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Edge of Nature: a scientist finds his flower

April 6th, 2010, 7:47 am by

Breaking news from the world of wildflowers: Bob Allen has, once again, found his daisy.

And it really is his – at least when it comes to scientific names.

Allen, an Orange County botanist and professor, spends wildflower season prowling the back country, photographing rarities.

In 2003, he came across what looked like an odd specimen in Limestone Canyon. He’d seen it once before, in 1983 in Dana Point; while it struck him at the time as “different,” he took no further action.

Another biologist had much the same reaction in 1908, when he found the flower at the El Toro train station, long-vanished. He collected a specimen but went no further.

In 2003, however, Allen FedExed a few specimens to an expert, David Keil at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

In 2006, Keil published a paper declaring the flower a new subspecies, with an added bonus for Allen: his name is now attached to his flower for all time.

It’s known as Allen’s daisy, and last week, Allen found it in Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.The weekend before, it turned up at Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary.

Allen’s daisy has so far been found only in Orange County. It’s rare, Allen says, and looks a lot like another flower, tidy tips, which has much broader leaves.

But Allen knows his flower when he sees it.

Scientific name: Pentachaeta aurea, ssp. allenii

Source: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College.

Next week: Coastal whiptail

Photo: Keala Cummings, Audubon Starr Ranch Sanctuary.

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Edge of Nature: Meet the snipe, creature of legend

March 30th, 2010, 10:16 am by

Youngsters on their first camping trips still fall victim to a famous practical joke: being taken on a “snipe hunt.”

According to legend, the snipe doesn’t really exist, much to the chagrin of the inexperienced camper.

But in some places, the joke might be on the joker. Snipes do exist, and the Wilson’s snipe can be seen in Orange County this time of year, though it will soon head north for the summer.

Seeing a snipe can be a difficult proposition, perhaps contributing to its legendary non-existence.

Inhabitants of marshes, wet meadows and river banks, they are strikingly patterned birds, but the patterns serve to break up their shapes. The result: the birds can hide in plain sight, blending in so well with, say, a rocky or pebbly habitat that they’re virtually invisible until flushed by an approaching intruder.

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Posted in: Animal archive • Edge of Nature • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 1 Comment »

Edge of Nature: Paintbrush is a pleasant parasite

March 23rd, 2010, 9:52 am by

Few things are what they seem when it comes to coastal paintbrush, a wildflower now making its appearance in Orange County’s native scrublands.

Its red spears poke up amid native shrubs such as buckwheat, black sage and white sage, and it is the most common of several paintbrush species.

Those red spears, however, aren’t really made of flowers. They’re modified leaves, called bracts. The actual flowers — long, thin and yellow — aren’t always visible, though right now paintbrush is blooming and the flowers can be seen.

And the reason it is found among shrubs? Paintbrush is a partial parasite. It can photosynthesize, but also draws nutrients from native shrubs by tapping into their root systems.

Because the paintbrush and the shrubs have evolved together, however, it is not known to cause any real damage to the plants.

The strategy is so successful, in fact, that paintbrushes are found from South America to Canada.

Even the plant’s name has a hidden history. It and other species are still sometimes referred to as “Indian paintbrush,” a name some experts consider demeaning to Native Americans. Best, they say, to stick with “paintbrush.”

Scientific name: Castilleja affinis

Sources: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College; “Flowering Plants: The Santa Monica Mountains, Coasal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California,” by Nancy Dale.

Next week: Common snipe

Photo by: H. Lorren Au, Jr., the Orange County Register

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Posted in: Animal archive • Edge of Nature • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 1 Comment »

Edge of Nature: Spring stirs termite swarms

March 16th, 2010, 8:15 am by

Rains have soaked the ground, springtime is just around the corner, and the West’s most destructive species of termite is kicking into high gear.

This is the time when the western subterranean termite begins to swarm. The normally hidden insects, which launch attacks on wallpaper, drywall, furniture or books from their underground nests, become more visible. The winged, reproductive members of the colony seethe from their hiding places to search for new places to nest; the presence of a swarm in your home most likely means a colony below.

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Posted in: Animal archive • Edge of Nature • Wildlife and the natural world • • | 7 Comments »

Edge of Nature: Catfish prowl O.C. streams by night

March 8th, 2010, 3:42 pm by

Catfish are favorites of fishing enthusiasts, and a variety of species have been introduced into Southern California lakes and reservoirs — among them the black bullhead catfish.

Some of them, of course, escaped into the wild, and the black bullhead is one of the most common species of these oddly whiskered fish found in Orange County’s rivers and creeks.

The “whiskers” — really organs called barbels — serve a vital purpose: they are packed with tastebuds, and they help the catfish zero in on its prey. The catfish’s entire body, in fact, is covered with tastebuds, as if it were a disembodied tongue swimming through marshes and creeks, mostly at night, to hunt for the creatures it feeds on.

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Edge of Nature: Quirky woodpecker is forest star

March 2nd, 2010, 10:03 am by

The rat-tat-tat echoing through Orange County’s oak woodlands might be the sound of a bird-watching favorite: the acorn woodpecker, an odd species bursting with charisma.

A variety of woodpecker species inhabit local woodlands; even sapsuckers make a tapping sound as they seek the food they’re named for. Acorn woodpeckers stand out from the crowd both for their appearance and their behavior.

These “clown-faced” birds are also aptly named, legendary for their reliance on acorns. Hikers might be puzzled when they stumble across a tree trunk, for instance, loaded with tiny cubbyholes jammed with acorns — the work, of course, of the acorn woodpecker.

Once a tree, telephone pole or even a fencepost is chosen, the birds will return to it for generations, pecking small holes for their larder. Other woodpeckers tend to specialize in insects, but acorn woodpeckers consume them on the side, focusing their energy on the acorn harvest.

Not that they aren’t opportunistic: larvae within the acorns are liable to be consumed, or even sap oozing from holes made by sapsuckers.

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