Californitucky

I'm taking a Plant Conservation class this quarter, and we recently went out to northern Napa county to a preserve up there that allows OHVs (off highway vehicles) and also has a shooting range.

The rain let up for the whole day, we could hardly believe it.





OHVs can cause devastating erosion in areas where their use isn't regulated. And the regulation commission for them is also kind of hard-pressed to enforce regulations due to underfunding and biased interests (a majority of the board are OHV users).



We also went out there because the site has a lot of serpentine areas; the soils are full of heavy metals because the area was formed from deep ocean rocks that are high in magnesium and low in calcium. It's a fascinating ecosystem of plants that have adapted to these strange nutrient levels.



There was also a gold mine on the site that is now closed. The pit was pretty small, considering. And my professor said that they only made a profit margin of 2% the whole time they were there. Hmmmm, good riddance.





I'm taking some other pretty cool classes this quarter, so stay tuned to learn about them soon!

Sierra foothills serpentine geology

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!"

The Payne Ranch - Part 2, The Rocks

All I can say for this post is that the turquoise coloring on the rocks is due to the serpentine geology of the area (all the heavy metals). The other colors are because of lichen, and the stripes are due to other minerals in the rock. That's all the info I have, now sit back and enjoy the pictures.