Trail Log 1995-1997 - Lamar at Colorado State University

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on the limousine down.
December 3, Sunday. Hike up Cascade Head, with Marv Henberg and Kareen Sturgeon. She is
biologist, botanist at Linfield and knew the flora rather well. Bruce McCune, Oregon State
University, knows mosses, she says.
I was here with Steve Radosevich, forest science, at Oregon State University, in May 1994, earlier
with Dan Bottom in February 1991.
Seen during the day: (most are in Pojar and MacKinnon, Plants of Coastal British Columbia).
Lobaria pulmonaria. Lungwort. A lichen with a three-way synthesis, a fungus, an algae, and a
cyanobacteria. Lives in the treetops and is important nitrogen fixer.
Tsuga heterophylla. Western hemlock. The needles are of uneven length (hetero-phylla), rather
widely an irregularly spaced. Often forms such a dense canopy that nothing much can grow under
it. Most common tree in Alaska.
Picea sitchensis. Sitka spruce. This is the main evergreen in the Cascade Head forest. It is a tree
that goes all the way up to Alaska, a major tree there, but here it is only in a narrow band down the
coast, typically within four miles of the coast. Very sharp needles. Oregon's inland spruce is
Englemann. Not so sharp needles.
Douglas-fir. Pseudotsuga menziesii. Seen at an inland stop, not at Cascade Head.
Deer fern. Blechnum spicant. Dimorphic fronds.
Bigleaf maple trees may put out adventitious roots into the mosses and fungi that cover them and
draw nutrients this way.
Usnea lichen
Oxalis, Redwood sorrel (sour grass). Clover-like leaves.
Polypodium glycyrrhiza. Licorice fern. The only epiphytic fern here. Licorice taste to rhizome.
Sambucus racemosa. Red elderberry.
Ranunculus repens. Creeping buttercup. Invasive exotic.
Banana slug. Large slugs here.
Bird's Nest Fungi. Nidula. Order: Nidulariales. Smaller than a dime. Nicely seen. Another genus
is Cyathus, nicely pictured in O.K. Miller, also in L. R. Hesler. The "egg" is called a peridiole, and
(in Cyathus) is attached to the "nest" by a thin cord, called a funiculus. The nest serves as a splash
cup. When the eggs are splashed out, to several feet, the cord catches on a twig, stretches, and
the egg hangs there while the walls disintegrate and the spores are released. (description in
Alexopolus, pp. 527-531). Nidula, seen here, seems to have no funiculus, but the eggs are sticky
and catch on a twig to expose them.