Yesterday, I went hiking with a group of friends around Switzer Falls, in the Angeles National Forest. We saw snow! At the tops of the mountains, but still exciting to a chica living in Southern CA. We took the trail through Bear Canyon, which follows a stream and has lovely riparian scenery. A botanist friend was along, and showed us we could eat "miner's lettuce" (Claytonia perfoliata), a little fleshy plant growing along the shady damp river banks. Apparently this is a staple in the urban foraging lifestyle, and grows over a large distribution of North America. Some other cool items we saw were the edible if not tasty "witch's butter" (Tremelia aurantia), a fungal parasite that feeds off of another fungal parasite, the definitely inedible "hairy turkey tail" fungus (Stereum hirsutum), which lives and eats decaying logs. What a fun fungal feeding microcosm we found!
One of the common plants we saw flowering was the California bay laurel (Umbellularia californica), whose leaves are strongly aromatic, and are used in cooking (although the chemical in the leaves also causes headaches in some people). Coincidentally, some urban foragers also like to eat the bay nuts of this tree. It seems there are all sorts of little treats in this forest for the adventurous forager.
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Pt. Mugu State Park is in Ventura County, just up the way from Pt. Dume in Malibu, and has amazing hikes. I have been there maybe 5 times, and always get lost, because I basically have no sense of direction. My hungover friend who came with me was a little annoyed we ended up on a meandering 5 hour hike, but I had a great time taking pictures of new flowers (see below). The Coreopsis weren't quite in bloom here yet, despite going off on Pt. Dume, but the California lilac (Ceanothus spp.) were going nuts with flowers, which I had never seen before. Another bonus was a western fence lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis) my herpetologist friend caught with her bare hands (which was so impressive!). The males have blue stripes on their bellies, and these lizards also have a protein in their blood that neutralizes the bacterium that causes Lyme disease in the gut of ticks that carry the bacterium around, which is just about the coolest thing I have ever heard of a lizard doing. This winter, I have taken a renewed interest in getting out and hiking and trying to learn about the plants in the area. This is partly driven by my procrastinating on my thesis, and partly driven by wanting to get in better shape. But mostly, I just miss seeing flowers! And one of my favorites is a late winter bloomer: the Giant Coreopsis!! So in February I made several forays to the Malibu coast to try and catch this weird, beautiful plant that flowers in a showy synchronized blanket of yellow. The trunk kind of looks like a Joshua tree, while the top is an explosion of yellow daisies out of a neck of slender arugula leaves. I have always wondered who the pollinators are (all that gorgeous flowering display has to be for someone, right?), but I have never seen anyone visiting the flowers except tiny flies. It remains a mystery. Point Dume is a great place to see this plant, as well as lots of cool marine life. That day we spotted a multitude of barking sea lions off the coast, brown pelicans with young on the cliffs, and tons of fun invertebrates in the tide pools below. These included gooseneck barnacles, purple and orange sea stars having a crazy orgy, a chestnut cowrie, and a sea hare (which is a large sea slug that is used in neurobiology studies and is super alien and awesome looking)! Afterward, I heard from a marine biology friend that the area is a Marine Protected Area, which may explain why there was so much cool stuff to see. |
AuthorI like nature! And hiking, and taking pictures, especially of nature. Archives
September 2014
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