היומן של xpacifica

Went on a fascinating CNPS Marin chapter walk today at Abbott's Lagoon, Pt. Reyes. Have uploaded many observations. Did my best to fill in the correct botanical names. It was an honor and great pleasure to meet multiple expert botanists!

I've set up a GoFundMe page to help finance a phone upgrade. I would like to continue to make observations of increased quality.

My current phone is a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and is quite old. In addition to cracked glass on the faceplate the camera lens is partially damaged.

I would like to upgrade to the latest model Galaxy Note 10 which features a much higher quality camera and more storage space to store image files. I am very grateful for any support to help with the upgrade!

GoFundMe page for phone upgrade: https://www.gofundme.com/f/epxtj-phone-upgrade&rcid=r01-156792333863-9b65f0bcb7e94381&pc=ot_co_campmgmt_w

Walked a similar route on Mt. Tamalpais today as the last hike only I ascended up the Easy Grade trail to Mountain Theater instead of going up the Bootjack Trail. Right away I noticed a manzanita in a highly unusual location and made an observation. Maybe it's a common species that just happened to get established in that unusual location, but I also noticed that this plant resembles Franciscan manzanita a little bit - it grows close to the ground and the leaves are similar in shape. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32814892

I realized today that in previous observations I erroneously referred to the Rock Spring trail as the Old Railroad trail. Sometimes the signs are confusing - they may state a destination along the trail instead of what appears to be the trail name.

At Mountain Theater I saw a small shrub-like plant that I'm very curious about: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32815333

I also saw the usual redish Tiburon Buckwheats along the "seats" of the theater. They like to grow in the cracks under the stones.

I also observed what appear to be some grasses or sedges today which I haven't done previously. However it was difficult to get decent, in-focus pictures with my old phone. https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32815178 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32815584 https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32815947

One of my final plant observations is an unusual plant which reminds me of hemlock that I've only seen growing in one small location along the Matt Davis trail https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/32815966

Due to a low pressure system that was starting to move into the area this afternoon it was rather windy on much of the mountain although when I got down to the Matt Davis trail it was actually quite nice. There was one point where on a turn approaching a ravine and I could see the fog rolling over the ridge in the distance - but it was not cold - it actually felt quite refreshing and enlivening.

Started my hike a bit later than I had wanted and hence had to force myself to get out of observation mode and focus on hiking expeditiously as it was getting dark.

I'm sorry some of the pics which I thought had turned out ended up being disappointingly out of focus. I really would like to upgrade to a better phone.

Even though I live in California, I prefer to keep all my clocks set to Arizona/Phoenix timezone also know as Mountain Standard Time.

Arizona Time is identical to Pacific Daylight Time during the summer and autumn and it never changes, unlike other time zones. This means that it is never necessary to reset clocks twice per year which, in my opinion, is insane.

One benefit of using Arizona Time year round is that, during Winter when the clocks "fall back" one hour, I never lose that crucial hour of daylight in the evening. This means that I can still enjoy walks in the evening while it is light out, whereas most people are still at work or just coming home from work at that time.

Another benefit is that I do not experience the gloom associated with losing that crucial hour of evening light in the Winter. This makes the Winter seem a lot more pleasant. I also strongly feel that it's a grave mistake to mess with the clock and our body's daily synchronization.

One final benefit which I really enjoy is that during the time of year in Winter when my clock is off by an hour it gives me an extra hour to prepare for things. If for example I have an appointment scheduled for 9 a.m. on everyone else's time, that actually means it is at 10 a.m. my time.

Once you get used to the difference it is easy to keep track of it. One thing I do for appointments during that time of year is put a little notation in my calendar events noting the time in "their time" which I abbreviate TT. So that 9 a.m. appointment would get put into my calendar as 10 a.m. but I would also put in a note "9 a.m. TT".

More info on Arizona Time: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_in_Arizona

Made a lot of observations today on another bicycle ride in the Marin Headlands yet unfortunately many of the pictures are frustratingly out-of-focus. The camera in my phone seems like it doesn't ever want to focus on the foreground object closest to the lens for some reason. It's very frustrating to put in so much work and end up with so many bad pictures!

I'm finding it difficult to key the Asteraceae. I'm using Marin Flora but am finding it difficult. Heads with rays/radiant occur in multiple tribes. For the Senecioneae you have to know details about the pappus - something I don't think I can easily observe via a picture or in the field visually without a magnifying glass. When you go into the Astereae tribe and the ray is not yellow if you don't know if there's a pappus you can't rule out Bellis spp. For others you need to know if there are pappus bristles.

Anyhow there are just way too many genera under Astereae and all it takes is one nebulous detail to miss the whole key.

Earlier I tried keying an interesting Cynareae that was growing on Point Bonita but again it was too difficult to even key the genus for me :-/

Switched the focus setting on the camera phone to 'center-weighted' and it seems to really be making a difference. I'm so glad that I can get halfway-decent photos!

I made three observations while bicycling today - two Asteraceae and the other turned out to be Pennyroyal thanks to IDing by two people. The Pennyroyal was growing along Conzelman Road near the northwest base of the Golden Gate Bridge. I thought it was unusual - in all the bicycling I've done recently I hadn't seen anything similar.

Now that I know it's an introduced species I wish I had picked some to make tea!