The Backbone adventure proceeds apace. Five sections down, eight to go. This section is particularly enjoyable, with spectacular rock formations and awesome views. And, at this time of year, lots of fungi!
Backbone #5
Tag: santa monica mountains
backbone #1
Over the next few months, I’ll be hiking the 67-mile/108-km Backbone Trail in easy chunks. Annette and I started with section one on New Years Day, Will Rogers to Trippet Ranch. It was a gorgeous day, and we were tired and happy at the end. A great way to start the year!
Deinandra minthornii
I went on a Geology field trip with the California Native Plant Society. Besides learning a lot about our local rock formations, I was introduced to a federally endangered plant that I would have walked right past if I hadn’t been with native plant geeks. We have LOTS of tarweed growing in our mountains, but it’s the common annual type, Deinandra fasciculata. This one is a perennial woody shrub. Happy to have met it!
little den
Heteromeles arbutifolia
I’ve blogged about toyon before, but here’s something new: The plant has been used as a treatment for Alzheimer’s by indigenous people of California, and 2016 research backs this up. Toyon contains compounds that are known to protect the blood-brain barrier, prevent the infiltration of inflammatory cells into the brain and prevent neuronal damage. This plant medicine may provide new leads for drug therapy in the disease. Cool!
Epipactis gigantea
They say virtue is its own reward, but I got a bonus 😊.
Stream orchids are widespread in North America, and ranked secure in conservation status, but they are rare and vulnerable in our mountains.
velvet and sting
Suzanne and I wandered around the pond at Rocky Oaks, marvelling over flowers, spiders, toads, birds of prey, lizards and insects. Attracted to these shelf fungi on a burned-out oak stump, I perched on a rock in the middle of a patch of nettles to sketch them.
Acmispon glaber
I’ve been looking at a lot of deerweed flowers, and I’m not convinced by the prevailing wisdom about their varying colours. If an individual flower turns orange after pollination, as I’ve often heard, then I would expect to see a more random distribution of orange flowers. But it’s very consistent — the further down the stem, the darker (and more shrivelled) the flower. There are no yellow flowers down low — am I to assume that every single blossom was pollinated? And there are no orange flowers up high — why not? I see bees up high.
It really seems to me that every flower gets darker as it gets older; that it’s age, not pollination, that makes the colour change.
whodunnit
I thought this illustration might be less confronting if I left it black and white. This tidy arrangement, about half the length of my foot, was on the road near our house. I didn’t notice it on my way out for a walk, just on my way back. Could a predator have dragged it there in the middle of the morning, between my two passings? That seems pretty unlikely; I guess I just wasn’t paying attention the first time, even though our road is very narrow. I have so many questions! Who/what/when/where/why?
Neogale frenata
Click to enbiggen.
hashiworks 