Trail of Shadows, Mt. Rainer 4/1

Date: March 29, 2012
Location: Trail of Shadows, Mt. Rainer
Weather: Cold, moist air.
Climate: Alpine Zone climate- cold and snowy

The Trail of Shadows is located in Mt. Rainer National Park. When we got there the first thing i noticed was all the snow that was on the ground and how much colder it was than in Pack Forest. Then I noticed how many tall trees were around. The first one i identified was a western hemlock. I knew this because the branches of the tree were sloping down, and the tree had very small needles. Next, i saw old mans beard, a lichen that was attached to a bottom branch of a douglas fur. Across from this symbiosis was a iron rich swampy area that had c02 bubbles coming up from it. I then came across a deer fern, a understory shade plant that is commonly found growing alongside hemlock and other large conifers. The deer fern was a lot smaller than the sword fern i had previously observed, but similar in shape. I then came across a pacific yew. Yew’s are actually a shrub and get to be only about 15 ft tall. They have scaly red bark and red berries when their baring fruit. The yew i saw had yet to bare its fruit, suggesting that they bloom later in the spring. Along with the yew i also encountered a pacific fur. This tree had splotchy bark with an array of lichen growing on it. On of the volunteers then pointed out some lipstick cladonia he had found. One of the more interesting lichens to look at, this plant had red apothhecia that gave it its name. The last plant i saw was devils club and happened to be growing in the swamp. It had rather twig-like branches with thorns completely encompassing it.

Questions: Does the presence of iron somehow benefit the plants in the surrounding area? Does lichen have a mutualistic relationship with the conifers it grows on? What type of organisms live in the iron rich swamp? Why was the iron rich swamp so warm? Why is the devils club so thorny? What relationship through evolution made it this way?

Species List:
Western Hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla)
Old Man’s Beard (Usnea trichodea)
Deer Fern (Blechnum spicant)
Pacific Yew (Taxus brevifolia)
Pacific Fir (Abies amabilis)
Lipstick Cladonia (Cladonia macilenta)
Devils Club (Oplopanax horridus)

Publicado el abril 6, 2012 01:13 MAÑANA por lmcthe01