 5, 2007). All photos are used for educational purpose only. 5