An Eye-Opening Week

Yesterday, Friday, was our last hike for collecting plants. We were in a section of the San Jacinto Mountains. The weather on that hike was hot and many of the plants that we saw were very dry. We collected a few different varieties of California Oak, a plant called Eriogonum, ferns and many others. The best discovery, in my opinion, were these tiny plants with woody stems and beautiful purple flowers. I liked that we had to look very closely to the ground to discover them. It is sometimes amazing what we are able to discover upon closer examination.

We collected enough plants and pressed them throughout the week, we did not have to go look for more today! Today, we stayed around the research center, organized data and mailed the dried and pressed flowers to the Smithsonian.

Overall, it has been an eventful week. The focus was on plants but I also saw many desert animals. I saw road runners, a small snake, scorpions, many types of lizards, California Quail and endless varieties of birds. Not only did I learn about plants that I never paid much attention to or know much about; I have come to the conclusion that we live in a species rich and diverse landscaped area.

Native California Palm

I enjoyed talking with you today using video conferencing. I noticed some of you had questions written before the call. Others of you were brave enough to participate with your questions and comments. I noticed and appreciated all of it. We did not go collecting plants or pressing today. Instead, we saw one of the final result of the pressing and drying process today. After the flowers and plants are pressed and tied, they are dried. The pressed plants are placed on rack for drying and dried using a hot plate (yes, the same one used for cooking) and sun. The whole drying process takes about two to three days. The blotter paper and cardboard are removed and the dried flowers are kept on the numbered newspaper. After this, the flowers will be sent to the Smithsonian Museum. There they are kept in the freezer for a few days so that all insects are killed off. As a final process, the plants are mounted and kept as a permanent record.
We hiked behind the research center today. The point of the hike was to look at the only native California Palm tree. We have palm trees all over the Los Angeles area. Did you ever think that those trees were from somewhere else? Well, they are! The ones that we have all over our town are imported from somewhere else.

Here are some questions that I would like for you think about today:

Think about all my posts when respond to these questions.
What did I find interesting?
What new information did I learn?
What information surprised me?
I would also like for you to look at the poster in the room titled "Geography Terms".
What is a canyon?

It has been great and I will see you soon...

Diversity

There is a reason that this expedition is titled "Mapping Change in California's Mountains." You might have wondered about this. Why are they collecting all these plants, pressing them and cataloguing them? One reason for the data collection is for comparison. A scientist is able to compare data from thirty years ago and today to answer some questions about change. Some of these questions might be, which plants are no longer in the area and which new plants might have been introduced to the area. There are reasons why certain plants are no longer in the area. It could be some kind of change such as loss of habitat (place to live) as a result of development (houses and businesses being built). If there are new plants in the area, the data can help answer why these plants got here. It could be that these new plants came into the area and wiped out the ones that could not compete with them.

Finally, I titled today's entry "Diversity" for a reason. Although I told you that I was going to be in the desert, the mountains around here have different plants and climate. Today we climbed about 5,800 feet above sea level in the San Jacinto Mountains. That is almost a mile. It was misty, wet and cold. It made me realize that we are lucky to live in California because of the diversity of the state's landscape. It is possible to travel ten and twenty miles and encounter a very different environment. I encourage you to explore our state now and the future, if you get the opportunity.

The assignment for today is for you to prepare questions and comments that you have for me when I talk with you tomorrow, "Live From the Field".

A Change in the Weather

Today we went to a place south of the Palm Desert called Idyllwild. The weather in Deep Canyon, the place where we are staying, has turned from hot on Sunday to chilly and extremely windy as of yesterday. Idyllwild is in the mountains with elevation of about 5,000 ft. It has a variety of trees such as pine, redwood, oak and maple. Today the weather was cold, around 43 degrees, foggy and misty. We collected a few plants in the mist and drove about three miles down. It was still chilly at this spot but there was no mist. Some of the plants we collected were California Bay Laurel, Tobacco plant with yellow flowers and a yellow plant called Golden Rod. I mention the California Bay Laurel and Tobacco plant because some of these plants are common around the Los Angeles area. We pressed the flowers and plants we collected.

Here is the assignment today:

I would like for you to write down some of the plants that you see around school, on the way home or where you live. If you do not know the names of these plants, I would like for you to describe how they look, if they have a scent and how the leaves or flowers feel to the touch.

Getting Started

We went on our first hike and plant collection today. Having done your assignments yesterday, you should know that a herbarium is a collection of plant specimen that have been preserved. The term herbarium can also be used to talk about the place where these preserved plants are kept. Mr. Russell, the main plant scientist or botanist, is in charge of the herbarium that is part of the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. They have a total of five million preserved plants in their collection. The oldest plant specimens at the Smithsonian are about 150 years old. What we are doing on this expedition is helping him add to this data.

Today we went to the San Jacinto Mountains, about 4000 miles above sea level, for a hike and plant collection. We cut the plants that Mr. Russell wanted to preserve. We photographed the plants and surrounding area using two different cameras. We wrote down the name of each plant, gave a number to this plant, laid a sample of each plant on newsprint paper (very thin, blank paper), covered it with another newsprint paper, laid another paper to absorb the moisture (blotter paper) and finally, we laid cardboard paper on top. We kept layering these plants, prepared in this manner, as if we were making a sandwich with many layers. When the stack was large enough, we put a a piece of waffled wood, the same size as the cardboard and paper, on top and bottom. Then we pressed it down and tied the bundle. We are now waiting for the stack to dry. We assembled three different samples of each plant. We collected about nine different types of plants today and noted where we found each plants on a specific longitude and latitude line with a GPS. My questions for you today are:

Why is it important to save these plants? Why is it important and necessary to keep a collection of plants now and from the past?

First Day

We arrived at The Philip Boyd Deep Canyon Research Center at around 5 P.M. The area is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Within the first twenty minutes of arriving at the research center, we say two Bighorn Sheep at the top of the mountain behind here. The horns on the male Bighorn Sheep were huge. I think the size of the horns determine the age of the animal. This particular animal must have been older. We also saw several California quails flying around. We were briefly introduced to the work we will be doing. We will be collecting plants, pressing them and cataloguing them. We saw a pressed plant with a picture and seeds from 1968! This type of work has been done at the research facility for that long. Here is a link to the research center. You can see where I am staying and information about the surrounding area. As an assignment, I would like you to define the following words:

herbarium

botany

species

specimen

data

Until next time...