2015 - Robert's adventures in the Northern Sierra Nevada - California

[Robert]

Scattered plants of Coyote Bush, Baccharis pilularis var. consanguinea, had started to bloom in the chaparral.



This species is a winter bloomer. Having a few start into bloom at this time of year is not unusual, however most will start into bloom in late November - December.



The Toyon berries, Heteromeles arbutifolia, are starting to color up too. In about a month the bright red berries will look great against the deep green leaves of this species. Also, the birds will start eating them. Somehow a few seem to hang around until January before most of them are gone for the season.

I felt good making the best of a 5 minute drive down the road and about an hour to walk around in the chaparral.

[fermi de Sousa]

Wow, Robert,
Those few red leaves on the Redbud make it look like one we'll have to investigate - and it's on our permitted list
We grow the Judas Tree (Cercis silaquastrum) quite well, so I'm keen to try others,
cheers
fermi
currently in Queenstown after visiting friends in Dunedin, Balclutha, invercargill and Roxburgh East!

[Robert]

Fermi,

Safe and happy travels! 

Cercis occidentalis is a very worthwhile shrub / small tree for the garden. It and a few others are very good ornamentals, and well worth growing (at least for me). Styrax rediviva and Philadelphus lewisii are two others that I would not be without. 100% xeric too - this certainly helps with our climatic conditions. 

I had a mature Styrax rediviva in the garden. The fragrance of the flowers every spring was fantastic. Unfortunately, I planted it over the septic tank. The tank needed to be pumped out a few years ago and I lost it when I tried to transplant it.    It did seed out with a few babies and I will gather more wild seed soon. 

[Maggi Young]

Have seen this article - it may be of interest to others : It tells of the perils facing Californian forests....
http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-dying-forests-20151020-story.html

[Robert]

Maggi,

I read this article over and highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the topic of the drought stressed forest in the western U.S.A.

In the field my observations support the data from this newspaper article. There are many highly stressed trees that have not died, yet. The dry conditions are also translating into stressed shrubbery as well as many herbaceous plants. For me the question is, will the stress trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants recover, even if the drought ends this year?

As the article points out, the lower elevations are experiencing far more drought stress than the higher elevations in the Sierra Nevada. Warmer overall temperatures are part of the equation too. 2014 was the warmest year in the western U.S.A. on record to-date. 2015 is most likely to break the 2014 record. A graph of my personal weather records recorded over the past 40 plus years looks like a hockey stick.

Stay tuned. I will continue to report on what I observe in the field.

Below is a photograph taken from the top of Peavine Ridge, El Dorado County, California, on 22 October 2015. The elevation is about 5,000 feet (1,524 meters). The forest looks healthy enough, however I observed a considerable amount of drought stress as I hiked around. The good news is that the recent rainfall soaked into the ground to a fairly deep level. Even in sunny locations the ground was still moist on the surface.

[Maggi Young]

Good to hear that the recent rain has not just run-off completely, Robert. Just hope the trees are able to cope and make a recovery.

[Hoy]

Robert

I am looking forward to your report on wild grapes    Regarding Woodwardia, I certainly have a reliable source of water!

I am reading of the tremendous hurricane Patricia that will soon hit Mexico. I know it is far south of you but will it bring rain to California?


I love the red colour of the western redbud     but dislike the brown leaves. Here, it would be a sign of death if trees turn brown that way.
I also love the Toyen berries! The name arbutifolia is aptly named - I thought the leaves belonged to an Arbutus

Thanks for the link Maggi, I have read it with great interest. I remember when I was a student many, many years ago, my professor worked with IR photography to diagnose the health of the spruce forests.

[Robert]

Trond,

My guess is that many of our California native ferns would grow well in Norway. Many of the xeric species will stay green all summer if they are given irrigation. A few that I have tested die with summer irrigation and need to be kept dry all summer. I think that it would be interesting to see how the different species grow in Norway. You have 3 completely different garden sites. I am very curious.     

Thank goodness we are far away from Hurricane Patricia. No rain here from the hurricane, however we are expecting rain again starting on Tuesday night thru Thursday morning from a cold front straight off the Pacific. Snow levels are expected to be every high.

In the past we would expect frost on or about 31 October. Even with our present cool weather, frost still seems a long way off.

Yes, it can be very easy to confuse Toyon with Arbutus unedo when there are no flowers or fruit. I had a horticultural professor that would test our skills in an ornamental plant identification class using these two species. Good for him!

I am very pleased that I finish planting out all the seed from the various California native annuals I gathered this past season. Eschscholzia lobbii is already sprouting. Eucrypta chrysanthemifolia is starting to naturalize itself in the garden. The little white flowers are not much, but I enjoy the fragrance of the foliage. 

