nataliemitchell's Journal

part 2: San Onofre State Beach in San Clemente, CA

This week I went to San Onofre State Beach in San Clemente to find my wild plants. I was a little bit behind with my observations so I found 10 plants instead of just 5. To find these plants, I walked out on the bluff above the beach, before you enter the park. Its a really cool spot and they have a huge wildlife preserve area with a trail that goes all the way around it. It was interesting to see all the different kinds of plants that grow near the beach because up into this point I had been observing plants more inland.

Part 2 of my backyard keying adventure.

Italian Cypress (Cupressus sembervirens)
1', 2', 3, 4 group 2: 1', 4, 5'

Peruvian Pepper Tree (Sichinus molle)
1', 2', 3', 5, 7' group 6: 1', 3', 11', 18, 19', 12

So today I realized I was quite behind on my keying and thought I would go on a nice adventure through my neighborhood to find some trees to identify. I geared up with my book, paper, and a pen and set out. A few houses down from mine I found a pretty cool tree but was having a lot of trouble keying it. As I awkwardly stood on the sidewalk examining this random persons tree in the blazing sun, I thought to myself "wait a minute, I have quite a few trees in my yard. maybe ill start there to get some more practice before I go adventuring through the neighborhood chillin in front of other peoples houses". So I ventured back to my house and lo and behold there was a ton of different kinds of trees in my backyard and they were all fairly easy to key. And now you're thinking "but bro those trees look pretty far away and tall no way you could see that closely". You're right, for the ones were closer on the slope I climbed up there and took a good look, but I also got out some binoculars and that helped a lot. If I got really stuck on any of them I would flip through the book, find the tree, and then go backwards to try and better understand what it was. I definitely feel like I have more of a grip on keying now and hope to expand my horizons to new parts of the neighborhood soon.

Queen Palm (Syagrus romanzoffiana)
1', 2 palms: 1', 2, 3', 7', 8', 9', 10

Eucalyptus (Swamp Mahogany: E. robusta)
1', 2', 3', 5', 8', 9', 13 group 8: 1', 3', 4', 16', 18', 19, 20. eucalyptus: 1, 2', 7, 8'

Where did you walk in the natural area? Can you describe it so that someone else could walk your path and find the plants you observed?
In the natural area, I walked down the trail, through the closed parking lot area and around to where the trail meets another. I did not have to walk far to see an extensive number of different kinds of plants. I could probably describe the paths I went on but it would be hard to describe how to find the exact plants I observed because there was so many.

What are the landscape characteristics you walked through? Are there are lot of shrubs, trees, lawn, wildflowers? Hilly or flat? Is a body of water nearby? What direction does the slope face?
There were a lot of scrubs, grasses, and wildflowers on the initial trail and close to the trail, and then the further you went and if you looked into the distance on either side of the trail there were trees. The space is really hilly and the trail runs through a canyon ish place. There is not a body of water. I believe the slopes face NW.

What plant communities do you think you were in?
I think I was in a Costal Scrub and maybe wildflower community.

Jacaranda Mimosifolia (Jacaranda) pg.69
1', 2', 3', 5, 6', 7 – group 5: 1, 2

Liquidambar Styraciflua (Sweetgum) pg.76
1', 2', 3', 5', 8', 9', 13', 14 – group 9: 1', 3', 7', 8', 9, 10

Today I went to the Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park in Laguna Niguel. It was really cool because there was so many different kinds of plants all over and many of them were flowering. I only had to walk for like 5 min and I had more than enough observations for this assignment, and many of the plants I had never seen before. I will definitely be going back at a time when there is hopefully less people around.

If you had to pick one tree to use the leaves as toilet paper, which would you pick?
Something large and in abundance, like leaves on a Bird of Paradise.

Do you think street trees make your neighborhood more pleasant?
Yes, it makes the neighborhood more green and adds nature to the suburbs.

What is one pro and one con to planting non native trees in our cities?
One pro would that it lets us look at new trees that we wouldn't usually be exposed to, but one con is that these non native trees can overtake the area and drive out native plants.