Sequoia sempervirens
All second growth; this area was extensively logged in the 1860s and 70s
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.
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.
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,
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
Acer macrophyllum
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.
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.
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.
Quercus agrifolia
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:
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.
Heteromeles arbutifolia
Toxicodendron diversilobum
This is its most dangerous form - no leaves, but an unmistakeable evil stature.
Symphoricarpos albus
Lepechinia calycina
Baccharus pilularis
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,
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.
Rosa gymnocarpa
Rosa gymnocarpa
Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum
RIP
Ribes sanguineum var. glutinosum
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