2013-07-25

Flora of Camp Tahquitz - trees


I guess I take trees in the context of Camp Tahquitz more for granted than herbaceous plants since I didn't take many detailed pictures or notes of what I saw.  Therefore the list of trees (even from memory) is somewhat short compared to what I could have observed.

The area is mostly forested with oak and pine.  I can't tell whether this is a transitional state on the path: pine forest --> logged pine forest --> regrowth of oak and pine --> dominance of pine, or if it's normal.  I suspect it's normal to have a mixed oak and conifer forest.

Elderberry (Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea, according to Calflora)
Ponderosa (Yellow) pine (Pinus ponderosa)
California black oak (Quercus kelloggii)
Canyon live oak (Quercus chrysolepis) A hand-lettered sign identified this as Canyon live oak, but I can't tell the difference between Canyon live oak and Live oak (Quercus wislizeni).  Perhaps Canyon live oak has a smoother edged leaf than Live oak?
Incense cedar (Calocedrus decurrens)
Pacific Willow (Salix lasiandra, planted at the bottom of a meadow judging by the uniform row.  A hand-lettered sign identifies them as Pacific Willow and I didn't make any observations that disagreed.)
An unidentified fir or two

There might be an opportunity to return to Camp Tahquitz later in the year for more botanizing which may give me a chance to be more precise about the trees. 

For certain, larger Ponderosa Pines used to be more plentiful in the area, as evidenced by some of the remaining stumps.  They were logged and at least some of them were used to build the historic log cabins found on the property to this day.   In this meadow picture, a Black Oak is growing right up from the middle of an old Ponderosa stump.
Meadow with Ponderosa stump and oak
Close up:
Ponderosa stump with oak growing from middle
A juvenile Black Oak caught my eye because its emerging foliage had a nice color. I didn't even see the moth(?) until I was processing the pictures.
Juvenile Black oak with reddish foliage and bug
Black oak have a distinctive leaf shape. I tried an app for iPhone called Leaf Snap and it correctly identified Quercus from the leaf shape, but Quercus kelloggii wasn't on the matching list.  The app seemed biased towards East coast trees.
Black oak leaf


A mighty oak, straight and true. Or not:
bent oak, Quercus kelloggii

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