Saturday

A complex thalloid liverwort near a stream with gemmae cups in the Arcata Community Forest

Cladonia sp. growing on a redwood in the Arcata Community Forest

Some kind of slime mold growing on a log in the Arcata Community Forest

Pretty red moss sporophytes in Azalea State Reserve

The flower of a carnivorous Darlingtonia sp. at the Arcata Farmers Market

Azalea Reserve

It is a beautiful sunny spring day here on the North Coast so I decided to go to the Azalea Reserve in McKinleyville to check on the azaleas and other angiosperms that are showing their colors.

This is Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis)which makes a delicious edible salmon-colored berry in the fall

Here is a pretty Trillium (Trillium ovatum most likely)

The Wester Azalea (Rhododendron occidentale)

Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata)makes two dark purple berries later in the year that are subtended by a bright red bract. Twinberry is part of the Caprifoliaceae.

Bug on a stick!

This little guy is a male Polytrichum juniperinum and what you are seeing is a splash cup that is used to distribute their swimming sperm.

This is the beautiful lacy pattern of the leaves of Sphagnum, the moss that can absorb water 20 times heavier than its body! The white cells are the water holding leucocysts and the green, sausage-like cells are the photosynthetic chlorocysts.

Here is Sphagnum macroscopically:

And, finally the bug on a stick! This is the sporophyte of Buxbaumia piperi and it doesn't have leaves. The gametophyte is just a thin green film on the soil.

Humboldt Orchid Society Show

Yesterday I went to an orchid show put on by the Humboldt Orchid Society and saw some amazingly beautiful species. Here are few of them:

Dendrobium thursiflorum

Unknown species

Epidendrum sp.

Psychopsis kalihi

Masdevallia sp.

Chilochista sweelimii

Makai sp.

Dendrochilum filaform

Unknown species

For anybody out there who is an orchid expert, some of these names could be completely wrong, because on some tables there was a label and a whole cluster of plants, so I did the best I could.

There are 34 species of orchids in Humboldt County and I have seen one of them. If I recall, there are 158 species in California. The most orchid diversity is in South America, especially on the Equator.

Spain has 50 species of orchids so hopefully I will be able to catch a few glimpses of some of them!

Bryophyta aka "Mosses"

We are started learning out mosses in my Lichens and Bryophytes class yesterday and they are so cool! I definitely prefer them to the liverworts and the hornworts. Here are a couple of the most interesting specimens:

First, Leucolepis acanthoneura

This is the mouth of the sporophyte where the spores are released by the flailing hygroscopic endostome and exostome teeth.

This sporophyte is so tiny but looks huge and really cool under the microscope!

This growth type is called "dendroid" because they look like little palm trees!

And second, Orthotrichium papillosum

This sporophyte is so pretty with its bright green spores and peach colored recurved teeth.

Yay mosses!

Botany

I love learning about the organisms that the study of Botany encompasses. In particular, mycology, lichenology, and ecology of plants are my main interests.

I am currently an undergraduate botany student at Humboldt State University in California. I think I want to continue on to get my masters degree when I graduate but I don't know where I want to go yet.

In late September I am going to live in Spain in the Balearic Islands for 8 months working as a student

assistant teaching English. I am minoring in Spanish, that is how I have gotten this amazing opportunity. While there, I will be doing my senior thesis on the macrolichens on the island I am living on, probably Mallorca.

I will be using this blog to describe cool botanical discoveries I make in Northern California, Spain, Europe and wherever else life takes me.

This little beauty is the White-Flowered Rein Orchid, Piperia candida, and it is endangered in California, according to the California Native Plant Society.I found it on a hike around my boyfriend's parents property in Mendocino County. This is the only native orchid I have ever seen in California so it was very exciting. Later that week, I found 8 more individuals along the road! They are relatively abundant in that area evidently.