yzhou's Journal

Most Common Plants in Alameda County

1. A plant with regular flowers
2. A plant with irregular flowers
3. A monocot
4. A dicot
5. A plant in the pea family (Fabaceae)
6. A Gymnosperm
7. A terrestrial plant that is not a seed plant
8. A plant with pinnate leaves
9. A plant with opposite leaves
10. A plant in the sunflower family (Asteraceae)

Flowers and Fruits:

Several flowering plants were observed: eg. sunflowers, California Lilac. Among these, most of them are already started to have fruits (berries) at some parts facing the sun. This may indicate the spring is now coming fast to its end due to the sudden rise of temperature early this week.

Animals:

A dragon fly was observed during a walk to the lake in Golden Gate Park. It was taking a rest at a plant close to the water before flying off to the lake side. Several of them were observed flying near the lake sides.

A snail was found at a wet stone in the shade. It might be a little dry that day, but this snail was able to find itself a moist environment and get some spring breeze.

Several birds, mostly sparrows were found at the grass land. They were trying to find some insects or ripen fruits that might be underneath the half-dried grass.

1. An insect lava casing was found on a tree plant. The lava had utilized the angle between the leave and the stem as a place to hold for its casing before it matured and left.
2. A bee was pollinating for a flowering plant.
3. A common earthworm was found near the roots of a plant(probably a yam?). It is utilizing the plant material in soil for food.

I found several California towhee, which had been found by other classmate around Berkeley.

At the Chaparral side of the trail, I have found plants with strange shaped leaves that seems to develop their specialized niches for the relatively dry environment.

The plant with heart shaped leaves: This plant can be seen at multiple locations. They are having these heart shaped leaves that form a special curvature, which I suspect is easier for them to "collect" moisture/precipitation for the plant in this drier environment.

The Apoidea (Bee)** found on a leaf seems to have a niche adapted from the environment: its brownish yellow body color that is less visible (despite it being so visible here at this green leaf) at the Chaparral environment, which is dominate by dried up plant debris and small shrubs. And since it is spring now, lots of flowers available at this place makes plenty of food for it.

Lots of different plants with spiny leaves were found at this Chaparral region. They mainly develop their leaves to adapt to the dry environment by protecting moisture from evaporating too fast.

The pill-bugs found under a decaying tree trunk have developed such a thick shell as a niche for the dry environment. Also, they usually hide under the shade or decaying plant debris during the day and come out only at night. Such behavior can also be their niche developed for such a dry Chaparral environment.

** Update! I was fooled by this bee-mimicking hover fly~ Thanks for the help from @kueda's ! He taught me the easy way to distinguish them from bees is their eyes touching each other. Great lesson!

During the hike at the Lower Fire Trail at the Berkeley hills, I found these organisms to have niches that adapted to their environment.

Western Sword Fern and Bracken Fern were found along the trail where they mainly occupy the space around larger trees( or some dead tree trunk). These ferns generally have very large leaves that are broadly disposed. Due to the relatively high humidity in these moist evergreen forest, they are able to adapt to such niche by growing out large leaves without worrying of loosing too much water to the environment.

The Blewit mushrooms were found at the ground where there are moist layer of soil and dead leaves after the rain on Monday. Hence, these mushrooms grew very large. The biggest one I have found is almost larger than my hand. However, they seemed to have a short life as under the afternoon sun on Tuesday, some of the larger guys exposed to direct sunlight were already wilting and partially dried out. Whereas, those grown in the shades (such as the one I put in the observation) was still fresh as the shades from the above plants provide a room for moisture retention which can be seen as a niche these mushrooms were adapted to in this moist evergreen forest.

Some other shorter plants with large leaves were also found in this site. These plants also adapt themselves to this moist environment by growing out broad leaves to maximize their photosynthesis in places shadowed by larger and talker evergreen trees. With relatively less sunlight exposure due to taller trees, these short plants utilized their leaf size as a niche to better compete with other talker plants in this forest.

1. Bird: American Robin
   Found a group of these birds at the grass slope on campus. They seemed to be very gregarious birds and tend to move/fly together. They are enjoying the afternoon sun while picking off foods(I guess some earthworms>) out of the grass.

2. Fungi/mold: tree mold
   I came over this yellowish mold/fungus in a living tree which covered most of the space on the tree hole. The hole is facing the sun light so I suspect this type of fungi/mold would make use some of the sunlight as their energy source.

3. Plant: Toyon
   This is a Toyon plant with its pretty red berries hanging over the leaves in the winter sun. They are easily spotted and I feel very confident identifying it as we had talked about it on the lecture. I even saw some squirrels eating something red around. So I suspect they may eat the fruits of Toyon as their dessert.

4. Arachnids: Agrarian sac Spider
   I was glazing at the tree bark on the ground where I accidently peeled of a layer of the tree skin and found this little guy. It seemed to have a well matched color with the tree fiber. And there is no web around that can be associate with him which made me to suggest it to be an Agrarian sac Spider which is an "active hunter" after doing some research on it.

5. Common Earthworm
   This creature is found near the water at Berkeley aquatic park. The soil around seemed to be very moist and soft, while I sew it move out of the ground and was trying to find a new "home" back down to the soil.

1. Daisy: flowers
   I saw these little daisy flowering over the grassland on campus. They seemed to grow in isolated bushes that's randomly scattered over the place. Most of the flowers facing the sun were blossoming while others in the shades were still getting ready to blossom. I believe most of them are wild/naturalized to the location.

2. Toyon: fruits
   It is glad to find this Toyon plant on campus right after the lecturer mentioned it in class today. They are bearing the red little berries which is very stunning among other plants.

3. American Sycamore: bare
   I had came over this tree thousands of time without knowing its formal name. Thanks to Lorie's suggestion now I know it is the American Sycamore, which I previously was linked to a type of Firmiana tree back in China. However, this tree is wild/naturalized.

4. Genus Prumus: bare
   I had come across this plum tree in the tilden regional park where the branches are bare and there seem to be some little flower buds beginning to develop on certain branches. There is a tree adjacent to it that is already beginning to blossom with white flowers.