April 23-26This year for the annual or perhaps semi-annual nerd vacation, I was able to attend Dave Wagner's Bryophyte II workshop at University of Oregon.
The class met at the University, but was not associated with it, except that they supply the space at some unknown cost. There were 10 students attending, most of whom were federal employees, there was also a graduate student from Northern Arizona, a private consultant, a retired lawyer and myself. 4 of the BLM employees had taken the class at least once, but three of the students were taking this class because the level I class had been cancelled.
Dr. Wagner has focused his attention on knowing the flora of Oregon with a lesser emphasis on the surrounding Pacific Northwest. The most helpful shove for me was the emphasis on use of microscopic characters to initially identify the species, then developing a set of field characters from that base. This is definately a goal of mine, not sure how long it will take to be as confident as he is. I might have to focus a bit more to achieve it in the nearer future. The class was also quite useful for checking my interpretation of characterisitcs and getting some species verified.
The first day we focused on hornworts and liverworts which was very helpful. I hadn't looked at hornworts since Dr. Lawton's class and not much then, so it was useful to get a good look at both Anthoceros and Phaeoceros. I'm fairly convinced that I haven't seen either genus here, but now I'll have a better search image to work with. The two genera are pretty easily seperated; Anthoceros has lamellae on the thallus and Phaeoceros does not. The latter genus also has interesting dumbell shaped chloroplasts. We found both genera on our field trip growing on banks of exposed mineral soil (clay texture). I'll have to find the right habitat before I get too worried about finding hornworts around here.
We did a nice survey of the less familiar (to me) genera of thalloid liverworts, Asterella, Sphaerocarpos, Targionia, Riella, etc. Learned that epidermal peels was the best way to see the pore structures and how to easily find the scales & associated appendages on the underside.
Moved on the the leafy liverworts, focused a bit on the importance of oil bodies. Guess I'll have to look at things when fresh to get accurate counts of them in the future. In most liverworts, the oil bodies break down rather fast.
I have some useful drawings of the interpretation of decurrent leaves of Scapania, but no way as yet to transfer those to the computer. The attachment was easier to see by peeling back the leaves on one side of the stem.
We also spent some time on Porella species. P. roelli tastes very peppery (we tried it on the field trip), whereas P. cordeana and navicularis don't. P. navicularis can also be recognized by the wide lobules that diverge from the stem and the revolute margins. P. cordeana has round tips and is somewhat bluish. Bulging trigones is not a good character in this genus.
The second day was spent up Goodman Creek and near West Fir. We parked at the covered bridge picnic area and walked up the trail a ways. What struck me was that the forest floor was dominated by Rhytidiadelphus triquetrus, we saw very little Hylocomium splendens, no R. loreus or Mniaceae. We did see Leucolepis along a forested road, and a few Rhizomnium glabrescens on a log. The big thrill for me was finding Buxbaumia piperi. I said something aobut never seeing before and Tim, Kurt and Jennie started searching. In about 5 minutes Jennie found one right beside the trail. It was growing in a small crevice on a rotten stump without any other mosses. I wonder if it grows up here, given how densely most wood is covered with other mosses, it may not have a chance.
Learned a field character to try on H. dieckii and H. subimponens. The latter is yellow green and away from streams and the former is slightly reddish brown and streamside. Not feeling too certain about this working here, but will have to try.
The other field character that I want to try is for Radula bolanderi vs. R. complanata. The former has leaves that are somewhat seperate and with imagination looks like drops of rain. R. complanata has overlapping leaves.
One of the two Frullania species that I learned to field identify, doesn't seem to grow here, alas. F. bolanderi can be recognized by the small branches that arise from the plants. They are easiest to see from the side. This species also prefers hardwoods.
Plagiochila satoi= P. porelloides according to Dave.
We found a large patch of Climacium dendroides growing beside a lake among the grasses. The plants were so closely packed together that the dendroid habit was not apparent. I'm a little worried that I've ignored it or just looked in the wrong places. Sounds like lakes is one place I should be looking around here. It is reported to be rare except in the northern part of the region, one site is in Sitka Sound. Something to look into or search for.
It was nice to see some old friends blooming: Asarum caudatum, Dicentra formosa, Calypso bulbosa, Viola sempervirens, Petatisties frigidus, Ribes sanguineum, Valeriana sitchensis and Trillium ovatum. I don't remember Valerian growing in the forest, I must have replaced that memory with my local map. The Calypso was larger (about 3 inches or so) than I've seen around here. Saw elk along the Willamette river on the drive back.
Spent the next day focusing on the former genus Racomitrium and its segregates. I think I might have a better handle on the genera or at least the species of the genera.
Section in upper part of leaf!
* = locally found
Bucklandiella
*B. heterosticha: 2 rows of cells in costa, some bulging cells, usually without pseudopapilla
S-twist seta, leaves pointing upwards
*B. sudetica: 1 row of bistratose cells on margins, dentate hair point
*B. brevipes: dentate hair point, strong pseudo-papillae (bumps over cross wall not lumen)
B. affine: 3+ stratose costa, hair point flat, not as long decurrent as lawtoniae
B. lawtoniae: z-twist seta, decurrent hair points
Codriophorus leaf sections have cells that look like the bumpy surface of a molar, Ron called them saddle-backed, but I'll stick with molars.
C. ryszardii: boulders, leaves irregularly bluntly erose-dentate at tips. The Indian river valley samples had pointier leaf tips than typical.
Niphotrichum: identified the sample from the beach at Pt. Brown as canescens ssp canescens. The papillose cells and weakly serrate hair points were useful characters
Racomitrium lanuginosum: papillose and branched dentate hair points are diagnostic. Had a sample from the muskeg at Kruzof.
Wagner confirmed my identification of the pesky Pohlia from the rock banks of Indian River. The red stems and metallic luster help identify it as P. cruda.
Managed to work through a variety of Alaska collections, but unfortunately didn't get anywhere with the mosses from the cliff/rocks on Kruzof. Mostly eliminated taxa.
To sum up, the class was excellent. It was very nice to spend time learning from someone who has spent years focusing both on the bryoflora and the natural history of western Oregon.
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