Plant Ecology ID

BOT 326 Cal Poly

Nemophila menziesii (Baby blue eyes)

Deeply lobed leaves

Oak woodland/grassland

Lupinus bicolor (Miniature Lupine)

Pea family (LEGUMESSSS)

Palmate leaves

Poa secunda (Common Bluegrass)

Lacks awns

Lasthenia gracilis (Goldfields)

Grassland and oak woodlands

Small, native bee pollinators

Phoradendrin villosum (Oak mistletoe)

Lives on oak trees

Seeds get stuck to bird butt and birds wipe on branch

Populus fremontii (Fremont Cottonwood)

Riparian

Huge

Catkins

Wet soil required for seeds (flood years)

Quercus douglasii (Blue Oak)

Nearly endemic to CA

Deciduous

Bluish tint

Toothed margin

Very drought resistant

Slopes w/ thin/rocky soil

Lomatium utriculatum (Spring biscuit root)

Adenostoma fasciculatum (Chamise)

Chaparral dominant

Evergreen, needle-like leaves in bundles

Bromus rubens (red brome)

long red ripped awns

Annual

Bromus diandrus (Ripgut brome)

Long awns

Barbs

Stipa pulchra * (Purple needle grass)

Native, perennial bunch grass

Long awns, smooth

Bromus hordeaceus (Soft chess brome) *

Non-native

Annual grass

Arectostaphylos obispoensis (Oso Manzanita)

Grows in chromite mine, recolonized

Ecological succession

Ranunculus californicus * (California buttercup)

Leaves deeply divided at base, perennial

Specialist bees

10 merous

Ecotone grassland, wet woodland

Avena fatua

Non-native

Fat spikelets

Long awns

Quercus agrifolia (Coast live oak)

woody tree, evergreen

California Floristic Province

Hair tufts on underside, cup shaped

Oak woodland

Mite commensalism

Quercus durata (Leather oak)

Endemic to serpentine soil

Rare

Rough surface, cup shaped, thick leaves

Serpentine chaparral dominant

Layia platyglossa (Common Tidy Tips)

Large ray flowers

Grassland

Amsinkia sp. (Fiddleneck)

Scorpioid cyme

Stiff, pokey hairs

Annual

Salix laevigata (Red Willow)

Smooth upper leaf surface

Lower surface hairy

Shrubby tree

Wind and bee pollinated

Catkins nectar

Quercus lobata (Valley Oak)

CFP

Flatter, flood plain areas

Deeply lobed leaves

Dark bark

Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon)

Evergreen leaves, leathery

Chaparral

Acmispon glabar (Deerweed)

Leaves divided to 3 leaflets

Subshrub

Coastal scrub dominant

Diplacus aurantiacus (Sticky monkeyflower)

Opposite sticky evergreen leaves

Curved margin

Carex obispoensis (San Luis Obispo sedge)

Dangling spikelets (catkins)

Endemic to serpentine and SLO

Frangula californica \* (Coffee berry)

Evergreen, toothed serrate leaves

Raised veins

Riparian areas

Native

Salvia mellifera (Black Sage)

Coastal shrub

Toothed rounded leaves

White hairs on underside

Artemisia californica (California sagebrush)

Baccharis pilularis (Coyote brush)

Evergreen

Leafs toothed margin, wedge shaped

Coastal shrub, chaparral

Ceanothus cuneatus (Buckbrush)

Collinsia heterophylla (Purple Chinese Houses)

Bilaterally symmetric

Bee pollinated (know how to orient)

Mostly specialist (oligolectic bees: only feed that certain family/genus pollen to young)

Lysimachia latifolia (Pacific Starflower)

Very rare in SLO

From Lopez Lake to Canada

Wet like Pacific Northwest

Ecological niche for population to survive and reproduce

Erythranthe Guttata (Seep monkeyflower)

Chlorogalum pomeridianum (Common soap plant)

Lather for soap

Fish poison

Undulating margin

Long linear leaves

Flowers open in late afternoon/early evening

Moth pollinated white flower

Selaginella bigelovii (Bushy spikemoss)

Native

Dominant in rock outcrops

Looks like moss

Reproduces by spores

Very old lineage

Resurrection plant

Bloomeria crocea (Common goldstar)

Geophyte

Flowers in umbel

Yellow

Dark stripe on underside

Vicia villosa (Hairy vetch)

Purple sprays, fabaceae, non-native

Planted as ground cover

Cover crop for nitrogen fixation

Fruit shatters to release seeds

Self seeds very quickly

Huge in riparian areas

Calystegia macrostegia (Coast morning glory)

Native

Reproduction underground rhizomes & seeds

Flowers very short lived (1 day)

Very fused petals with pollen/stigma inside

Cordate leaf shape (arrowhead)

Vines

Coast of California

Coastal scrub, grassland, rock outcrops

A TON of flowers!

