A few weeks ago (5/12) I went on a final field trip for my CA Floristics class to a serpentine geology site in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. We went at the perfect time because all of the little wildflowers were blooming and carpeting the site.
Serpentine is a type of rock that came from the mantle of the Earth, and it was scraped up onto California from the bottom of the ocean when the continent was still forming. The only other place in the US it exists is on the east coast in PA and a few spots south of there. It's full of heavy metals and the plants that grow on it have to be able to deal with abnormally high amounts of certain elements like magnesium and nickel, and low amounts of essential elements like potassium and phosphorous. Serpentine rocks are always tinged a bit turquoise and have gorgeous stripes of grays and reds in them.
The trees and shrubs that grow on serpentine are always stunted and grow more sparsely than elsewhere.
In some areas, the rocks sticking out made it look a little bit like a moonscape.
The tiny wildflowers in combination with the beautiful rocks made nice little still-lifes:
In other news, I just got back from my last field trip of the quarter, a three day trip to the Sierra Nevadas. Now, only three more weeks until "Schooooooooool's Out. For. Summer!"
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