Week 3

Date: April, 20th 2013
Weather: Cloudy and slight rain
Temperature: 42-47 Degrees 
Location: Ravenna Park
Time: 4:00-5:30pm

Before beginning this journaling project I thought it was going to be a burden to be quite frank. With everything else in my life that is going on I did not think I would have time to even spend an hour or two in the woods, let alone trying to closely identify species. This week is the first week that I can really say that I enjoyed my time at Ravenna Park. I love the outdoors, and if I could have it my way I would be outside the majority of the time (kinda tough in Seattle though) but I did not enjoy Ravenna the first few times simply because I knew that I had to pay close attention to everything that was being shown to us because I would have to journal and take quizzes on what I had learned. I would much rather spend my time relaxing in nature. This week was different thought because I am finally starting to listen better, see better, and feel closer to what was around me. Instead of getting frustrated with not knowing how to identify a species, I would just relax and move on to something that did look familiar. 

I found a lot this week, well, at least it was a lot to me. 

Wow, I just realized how terrible the quality of my smartphone is. Please try to ignore the blurriness. I'll do my best to be descriptive. What we have here is a Willow. At first I thought it was a Pacific Willow (Salix Lucida) (mainly because that is the only type of Willow I actually knew and it had yellow bark which was an indicator) but by the thin/fine toothed light green colored leaves, it made me believe it was a hybrid of some sort, so nearly impossible for me to identify. Nonetheless, this is a Willow. I found it in the low-lands of the park. Bark=light brown it may be a Salix boothi.

Yet another shockingly blurry picture. This is a Cottonwood (Populus trichocarpa) The way I identified this species was actually by its trunk/stem. It almost had a grey-ish brown trunk with roots that were wild. The bark was also deeply furrowed so I could tell right away that it was a Cottonwood, plus it was in bloom (as they bloom usually in mid-April to May). The leaves on a Cottonwood are very ovate/had a shine to them. 

While I was walking a bit off the beaten trail, I kept seeing this species. For a second it almost reminded me of some type of Holly but the leaves were not exactly the same. After looking at it closely and noticing the leaves were more pinnate but still had the same jaggedness similar to Holly. I knew this had to be the Oregon Grape (Mahonia aquifolium) and sure enough, it was. I did not see any berries or flowers blooming on it though unfortunately. 

I absolutely love this shrub Species. I have a lot of it growing near my home so it didn't take me long to identify it. This is a Twinberry (Lonicera involucrata). It is also known as the "inkberry" or the "bearberry". It is classified under the Honeysuckle Family. It is an erect shrub which means it grows outwardly. The leaves run opposite and elliptical. The bark is a lighter brown with bark that shreds. The flowers as you can see, are yellow and almost tubular. I ran into this species while I was walking along the little stream. 

Here we have a classic Western Redcedar (Thuja plicata). I actually came across this tree a few times on my earlier site visits but I did not write anything down or take any notes on it besides, "looks like a christmas tree" because of its shape. I figured that wouldn't do in my description so I made the effort to get up close this time and examine its characteristics. I believe this type of branch could technically be called a "spray" but they are very coarse and grow in opposite pairs. I have also been really into looking at the trunk of the tree to identify it. If you look at the Western Redcedars trunk it flares out. The bark is Brownish/grey with some red in it. It is also a conifer. Its cones seemed to be on the smaller side (at least the ones I saw) and the Redceadar is also elliptical. Also, the tree in front with the bright green leaves looks like an Alder to me, but I can't exactly tell due to the horrible quality. 

Here is a tiny picture of a Lady Fern (Athyrium filix-femina). This fern has fine tooth toothed leaflets and the fronds arch outward/ tripinnate. It is scaly, not exactly soft, and the fronds go from small-large-small again so it would be considered tapered. I know that the Lady Fern is also a perennial and deciduous. My dad actually told me one time (my dad is a really into the outdoors like I am) that if you eat this fern it could actually cause blindness. It would have to be eaten in large amounts though I am sure.