ctomassetti19's Journal

Overall I was quite nervous about this process due to the fact I didn't think I was very sufficient at finding plants. Primarily since I had not done it before in this context. My plan to find all these different plants worked pretty well, actually better than anticipated. I started off at home on iNaturalist and looking up the different plants to get an idea on if anyone has located them in the immediate area close to my home or CUI. CUI was my best bet so I simply started at the Heritage Garden working along the ridge line up towards the chapel. It funny to me because I was able to find California Brittlebush, California Sagebrush, and California Buckwheat all within about 50 yards of each other. It was funny due to that I hadn't even reached the spot I expected to find them. Deerweed was very difficult for me to find and I cannot say for sure I even found it. I was basing my search area on a post on iNaturalist near CUI. I had to go off trail multiple times in the same area making circles looking for the trademark yellow. I had to start looking even closer at the plants though for leaf characteristics and the stem types to try and distinguish. Once you really look in detail at each plant you start to see the identifying characteristics between the similar ones. Even the other plants I wasnt looking for made it difficult to search.

After searching for this species it was noticeable that they are very limited to damp, wet, hidden away areas. Every specimen was found under some type of decay whether it was a log or compost pile. They're natural color allows them to be very well hidden. There also a noticeable size variance between all three specimens. The last one was even smaller than the previous and the same one also was curled up similar to a millipede which made me second guess myself originally. The salamander is certainly limited to a very specific area of cool, dark, moist places. Their slightly rough wet skin represents the habitat they occupy. Their long slender body makes it easy for them to navigate between debris and obstacles.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/27468-Batrachoseps-major