Park News 8/4/2024
Late Summer Bloomers
This California Fuchsia (Epilobium canum) owes its presence in the park to the volunteers of the Chavez Park Conservancy, who planted it as part of the Native Pollinator Habitat in the Native Plant Area. The plant shown here grows on the edge of the burned area on the north side of the Native Plant Area.
The two buckwheat species, Coast Buckwheat and Santa Cruz Island Buckwheat, have the same parentage. We put them in the ground in 2021 and they are doing very well in the meadow on the south side of the Native Plant Area. The Madia is also a Conservancy contribution. You could see its tall stalk, easily four feet high, in the same area last week. Thanks are also due to the generous individuals who made donations to the Conservancy to cover the cost of these native plants.
The remaining plants in the gallery below have different origins. The Pink Rock Rose, aka Hoary Rock Rose, has been blooming for at least a decade on the north side behind the romantic bench that faces Marin County. Its scientific name was changed in 2017 from Cistus incanus to Cistus creticus eriocephalus. It’s a native of somewhere else, the literature doesn’t say where.
I discovered the Narrowleaf Milkweed by accident among waist-high weeds on the northwest edge of the park. I thought it was a buckwheat that I hadn’t noticed before, but the iNat plant ID app immediately pegged it as a milkweed. These plants play host to Monarch butterflies on their northward migration. I did not see any caterpillars or eggs on it at this time. This milkweed is a California native.
The Birdsfoot Trefoil grows in low mats in patches along the perimeter path on the west and east sides. It’s a native of Europe and Asia, but has been here for long enough that a number of bumblebees, bees, butterflies, and other insects feed on its nectar. It can thrive in poor soil in dry conditions.
Killing Fennel, Promoting Botanical Porn
Once again, as in some past years, Parks management has set its brushcutter machine running along the perimeter path on the north side, slashing and carting away yards of Fennel on both margins. The images below show the Before, taken on Thursday July 31, and the After, as seen on Saturday Aug. 2. What was needed was a narrow trim to remove plants blocking the runners’ path on both sides. What was not needed was the destruction of a wide swath of Fennel forest. The Fennel in this location is a home to several species of nesting birds in season, and it supplies a cornucopia of nutritious seeds lasting well into the winter. Removing the Fennel only promotes the growth of Slenderflower Thistle and Bristly Oxtongue, botanical porn without redeeming environmental merits. This column has been advocating restraint and precision in weed management in this area for years, ever since I discovered a Red-winged Blackbird nest with new hatchlings exposed to human view by the machine that slashed vegetation within an inch of the nest. See “Great Year for Thistles, Bad for Blackbirds,” Apr 27 2017. How many nests are destroyed every time this slashing campaign is launched? There is no human need for widening the margin of the path here, and there is clear and obvious environmental harm when it is done.
The photo of milkweed flowers and “fruits” is actually of flowers and flower buds. No fruits in the photo.