Bryolog 11 (28 February 2018)
Upcoming
As a general policy, check the website for event updates before you walk out the door!
- In cooperation with the Bryophyte Chapter, Paul Wilson will teach the basics of mosses et cetera on 5-6 May, or heavy rain will postpone the event until 12-13 May. On Saturday, meet at 8:00 at The Pizza Factory in Three Rivers to carpool for a moss walk. If the snow has melted, we will be going up to the Giant Sequoia Forest; if not, we will hike Salt Creek. Do not expect to be back until 5:00. On Sunday from 9:30-1:30, meet at Parking Lot 4 at College of the Sequoias in Visalia for a lecture and to examine mosses through microscopes. You may attend either or both. Bring water and lunch. Additional details will be posted at https://bryophyte.cnps.org/index.php/event-updates, or email paulsiriwilson@gmail.com.
- Ben Carter will give a talk entitled “Biogeography and Ecology of California Bryophytes” at a meeting of the Santa Clara Valley CNPS chapter on Friday, 18 May at 7:30 PM in the Los Altos Library Program Room at 13 S. San Antonio Road, Los Altos, CA.
- With the San Gabriel Mountains Chapter, Paul Wilson will lead a walk from Buckhorn Camp down the Burkhart Trail (at 7000 feet). To carpool, on Saturday 19 May at 8:00 meet at the base of Highway 2 just north of the exit off of the 210 at La Cañada Flintridge. Bring an adventure pass if you have one, water and food. For more information, email paulsiriwilson@gmail.com.
Quarterly Report
- Take the survey asking about interest in an intense workshop, “intermediate moss identification”, next January or the following summer: https://goo.gl/forms/3jVmVARzwM88uAC42
- Kerry Heise reports a successful evening with the mosses and hike with Sanhedrin chapter: more…
Timeless Bits
- Request for proposals for mini-grants to support research: PDF of RFP
- A rare bloom of Lunularia cruciata in the Berkeley Hills by Thomas Madsen and Susan Tremblay: more…
- Newsletter submissions warmly welcomed: more…
♥
Successful Sanhedrin Chapter Bryophyte Events
Jan. 16, 2018: Evening with Mosses, UCCE office, Ukiah California. Instructors: Marisela de Santa Ana, Kerry Heise, Geri Hulse-Stephens
About 30 enthusiastic folks attended this open house affair held at the UC Cooperative Extension office in Ukiah. Following a brief introduction people casually examined many common species on display with hand lenses and both dissecting and compound microscopes. We were pleased with the turn out and expect many to return for our next lab night when we’ll spend more time under the scopes preparing slides and looking at important morphological features needed for identification.
Jan. 27, 2018: Hike in Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve. Leaders: Marisela de Santa Ana and Kerry Heise
The Sanhedrin Chapter kicked off the 2018 fieldtrip season with a bryophyte walk through Montgomery Woods State Natural Reserve in Mendocino County. The Reserve lies about 20 miles east of the Pacific Ocean in the upper headwaters of the South Fork Big River watershed and largely supports a coniferous forest of Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), redwood (Sequoia sempervirens), and tanoak (Notholithocarpus densiflorus). Eleven folks began the hike in cool drizzly conditions en route to the stands of old growth redwood along upper Montgomery Creek, lush with chain fern (Woodwardia fimbriata) and sword fern (Polystichum munitum). Some highlights of the day included: Aulacomnium androgynum and Orthodicranum tauricum covering burned redwood skeletons, Metaneckera menziesii draping trunks of white alder (Alnus rhombifolia), Porotrichum bigelovii completely covering shady sandstone boulders, and dense patches of the liverwort Conocephalum conicum on wet banks along the creek. Other bryophyte species noted were Amphidium californicum, Atrichum selwynii, Claopodium whippleanum, Dendroalsia abietina, Epipterygium tozeri, Fissidens bryoides, Homalothecium nuttallii, Isothecium cristatum, I. stoloniferum, Kindbergia oregana, K. praelonga, Scleropodium obtusifolium, and S. touretii.
♥
A rare bloom of Lunularia cruciata in the Berkeley Hills
—Thomas Madsen and Susan Tremblay
UC Berkeley
While the complex thalloid liverwort Lunularia cruciata is common in coastal northern California, the sexual life cycle is only rarely reported to progress beyond the production of gametangia. Gemmae are produced in abundance, and this liverwort has therefore been thought to rely almost entirely on asexual reproduction. This, along with its common habit as a horticultural weed have lead many to assume that L. cruciata is introduced in California. In November and December of 2017, mature archegoniophores and sporophytes of L. cruciata were observed in patchy, shrub-free openings within northern coastal scrub at multiple locations within the Berkeley Hills. This extraordinary reproductive event followed the exceptionally wet winter of 2016, and was apparently confined to natural habitats, as no archegoniophores or sporophytes were observed in garden-associated populations. Male and female gametophytes of the dioicous L. cruciata are apparently well-represented in local scrub habitat and capable of sexual reproduction, calling into question the assumption that this liverwort is not native to California.
♥
Submissions to Bryolog Warmly Welcomed
Do you have an interesting observation or helpful hint to share? Consider submitting a short article or photo to our newsletter! The deadline for our next issue will be 20 May 2018, but feel free to email submissions at anytime to amandaheinrich777@gmail.com.
♥ ♥ ♥