Trees
Coast Redwood
Sequoia sempervirens
All second growth; this area was extensively logged in the 1860s and 70s
California Bay
Umbellularia californica
Closely related to the avocado, the bay nut is roughly 3/4-1" across, oval, with a large seed inside, coated with a very thin flesh similar to avocado, the seeds can be roasted and are tasty.
Douglas Fir "Triple Top"
Pseudotsuga menziesii
This is a very old tree probably near the end of its natural life span which commonly runs 500 years and occasionally up to 1000 years.
Tanoak
Notholithocarpus densiflorus
This is the largest of many small tanoaks that look like they were trees that most likely died of Sudden Oak Death. Many of them are growing back as shrubs, indicating that whatever killed the main stem was vascular.
Tanoaks were heavily logged for their bark, from which tannins were extracted for the leather industry and used as a playground surface,
California Buckeye
Aesculus californica
These trees are the bomb. Can be cut to the ground and they regrow multiple stems. Select a couple and voila, within a couple of years your have a gorgeous, multi-stemmed Buckeye.
They open their delicate leaves early in the spring, followed by gorgeous, fragrant panicles of creamy-pink blossoms. By July most leaves have withered and fallen as these trees strategy for surviving through our long dry summers and falls is to become dormant. By Thanksgiving most branches will be adorned by many large brown buckeyes, which are striking against the pale bark of the bare branches.
Every part of these trees are toxic to humans
Big leaf maple
Acer macrophyllum
Pacific Madrones
Pacific Madrone
Arbutus menziesii
This property used to have many very large mature madrone trees, with main trunk diameters exceeding 24". However by 2015 when we purchased the property many of them had died and over the past ten years almost all of the remaining large madrones have died. There are plenty of small madrones sprouting up, but almost all the parents and grandparents, which previously appear to have thrived on the property are gone.
This loss is not always necessarily correlated with ground disturbance in the area although they definitely do not like that.
Pacific Madrone forest
Arbutus menziesii
This stand of Pacific Madrones died between approximately 2016 - 2018. This is possibly due to ground-disturbance subsequent to a series of vehicular mud-entrapments. But that doesn't explain all the other Madrone deaths on this property.
Pacific Madrone failure
Arbutus menziesii
This Madrone was severely leaning, but apparently healthy when all of a sudden the entire top of the tree broke off. This was terminal.
Coast Live Oak
Coast Live Oak
Quercus agrifolia
Masting Coast Live Oak
Quercus agrifolia
2024/25 is a “mast” year for our Coast Live oaks. Masting is a phenomenon that has been well-known for centuries and describes observations of variable but synchronous production of acorns and other tree seeds across large geographic areas common in Northern hardwood forests.
[Put more colloquially: some years are great, all the trees of this species in the area are producing exceptional quantities of fruit, other years are terrible, with very low fruit production and no pattern or way to know when these bumper crops will occur.]
Origin of the term mast comes from farmers who used acorns and other tree seeds to fatten swine and observed vast year-to-year variability in production.
We still don’t understand the details of how this phenomenon happens.
The fundamental question being: How in control is the plant?
A. Is it a resource threshold, which when met allows a mast event (subject to environmental “veto”)?
B. Is it an evolutionary strategy to maximize reproductive success?
Several hypotheses:
- Resource availability – weather is the primary driver. Adequate environmental inputs, with late-breaking environmental threats providing a “veto”. Mast years are very resource-intensive, and it can take several years to recover. Interestingly, in mast years trees shift their resource allocation to making seed, and not growth (trunk girth).
- Predator satiation – low production most years keeps acorn predator (deer, mice) populations low, so an overwhelming crop with variable timing can facilitate more seed germination.
- Pollination efficiency – maximizing flower production, and hence pollen increases the probability of successful pollination leading to more successful germination.
Safe bet is that it is a combination of all the above with additional factors becoming elaborated in the future.
More information on the history of masting research:
Koenig WD. 2021 A brief history of masting research. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 376: 20200423.
Shrubs
Toyon
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Poison Oak
Toxicodendron diversilobum
This is its most dangerous form - no leaves, but an unmistakeable evil stature.
Snowberry
Symphoricarpos albus
White Pitcher Sage
Lepechinia calycina
Coyote Brush
Baccharus pilularis
California Hazel or Beaked Hazelnut
Corylus cornuta var. californica
Spectacular shrubs, deciduous and light and airy when in leaf. Catkins produce pollen, flowers are tiny and inconspicuous.
The long stems were cultivated by the local indigenous people, the Muwekma-Ohlone, and harvested for use in their elaborate basketry. The roots of these and other shrubs were also cultivated and harvested to use for additional color and pattern. These baskets were used for many purposes and were so well made that they could hold water and be used to cook in with fired stone,
Coffeeberry
Frangula californica (ssp. californica?)
There's a beautiful patch of coffeeberry below the lake. They are light and airy, with striking red bark on the twigs.
Bald-hip rose
Rosa gymnocarpa
Bald-hip rose
Rosa gymnocarpa
Pink-flowering currant
Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum
RIP
Pink-flowering currant
Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum