GEOG 442

Biogeography

Sepulveda Dam Basin Species Student Experts

I would like each of you to become the experts on five species we may encounter at the Sepulveda Dam Basin on Sunday. This entails learning about your species by clicking on their links in the species list at https://home.csulb.edu/~rodrigue/geog442/Sepulveda/SepulvedaDamSpecies.html, figuring out the differences between them, and bringing along a few photos of them so you can spot them in the field. Having a go-to person along will speed up transecting and quadratting quite a bit.

The species list takes you to the Calflora taxon report for each species, where you can find a map of the species, and dozens of vouched photographs (Wikipedia often has a few nice photos, too). Go through these images and pick three photos for each of your five species: (1) an image showing the whole plant in the landscape so you can recognize its growth and life form; (2) a close-up image showing its leaf shapes and stem arrangements in detail, and an image showing its flowers, inflorescences, and/or fruits. You can put them into a Writer or Word document, labelling each, and including notes on how you would tell it from the others, and then print that and bring it to the field as your personal cheat sheet.

With these resources, figure out answers to the following:

• What life form is your species? Tree, shrub or subshrub, vine, herb?

• What is its size range?

• Are its leaves simple or compound?

• What are the leaf margins like? Entire (smooth edged), lobed, toothed, spiny)?

• What color are they? (dark or olve green, light green, greyish)

• How are they arranged? Are they in a basal rosette or are they cauline (along stems and branches)? If the latter, are they alternate, opposite, or whorled?

• Might we see them flowering in early March?

• What are the flowers or inflrescences like? (color, number of petals, number of anthers and pistils)?

Without further ado, here's who gets which group of plants:

• Mr. Armendariz: Taraxacum officinale, Hedypnois cretica, Sonchus oleraceus, Erigeron canadensis, Xanthium strumarium

• Ms. Bakos: Erodium botrys, Erodium cicutarium, Capsella bursa-pastoris, Urtica urens, Urtica dioica

• Mr. Galsim: Arundo donax, Foeniculum vulgare, Cortaderia selloana, Cortaderia jubata, Ricinus communis

• Ms. Honey: Brassica nigra, Hirschfeldia incana, Raphanus sativus, Sisymbrium irio, Sisymbrium orientale

• Mr. Ibarra: Fraxinus uhdei, Fraxinus velutina, Populus fremontii, Populus trichocarpa, Washingtonia robusta

• Mr. Maka: Amsinckia menziesii, Amsinckia intermedia, Conium maculatum, Lepidium latifolium, Rumex crispus

• Ms. Meyer: Baccharis pilularis, Baccharis salicifolia, Salix exigua, Salix lasiolepis, Salix laevigata

• Ms. Mouren-Laurens: Centaurea melitensis, Centaurea solstitialis, Lactuca seriola, Cirsium vulgare, Silibum marianum

• Mr. Sandoval: Lamia amplexicaule, Melilotus alba, Marrubium vulgare, Malva parviflora, Galium aparine

• Mr. Stangle: Ribes aureum, Rubus ursinus, Rosa californica, Vitus californica, Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea

• Mr. Wellsfry: Avena fatua, Bromus diandrus, Bromus madritensis, Hordeum murinum, Poa annua

Document maintained by Dr. Rodrigue
First placed on web: 02/19/17
Last revision: 03/04/17