A Shrouded Bulb

Gopher skull, seedlings of filaree, popcorn flower and grasses.

Anyone else out there feeling a little bipolar what with the full moon and the first treacherous kiss of spring rains? I see tiny seedlings coming up two months late and I say, "You're gonna die. There's no more rain coming. Sorry."

There's hopeful life and impassive death all around. Life and death, it's all part of a cycle, right, nothing unusual. Just look for the loop I tell myself and it will all make sense. But when I reach out to detect its invisibleness, I get nothing not even the delayed snap of a spider strand.

I am a soap plant. I present my simple leaves to the moon and she approves of their sinuosity. If I bloom at all this year, it will be low to the ground and just long enough to feed the moths. To save the energy, I'll abort those seeds and the gusts at summer dusk will blow them into cracks in the soil all around me. I will survive this drought by slowing breaking down one cellulose wall after another in my shrouded bulb. See you another year cute little seedlings.

One Part Rain, One Part Sun

Southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata) sunning next to filaree seedlings.

Last week we got the first rain of the season on the central California coast, almost one inch of precipitation over three days.  I was in the Sierras, so I saw it as snow.  Upon my return to the Dipper Ranch, Sunday morning was bright and cool, so I took a walk to see how the rains changed the coastal hills.

As with last year, filaree seedlings were the first to pop up after 3 dry months.  The tunnels and dens of the underground must have been cold and wet because I saw quite a few reptiles basking in the open.

Denning

Wet, cold and dark induce dreamy illusions as a storm envelopes Long Ridge.

Denning - a personal definition - reluctance to leave the lair; the time of year when wet, dark and cold conditions cause a shift towards low metabolic activities:  reading, writing, searching for thermal underwear and down comforter, mending, walnut-cracking while watching movies, sleeping, thinking about but not actually waterproofing boots, dreaming of a functional woodstove, baking, and more reading this time with a cat sitting in lap.


The season of glorious clouds has been superseded by the wet season with increasing periods of cold and darkness.  Morningside, I argue with myself in the hot shower, "See you are waterproof.  Get going!"  Instead, I find lion faces in the fake marble patterns of the cheap shower walls and the daylight just gets shorter.

November 2009 Seedlings

Here are the answers to the seedling photos posted during the week.

--- California poppy seedling ---

--- Finely-divided mature leaves and flower bud on California poppy ---

The first seedling with the "forked-tongue" cotyledons is a native California poppy. Notice the overall glaucous cast (flat, whitish film on surface like on a cabbage leaf) to the leaves and stems, the multiple fine divisions and pink tips of the true leaves and how these same traits are just starting to uncurl and show in the seedling.

--- California poppy seed pod ---

California poppies have minuscule seeds (1.5-1.8 mm) that are flung out of a long pod as it dries and splits. These seeds probably settle under bits of litter and into soil cracks where they are soaked by the first rains. California poppies are perennials that also come back from a taproot. If you see the forked cotyledons, however, you know that plant germinated from seed.

--- brand new thistle seedling, probably Italian thistle ---

--- Italian thistle seedling on left, milk thistle on right ---

The second seedling with the prickly true leaves is a weedy thistle not native to California, probably Italian thistle because of the fine white prickles on the upper surface of the blade. Look at the side-by-side slightly older thistle seedlings above. The seedling on the left has fine long white hairs on the upper surface (Italian thistle) and the seedling on the right has no such hairs but large white splashes cross from the center vein to the edge of the blade and often alongside the leaf veins (milk thistle).

--- In a few months, the Italian thistle seedling will be tall with flowers and seeds ---

The third seedling with the corkscrew seed pods is a filaree, probably red-stem filaree which is found in grasslands, pastures and yards and is not native to California. The corkscrew attachment to the seed expands and contracts with moisture and effectively screws the seed into the ground. The previous photo showed the spent attachment with the seed already detached.

--- filaree seedling ---

More seedling photos coming up. And one other note: I saw a few coast range newts crossing Alpine Road this evening, so look sharp when you are driving the next few weeks on or after rainy or foggy weather.

