Life on the Outer Coast

Tuesday, June 26th

Teaching this class has been great for getting me outside this summer. Spending so much time outside has helped with rediscovering the flora and provided opportunities to see some unusual sights. Yesterday on the way back down Starrigavan ATV road with the class, we saw something that I don't remember seeing in the past, a mouse ran across the road. One of the girls, Stella, tried to catch it between her feet, but it squeezed through the gap she inadvertantly left at her heels. I have seen plenty of mice in cabins, but not running across roads or through the forest.

Today's adventure involved harvesting Devil's Club to make spring tonic. Robbie Littlefield graciously agreed to share her knowledge and time so that we could undertake this project. The first step was to cut 5 rather long stems from the forest below the quarry road. Next the class, wearing fishing gloves, used butter knives to scrape the thorns and outer bark from the stems. Once the green layer was exposed, we took the stems back to the classroom and peeled the green layer off. We had potato peelers for this task, but the layer peeled off without using them. We filled a gallon jar about 1/3 of the way with the peeling, filled the rest with cold water and refrigerated. The surplus we are drying on cardboard in the classroom. Once dry, I'll let the students decide to whom they want to give a samples. We are hoping to try it tomorrow, but it may take longer for the extraction.

I collected a small Sagina and an Epilobium from the road. Neither was totally satisfying to key out. At least there is a current key available for the Sagina. That one is probably S. saginoides, although this isn't a totally satisfying fit. It lacks petals, has four sepals with hyaline margins, apiculate leaves and is rather small. It didn't fit into S. nivalis because of the hyaline margins or in S. apetala because it lacked ciliate leaf margins.
The small Epilobium keyed to E. alpinum in Anderson. The variety gave me a little trouble, since the plant didn't really fit easily into any one place. The mature seeds will give me the information I need. If they are smooth, it is lactiflorum if rough, nutans.

A number of the Pinus contorta contorta had sporulating galls along the road. The galls are caused by a rust fungus, Endocronartium harknessii (a rust without an alternate host). Robbie told me that she collects the stems and galls for drum sticks. She peels the bark and presumably the sporulating fungal layer and has a nice round wooden mallet.