Diario de loarie

On this day in 1890 (123 years ago!) someone calling themselves 'E. C.' collected the rare fragrant fritillary (Fritillaria liliacea) on Bernal Heights in San Francisco. The specimen is at the California Academy of Sciences cataloged as: CAS:BOT:108701

I went back today to try to relocate this specimen. No luck, the site is pretty disturbed these days, lots of dogs and bare ground but I did find these 15 plants in bloom.

Lots of the invasive yellow Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae), but no fragrant fritillary (Fritillaria liliacea) blooming on Bernal Heights

Each month, we're combing through the California Academy of Sciences collections to post the locations of plants collected the same month from the past. We need your help to relocate them! Here's how it works - pick a place to revisit by choosing one of the red circular markers from the map and learn about the specimen you're attempting to relocate. Head for the location and do your best to find the plant. If you can, take an observation and make sure to fill out the Target Specimen Number field with the Global Unique Identifier for the specimen and enter yes in the Target Relocated field. If you can't find the plant, take an observation of another plant or animal you found at that spot instead. Enter the 'target specimen number' you were searching for along with no for 'target relocated'. Along the way, take as many other observations you can to help us document San Francisco biodiversity!

Ideally, write a journal post describing your expedition. You can read one of mine here about my attempt to relocate a fragrant fritillary collected 123 years ago to the day. This population is most likely extinct, but I documented 15 other plants I found in its place!

Hi Class, Homework #2 is posted here and is now due Thursday February 14th. I'm sorry for not getting it up earlier. I've also posted the readings which are Chapters 1-4 of the text also to be read by Thursday. I hope I'll see some of you soon at the Strawberry Canyon parking lot today Feb. 10 at noon for the optional field trip. Call me at 415 278 1220 if you have trouble finding us. If not, see you in class Tuesday.

For those of you still joining the class, I've gotten caught up posting lectures through today on the Lectures section of the syllabus. Don't forget to have the obs/journals for homework #2 posted by the end of Thursday. You'll have to spend some time outdoors for this homework so don't put it off until Thursday night unless you have a good flashlight. Here's my obs from this weekend's hike at Strawberry Canyon thanks again to those who joined!

Homework #3 due Feb. 21 is posted here - you need to visit Chaparral and Moist Evergreen Forest for this one - I posted a trail near campus on the map above which is a close option. A further option would be this weekend's optional fieldtrip to Pepperwood Preserve in Sonoma County. If you can make it and are interested, lets plan to meet at noon on Sunday at the Preserve (follow the map below). Pepperwood is a really beautiful place so I think you'll enjoy it if you are willing to make the drive. Its a solid 2 hour drive from Berkeley so plan accordingly. If you plan on coming, please let me know by commenting on this post, emailing, or calling me (415-278-1220).

A picture from Pepperwood - more here!

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Map from Berkeley to Pepperwood Preserve

Thanks to everyone who came to Pepperwood today - I really enjoyed the hike! Here's a link to what we saw.

It was a bit dry for newts but Beatriz found this one under a log - we found others breeding in a pond.

We took a shortcut Michael the Preserve manager told us about to cut some distance off our 6-mile loop. Here we are crossing Redwood Creek.

Hey class, Meagan is organizing a trip to Tilden Park tomorrow right after class in hopes of scoping out some moist evergreen and chaparral species. She has an extra 3-4 spaces in her car and plans to be back on campus by 5. Let her know by leaving a comment here if you want to join.

Homework #4 is posted here - happy hunting!

I got to go to the Ohio Natural History Conference where I had the good fortune of hiking with Mike Gratziano, who has to be one of the best naturalists in the state. We turned up all sorts of cool things despite the literally freezing weather. My favorites were seeing a newt swimming below the ice, learning that black birch tastes like root beer, and my first Botrychium!

Mike in the field, notice the sheet of ice in the background.