--- "I better get moving to the ponds before all these seedlings grow up and get in my way. Monocot, dicot, out of my way. ---

See also:

California poppy, Eschscholzia californica
Italian thistle, Carduus pycnocephalus
red-stem filaree, Erodium cicutarium

Perky Seedling

18 mm wide

photo taken Nov 13th

This is a perky seedling showing two cotyledon leaves with a few wide red lobes, and the first true leaves with pinnate (feather-like) leaflets. When seedlings get several sets of leaves, it's easier to identify them because the first true leaves are often miniature versions of the leaves on the mature plant that we most readily recognize.

photo taken Oct 18

Here is another version of that same plant in seedling stage. This photo was taken 5 days after the first big seasonal rain and the ground was covered with hundreds of these little jobbies. At first, I wasn't sure what these plants were because I didn't recognize the cotyledon shape. In a few days, the next set of leaves appeared and as they unfurled, they revealed a distinct and familiar pattern to the true leaves. Now I can match the two different kinds of early leaves and determine the identity of the smallest seedlings with only cotyledon leaves.

I am not sure why the new cotyledons are green and the older ones are red. It could be the older ones are experiencing a modest amount of drought stress. With hardly any rain in the last few weeks, the plant may be diverting what water it can suck out of the soil with its young root system to the newest set of leaves, and the older seed leaves are dying off. On the other hand, within its first few weeks, maybe the plant has sucked most of the stored nutrients out of the seed leaves and is getting ready to drop them with the onset of a few sets of true leaves.

Each corkscrew approximately 14 mm long

There are other clues. Sometimes if you carefully look and probe, you can find a seed still attached to the young seedling. If the seed is something you recognize, then you might be able to identify the seedling, or at least a group of plants to which the seedling belongs. In this case, I found several different types of seeds on the surrounding soil, but it was the many corkscrew type structures on top and twisted into the soil that helped me figure out what this seedling is.

Now it is your turn to guess. I will post the answer in a few days.

Second Rainy Seedling 2009

16 mm wide, photo taken 11/14/09

What's this seedling? It has large, thick cotyledons (seed leaves) with a slightly rough surface. First true leaves have pointed tips, spiny edges and white prickles on the surface of the blade.

A definition of cotyledon from the Facts on File Dictionary of Botany: "The first leaf or leaves of the embryo in seed plants." For our purposes in identifying seedlings, we are looking at the cotyledons that emerge from the seed and are the first leaf-like structures that you see.

The cotyledons of mystery seedling #2 are thick which means they are filled with stored food to spur the growth of the seed-bound embryo upon release from dormancy (usually means the seed has been soaked with moisture). They are also green which means photosynthesis starts immediately upon germination to provide growing energy. This is a plant that is likely to grow quickly either underground or above ground or both.

There are two cotyledons which means this is a plant in the subclass of Dicotyledonae, a large category that contains most of the flowering plants we most readily recognize as opposed to the Monocotyledonae subclass which includes the grasses and grasslike plants that only have one cotyledon. Other features that people most often recognize: Dicotyledons have broad leaves with branching veins (think lettuce or maple leaves), whereas Monocotyledons have narrow leaves with parallel veins (think grass or lily). Don't worry too much about these big names, just remember that two cotyledons means it is not a grass, and you are closer to guessing what this seedling is.

Sometimes people casually use the term "dicot" to mean seedling. They might say, "In the winter, we use the propane torch to kill the dicots." I recommend you do not use the word dicot in this casual fashion because it could be interpreted as meaning that you are going to control all the gazillion of plant species that are in the Dicotyledonae subclass, and that is an exhausting thought. Try to use the words dicot and cotyledon for separate purposes. You might say, "The propane torch works best on plants that are still in their cotyledon stage." Or, "I noticed that seedling is a dicot, so it can't be any of the native grasses we seeded here."

On weekends, I will post the identification of any of the mystery seedlings from that week. If the deer don't eat the seedlings in the meantime, I will also post photos of their growth over one week of sunny weather.

See also: The Facts on File Dictionary of Botany, Elizabeth Tootill, General Editor, Stephen Blacmore, Consultant Editor, Market House Books Limited, 1984.

What's Up?

Can you guess what this seedling is?
Height = 20 mm, photo taken 11/14/09

Over the next few weeks, I will post photos of new seedlings as they sprout with the winter rains. I'll post "baby pictures" of both native plants and weeds since it is important to recognize both.

I'll photograph some of the plants multiple times during their growing season so we can watch them morph and get an idea of how quickly they grow.

Lots of belly time with the camera.