Starting with the flowering tree, the flowers are out and seem to be freshly out. I had been to the same spot a few days before and no flowers were on the trees, so I am guessing this flowering happened recently, with some help from the rain. The plant with bring green leaves and no flowers looks recently new too, maybe just a few days old, as I had been to the same spot a few days before this photo was taken, and there was very little green. In terms of the bare plants, I am unable to identify any of these plants, and therefore don't know if these should be flowering or leafing by now and are actually just dead, or if this is normal and they will be flowering/leafing later
The first kind of habitat that I observed, although in two separate locations, was a saltwater habitat. One, in Redwood Shores, is a very odd habitat, seeming "unatural"in many ways. This salt water way is in between many large corporate buildings as well as houses. It appears to be a man made waterway, mostly existing for appearances. Regardless of being man made or not, this salt water brings many different species to it, and while I was out there watching my teammates race (the Cal women's crew team), I was able to snap a few pictures of some birds. One is very difficult to see since the zoom on my iphone is not great, but hopefully I can get some good IDs on these so they are research grade. In addition, floating almost right next to my foot, was a relatively large jellyfish. These animals can not exist without salt water. Jellyfish seem to always live in salt water, usually warm water from what I understand. So although Northern California is not known for its warm swimming water, this man made waterway closer to the bay than the ocean must have been warm enough for it. In addition, these animals all need to eat. The birds can easily get dinner from within the salt water, and I assume the jellyfish can too (though I don't know what jellyfish eat). The second group of birds, which I found in Crissy Field during the Nat Geographic bioblitz, live near salt water as well. Similar to the other birds, they have salt water food sources and must be near salt water. They also all have the capability to walk and waddle, and some are able to swim. This must be an adaptation due to living near water. It is unlikely that birds living in the desert would be great swimmers.
The secon habitat I observed was Tilden Regional Park, about a day after some serious rain had come. Everything ws very green, much greener than I had been accustomed to this season during the drought. I imagine that the plants, lichen, and bug can't exist in a dry area, such as the desert, and would not be green without water, as they weren't very green until it rained. This part of Tilden has access to both water and sunlight, and as a result these plants have adapted: brown and dry without the rain, but very green after rain.
I took these observations walking along the Inspiration Point trail in Tilden Park. My favorite of these was the broadleaf forget-me-not, the leaves are a bright green, and seem to be relatively inconsistent in terms of placement on the stem, though some stems seem to stack the leaves in groups of four, all sitting at about a 90 degree angle from eachother. Toward the tops of the stems are beautiful light blue/light indigo flowers, each having five petals each with a very pretty yellow center. These flowers are very pretty to look at, and make the otherwise boring plant (sorry) a very pretty pretty plant when flowered. The buds that have not yet opened are a bit more of a light purple color.
The myosotis latifolia, or broadleaf forget-me-not belongs to the Boraginaceae family. It lives in riparian areas, coastal forsts and woodlands, moist fields and meadows, along roads and old gardens. It ranges primarily in coastal ranges; from Washington to California. It is native to Northwestern Africa. It is an introduced species in the US, and its invasiveness rank is a 54, where 0 poses no threat to ecosystems and 100 poses a huge threat to native ecosystems. It is a perennial herb that grows from 15 to 60 cm tall. The roots are fibrous. Stems are mostly unbranched, often angled, decumbent to erect, and hairy. Leaves are alternate, entire, 2.5 to 8 cm long, and 7 to 20 mm wide with scattered, short, flat-lying hairs. European forget-me-not has been cultivated as an ornamental plant and was most likely brought to North America as an intentional planting. It escapes from gardens into natural communities. The forget-me-not is native to temperate Eurasia, but this species now grows in 41 states of the U.S. and much of Canada. European forget-me-not is known from many locations north of the Arctic Circle in Norway and arctic Russia. European forget-me-not competes with native plants in wet areas and can form large monocultures, so it has the potential to significantly reduce populations of native plant species, and it may change the density of vegetation in naturally or human disturbed, wet areas. This species contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids that are toxic to mammals and can cause weight loss, poor body condition, and liver disease. Plants provide additional habitats for aquatic, winged insects. The nectar and pollen attract pollinating insects.