Sysirinchium bellum (Blye eyed grass)

Purple w/ yellow eye

Iridaceae

Native

Rocky outcrops & grasslands

Hesperoyucca whipplei (Chaparral yucca)

Endemic to CFP

Leaves bayonets, spine-tipped (can pierce to bone)

Pollinated exclusively by yucca moth

\-exclusive mutualism, fleshy stamen produces a lil pollen and tiny white moths wipe the pollen and place their eggs inside flower

\-once pollinated, the babies hatch and eat flower from inside for a couple weeks

\-war! if flower senses it has tooooo many babies, it will EJECT!

\-if moth is greedy, plant thinks it’s parasitism

\-occurs in all 40 spp

Hemizonia congesta (Hayfield tarweed)

Related to Hawaiian silverswords

Wet, riparian areas

Full sun

Parallel radiation to sticky monkeyflower

Primarily pollinated by large bees

Snaps stigma shut

Yellow corolla with closed throat

Umbellularia californica (California bay)

Related to tropics

Very aromatic leaves with antimicrobial properties

Riparian corridors

Humid, cooler, shadier

Calochortus albus (White fairy lantern)

Mariposa lillies

Underground as bulbs in the winter

Small native bee pollinated

Salix lasiolepis (Arroyo Willow)

Leaf veins less prominent than red willow

More shrubby (red willow more like tree)

Dioecious, wind/insects must move pollen

Ericameria ericoides (Mock heather)

Native

Only a few miles within ocean

Dominant species in dune scrub

Needle-like small leaves, glaucous

Endemic

Reduce herbivory, UV damage, temperature regulation

Eucalyptus globulus (Blue Gum)

US planted when running out of timber

Wood grows terribly here!

Too fast and soft or too slow to grow

2 Kinds of Leaves:

\-Opposite/Sessile/Glaucous Lower Down

\-Alternate/petioles/Glabrous

Rubus ursinus (Common blackberry)

Stems armed with prickles

Leaves 3 lobed

Produces great fruits

Generalist in many communities

Croton californicus (California croton)

Dioecious

Euphorbiaceae

Leaves covered in silvery, stellate hairs

Coastal dune scrub/pioneer

Sandy, low nutrient soils

Ehrharta calycina (Veldt grass)

Inflorescence fall to one side

Reddish tint

Reproduce primarily by seed

native to South Africa

Introduced to Davis and fine there

VERY invasive on central coast

Dune scrub

Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy)

Yellow

Shorter foliage in dune

Form only found on coast

Castilleja exserta (Owl’s Clover)

Highly variable

Hemi parasite (like oak mistletoe)

Still makes chlorophyll, but uses host to steal nutrients (water)

Southern most tip of Morro Bay (salt brush community)

Back dune = no wind

Abronia umbellata (Pink sand verbena)

Umbel cluster of flowers

Long nectar tubes for bees and moths

Pioneer/coastal dune scrub

Sticky, covered in sand to prevent herbivory

Moth eggs → larvae can’t eat new growth

Marah fabacea (Manroot)

Vine, palmately lobed leaves

Tendrils

Wide range of habitats

Above and underground stems (tubers size of corpse)

Eriogonum parvifolium (Coastal buckwheat)

White woody leaves underneath

Same geographic range as mock heather

Dominant species in dune scrub

Lupinus chamisonis (Dune brush lupine)

Ornate flowers change color after pollination

Carpobrotus edulis (Iceplant)

Opposite leaves

Edible fleshy fruits

Native to South Africa

Competitive release

Fungal infections - black spores instead of seeds

Conicosia pungioniformis (Narrow leaved iceplant)

Nom-native, less impact than common iceplant

Dune scrub

Yellow petals

Native to South Africa

Neither type can tolerate freezing

Centaurea solstitialis (Yellow starthistle)

Centaurea melitensis (Tocalote)

Hazardia squarrosa (Saw toothed goldenbush)

Foeniculum vulgare (Sweet fennel)

Scropularia californica (California figwort)

Lonicera hispidula (California honeysuckle)

Hordium murinum (Foxtail barley)

Stachys bullata (California hedgenettle)

Eriophyllum confertifbrum (Golden yarrow)

Achilea millefolium (Yarrow)

Calochortus argillosus (Clay mariposa lily)

Chorizanthe sp. (Spineflower)

Salix breweri (Serpentine Willow)

Elymus condensatus (Giant wild rye)

Hesperocyparis macrocarpa (Monterey Cypress)

Pinus attenuata (Knobcone pine)

Atriplex prostrata