Diario de thechestnutking

Knowing the names for the grasses I am finding I have a greater appreciation for the ground cover. Finally made it up to the peak. On the way to the top I found the meadow I keep hearing about and got into chaparral at the top. I think I may also have passed the pygmy forest. Lots of new plants to find at the to including blackberry, Arctostaphylos, and Cupressus. A couple of the plants in the meadow were Eschscholzia and Stachys.

Lots of pretty flowers! Vinca finally flowered and the local Geranium is flowering too painting little splashes of purple across the landscape. The area is still pretty wet and lush though I expect that to change in the near future. Found a couple of nice Madrones finally. Most all of the trees in the park have finished leafing out by now and Acer looks particularly spectacular.

On my second visit to Mount hood the winds and rains of the previous visit have been replaced by the warmth of spring. I still see no petals from the Ericaceae Family but that is because they are done flowering rather then just having been destroyed by winds. This time I see lots of Claytonia perfoliate (or Miner's Lettuce) growing. An edible plant that always signaled the beginning of spring as a child in San Luis Obispo County. Aesculus californica is also leafing out. The Quercus genus is starting to produce catkins.

2/18/2017 Evan Gillham
Hood Mountain
Location: Sonoma County, Near Kenwood
Area: 3.72m (2)
Elevation Range: 720 ft - 2,733 ft

I chose Hood Mountain as my NABS because I love hiking in that region of the county and I want to get to know it's trails better.

Hood mountain has a lower density of variety in habitats but still contains such areas as dwarf forest, chaparral, and Riparian zone. In addition to these there is a rather unique habitat on the south western portion of the park which consists of a chaparral like area covered in rock outcroppings and small tree stands (Ecology of the southern Mayacmas Range, Lumina Technologies, Santa Rosa, Ca). Today's Hike took me through predominately oak woodland and a Riparian zone containing copious quantities of ferns. The whole area is extremely green and muddy due to recent rains. Most of the trees have lost some branches and a good portion of their leaves due to high winds yesterday making ID more difficult in some cases. Almost all flowering plants (notably Ericaceae) have lost any flowers or buds they may have had. The dominate trees in the Oak woodland are Pseudotsuga menziezi (Douglas Fir) and Quercus agrifolia (California Live Oak) with a sprinkling of Aesculus californica (California Buckeye). The understory of the oak woodland was primarily Umbellularia californica (California Bay) and Geranium robertianum (Herb Robert). The Riparian Zone was populated by predominately Dryopteris (Wood Ferns), and Notholithocarpus densiflorus (Tanoak).