purple owl's-clover ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord

purple owl's-clover / banded owl's-clover

Castilleja exserta var. latifolia

Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

It is with many thanks to Mark Eggar on Flickr with his impressive knowledge and photo collection of Castilleja that I was able to obtain expert ID for the purple owl's clover variety/subspecies. My policy for Nature ID is to never use other people's photos and only quote if I have written permission. Seeing as how I don't have permission from Mark, yet, click on this link to my Flickr post for his comment about why these Castilleja are unusual to ID. As a note, the ongoing 2006 CNPS vascular plant list for Fort Ord (alphabetical) does not include this subspecies.

I could not decide which photo was better, the clearer first one with the non-native foxtail chess (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) in Poaceae or the second pic with chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) in Rosaceae, so I posted both. The third pic centers on older C. exserta var./ssp. latifolia with what I believe is white-flowering wedge-leaved horkelia (Horkelia cuneata) in Rosaceae to the top right. The last photo above shows this Castilleja growing among sky lupine (Lupinus nanus) in Fabaceae and non-native sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) in Polygonaceae, as well as many other plants. These were found in areas that were burned in 2003, 2008, or 2009.

ps 06/02/11 - I've added additional ID's in the text based on Cindy's comment below.

cobweb thistle ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord

cobweb thistle
Cirsium occidentale
Asteraceae

According to Jepson Online Interchange, there are 7 native varieties of cobweb thistle found in California. Two of those, C. occidentale var. occidentale (cobweb thistle) and C. occidentale var. venustum (venus thistle), are recorded for Fort Ord by the California Native Plant Society. Without the flower I have no clue as to which variety this one is. Quite honestly, while I reference Jepson as I search for information, I don't really understand its descriptions when distinguishing between closely related plants. Several of these thistle were found in a 2009 burn area.

western bracken fern ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord

western bracken fern
Pteridium aquilinum var. pubescens
Dennstaedtiaceae

I generally think of ferns as growing in heavily shaded areas near water sources, like at Garland Ranch Regional Park, Butano State Park, and Wilder Ranch State Park. However, this native bracken fern surprised me by growing profusely in a dry, sandy area after fire.

The first 2 pictures were taken in an area that was burned in 2009. In the second picture, past the line of what I believe are Ceanothus shrubs, there's a change in vegetation due to a change in the soil; initially I thought the change was due to different years of fires. The last picture was from an area that was burned in 2010. It looks like rows of a farm crop, which was a result of digital geophysics. I didn't understand the mapping process as it was briefly explained by Chris, who works for USACE (US Army Corps of Engineers) and was one of our guides. She had very long legs and I had to jog to keep up with her as she talked, so I missed most of the details. I do know heavy machinery was used to create the rows. Apparently, bracken fern is well adapted to fire and disturbed areas.

Our other guide Gail, who works for BRAC (Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission), mentioned she was reading a book that explained many western Native Americans used 6-foot long bracken fern rhizomes to create the dark designs in their basket weaving. As usual, I had to look it up. There are plenty of online pictures of willow or sedge baskets accented with redbud and bracken fern "roots". The only site I could find to show anything about actually using rhizomes is this Yokuts Baskets site - make sure to take a look at two of the pictures on the bottom of the page; it looks like a lot of work. Mostly, I found online mentions of eating bracken fern, even though it is generally considered toxic.

For more information than you can shake a stick (er, rhizome) at, check out this very informative rook.org site about Pteridium aquilinum.

coastal tidytips ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord

coastal tidytips
Layia platyglossa
Asteraceae

This is such a sunny flower. I have a picture of another tidytip from Carmel Valley, but I couldn't properly identify it before. Maybe I'll go back and try to ID that photo and backpost under tidytips. I cheated on this ID and looked at the CNPS plant list for Fort Ord to get the species. According to Calflora there are 16 species/subspecies of Layia found throughout the state, with several looking very similar. The last picture above shows the coastal tidytips profusely growing among sky lupine (Lupinus nanus) in Fabaceae. These were found in areas that were burned in 2008, 2009, or not recently at all.

I should note this is a new location for Nature ID. In the next week or so, I'll be posting additional pictures from a special hike on Army Lands at the old Fort Ord. This area is normally closed to the public as they burn and clear munitions in preparation to turn over the lands to the BLM for recreational use by the year 2020. At the end of this series of posts from this hike, I'll do my usual habitat entry and explain more of how I had access to dangerous, closed lands. I have also corrected the location labels for past Fort Ord fire posts from 10/08/10 and 10/06/09 to Fort Ord - Army Lands.