Chrysothrix chlorina

The reader may have guessed by now that I launched into this project without a firm plan.  That's okay because I have a goal of learning about the park, and writing about the park has led me to new ideas.  Today's brainstorm is that I should be collecting 365 species over the course of a year.  Birders collect sightings of birds and make their lists.  Similarly, I will collect sightings of all the species I can identify within the park.  This would include birds, mammals, reptiles, insects, vascular plants, lichens, fungi, and possibly soil microbes if I can get the right equipment.  More than 365 species live in the park, if you include insects and microbes.  The challenge will be in seeing them and correctly identifying them.  Besides being a game and a challenge, it will also help me learn what Eagle Landing Park is about.  What species live here and what species are absent can tell us about the health of the forest.  Knowing what is lacking may help guide the restoration process.  I will try to describe a species a day, including many that are new discoveries to me.  As it turns out, I have discussed five native species in the first five days of the year, just like I knew what I was doing.  They were Lobaria pulmonaria, Acer Macrophyllum, Polypodium glycyrrhiza, Tremella mesenterica, and  Rickenella fibula, or lettuce lichen, big leaf maple, licorice fern, witch's butter, and a funny little mushroom without a common name.  


Today's species, which I had seen before but not identified, is Chrysothrix chlorina, I believe.  I would need a microscope to be certain.  This little yellow lichen grows on the volcanic rock on the bulkhead at the south end of the beach.  It is a crustose lichen that grows on the east and west coasts of North America.  Lichens in general can be an indicator of pollution, and the absence of certain lichens can indicate the presence of pollution.  For example, alder trees in the Olympics and Cascades, away from civilization, are often so covered with lichens that you can't see any of the bark.  The alders in Eagle Landing Park have bark mostly free of lichens, suggesting pollution.  We already know we get heavy pollution from cars, planes, and boats.  Hopefully, in twenty years from now, the lichens will return to ELP when we have figured out how to wean ourselves from fossil fuels.  Our walk today extended to Seahurst Park, and I noticed that the alders deep in the middle of the park were 75% covered in lichens, perhaps indicating that the forest had filtered out most of the pollutants by the time the air reached the middle of the park.  Chrysothrix chlorina may not be terribly important to the health of the park, but the park may be critical to the health of many unnoticed species like this.

On today's walk, I also sighted the boundaries of zone 5 and took pictures of the plants in that zone.  It is about a third of an acre, and it has ivy in less than 5% of it, compared to the entire park having 65% coverage in ivy according to the EarthCorps report.  Zone 5 does have holly and laurel, though, which can be tough to eradicate.  I will use a weed wrench when I can, or possibly try to dig the roots out.  I have learned, after ten years of removing invasive species, to distinguish holly from any native plant, but it can be a little tricky for the beginner.  Pictured below are a holly leaf and a leaflet (a portion of the whole leaf) of tall Oregon grape, Mahonia aquafolium.  Can you tell which is which? They are pictured with Stone #6, by the way.

 

Oregon grape is on the left and holly is on the right.  There are several good guide books to help you identify native plants, but I usually use Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast: Washington, Oregon, British Columbia, and Alaska  by Jim Pojar and Andy MacKinnon.

 

Kelsy and Komu and I walked five miles today, adding up to 18 for the year.  We also collected our strand of ivy.  I didn’t see any trash to pick up, for once. I started this spreadsheet which will eventually contain all 365 species identified this year.  We also saw a bufflehead.