Seed gathering will be coming to an end soon too. I am waiting for the Toyon berries to ripen and I am hoping to gather seed of Styrax rediviva, and a few other woody species. All this went well considering the circumstances. 

This is about the 1 year anniversary when I started my systematic survey of the flora of El Dorado County. I logged well over 600 taxa, about 30% of the approximately 2,000 native species known to grow in El Dorado County. Once again I am pleased with the results considering the circumstances.

Now back to work.....

[Tim Ingram]

We have grown Woodwardia unigemmata for very many years Trond and I have been surprised how it has persisted and thrived (relatively) through some very dry spells, though nothing like the uncompromising 'Mediterranean'-type summers of Caifornia. We've just planted W. fimbriata and it did cope with our long dry spell this summer pretty well. I should think both would do wonderfully well in your climate if not seriously cold in winter. W. unigemmata is one of the most stunning ferns I have ever seen with glorious young fronds and the wonderful habit of rooting from plantlets at the end of the fronds as it grows - in a damp climate I could see taking over parts of the garden!

[Hoy]

Robert,

I am also curious about the ferns (and other species)

Do the annuals sprout when the autumn rain comes and grow through winter or do they usually wait till spring before germinating?
We have a few winter annuals here but most behave and sprout in spring. I suspect that foreign plants sprouting outside in fall could suffer badly in winter. Although usually mild we also have frost, and freezing - thawing periods can be tough.

Congratulation with your anniversary   600 species out of 2000 - it is quite a bit!

Seems you will get some rain both on Wednesday - Thursday coming week and then more next Tuesday:
http://www.yr.no/sted/USA/California/El_Dorado_County/langtidsvarsel.html

[Hoy]

Tim,

I really hope to grow, at least to try, both species here - drought shold not be any serious problem

I already have some native ferns taking over the garden (the slugs seem to dislike ferns) and they could do with competition

[Robert]

Trond,

Many of our native spring blooming annuals will start germinating with the first good rainfall in the autumn. They seem to continue to germinate autumn to early spring, as you say, I am sure as a survival mechanism to ensure that somebody survives to reproduce. This is especially true for the lower elevation annuals that do not have to contend with a long term snow cover as the higher elevation annuals do.

In the garden here I am already seeing germination of many of our native annuals such as Eschscholzia caespitosa and lobbii, as well as various species of Collinsia, and Mimulus and some of the Asteraceae annuals. Out in the field I see this too. With time I have learned to identifying many of our annuals in the cotyledon stage in the wild. This certainly makes my plant survey interesting, both in the autumn / winter identifying plants by their cotyledon leaves as well as the late summer thru winter identifying species by their dried remains.

It appears that we will not get much rain from the storm on Wednesday. As of Tuesday evening there has only been a trace of rain. It appears that we could get much more rain and some snow too from the Sunday thru Tuesday storms.

Also, I use www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/       to check on our local weather. On the map, click on Placerville to see our current conditions as well as the 7 day forecast. I also always read the forecast discussion. This gives me a better clue to the forecasted weather. What is the best internet source for the weather in Norway? Is English a possibility? I am light years away from understanding Norwegian. 

[Hoy]

Robert,

You would easily pick up a lot Norwegian if you had the chance! It is not that different from English

Thanks for the info! Some seeds sprout in fall here also and I find seedlings outside now. Especially some of the garden bulbs seems to prefer germinating in fall.

You can find the weather at almost all places in the world here: http://www.yr.no/place/United_States/California/Placerville/

This is your place, isn't it? My place is Førresfjorden (it is in the list at the left side). The mountain cabin is Myking and the summerhouse is Jacobskjerr, both are in the list.

Trond

[Tim Ingram]

Great website Trond! Not so different tomorrow in Akureyri in Iceland compared with Faversham - just the smallest touch cooler and damper. (Akureyri happens to be somewhere with a botanic garden that I visited a long time ago - just sprang to mind

I look forward to seeing yourself and Robert conversing in Norwegian and being left a long way behind!

[Robert]

Trond,

The weather web site is fantastic! 

Yes, Placerville is the correct location for the farm.

Today, I went to one of my favorite sites, American Canyon Creek. This drainage flows into the Middle Fork of the American River. Rather than hiking down into the canyon I traversed the southern ridge. Near the end of the hike I found Styrax redivivus.    I found some other interesting plants too. I will report on all of this soon.

My wife is always telling me that Norwegian is like English. I can certainly see this. When my wife has time to perfect her Norwegian I know that I will have no choice but to learn Norwegian.