News from the Bernard Field Station

If you have a few minutes, check out the BFS exhibit now on display in the Honnold Library (just inside the main north entrance). The exhibit, which is guest-curated by BFS Interim Manager Jennifer Gee, Rancho Santa Ana Herbarium Workroom Manager Erika Gardner, and students Claire Pershan (Pomona ’15) and Zoe Jacob (Scripps ’15), will run at least through graduation weekend, so it’s a great stop for visiting families.

The exhibit features historic materials from the Claremont Colleges Library Special Collections, including maps that date back to 1897, materials and photos from Robert J. Bernard, and photos of the Claremont Colleges Infirmary when it was still in service.

Photos of the infirmary in use. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Also featured are historic photos of the Bernard Field Station printed from the Larry Oglesby Collection, which consists of 35-mm color slides taken by Professor Larry Oglesby, Professor of Biology at Pomona College from 1968–1999. The exhibit includes a “Then and Now” section where Professor Oglesby’s photos are compared to recent photographs:

Then:

Pomona College students Roy Barnes, Roger Koide, and Mike Fitts birdwatching at the BFS, October 4, 1978. ©Larry Oglesby.

Now:

Pomona College students birdwatching in Biology 41E – Introductory Ecology & Evolutionary Biology with Laboratory, Spring 2006. ©Nina Karnovsky.

Then:

A newly constructed vernal pool west of the pHake Lake berm photographed March 30, 1981. The pool is divided for an experiment with mosquito fish (Gambusia affinis). ©Larry Oglesby.

Now:

A newly contstructed vernal pool (“new toad pond”) south of pHake Lake photographed December 12, 2009. The pool is divided for for an experiment with Southern California Toad tadpoles (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus). ©Nancy Hamlett

Other sections of the exhibit include collecting equipment and its uses and publications resulting from student work at the BFS.

A display with photos of Dee Ashbury and Grace Wu with their theses and publications. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Lastly, the importance of voucher specimens is highlighted with images of BFS herbarium specimens from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and lichen specimens from the University of California Riverside Herbarium.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden herbarium specimens of Prickly-Pear (Opuntia littoralis) and Parry’s Larkspur (Delphinium parryi) collected at the BFS. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Please do stop by if you get a chance!

This past Saturday BFS volunteers mounted an assault on Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephelus) at what we think is the site of the original infestation – the top mound of dirt that with the ‘old toad pond’. This is what it looked like before we started:

The top of the toad pond mound covered with mustard and Italian Thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett

And here’s what it looked like after we finished:

Four tired volunteers – Tim Cox, Elliott Cox, Lee Krusa, and Cleo Stannard – contemplate the mound free of mustard and thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett

In the “before” photo, the dense stand of mustard makes its hard to tell the thistles are there, bit they are. The whole area was a mix of mustard, Italian Thistles, and dead mustard and thistle stalks. If you click on the photo below to enlarge it, you can see the purple thistle flowers among the yellow mustard.

Italian Thistles among the Mustard. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Clearing this area was a daunting task.

Tim Cox contemplates where to begin. ©Nancy Hamlett.

We used a combination of approaches. In some areas, like the side of the mound, the thistles were loosened with a shovel and pulled.

Elliott Cox pulls an Italian Thistle from the south side of the mound. ©Nancy Hamlett.

In the open areas, we used grass whips or weed cutters then got the remaining thistle stubs with a shovel or hoe.

Tim Cox wields a grass whip. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Under shrubs and in tight places we hand-pulled the thistles.

Cleo Stannard hand-pulls Italian Thistles growing underneath a Laurel Sumac (Malsoma laurina). ©Nancy Hamlett.

When we were finished, we checked the edges for any thistles that might have escaped.

Tim Cox makes sure no more thistles are lurking under the Laurel Sumac. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Then we retired to the outdoor classroom, where the volunteers were treated to a Cinco de Mayo lunch. Of course, we also took a few minutes to enjoy the beautiful day at the BFS and some of the plants and animals, including Southern California Toad (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus) tadpoles in the toad pond, a beautiful (and aromatic!) Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) in bloom by the path to the toad pond…

Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) blooming by the path the mustard and thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett

…and a Red-tailed Hawk that landed on a too-small willow branch.

A Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) balances on a branch in a Gooding’s Black Willow (Salix gooddingii). ©Nancy Hamlett.

All in all a very satisfying day!

We have just finished a major update to the BFS Plant List. Nomenclature has been updated to conform to The Jepson Manual, 2^nd ed., CalPhotos links will now bring up photos of both the old and new names, links to herbarium specimen data have been updated, and BFS photo links now point to the BFS Photo Database, which has now been populated with many more plant photos. Please visit the plant list and check out all the new links!

In addition, we have added a number of new taxa to the list. The additions come from discovering voucher specimens in herbaria, a focused effort to identify more the aquatic plants around pHake Lake, identification of more of the exotic species around the classroom and infirmary, several surveys of BFS plants, and folks who just notice things! We’d especially like to thank Justin Wood, Leroy Gross, Kristen Hasenstab, Erika Gardner, Dan Cooper, and Jane Strong for identifying new plants.

A new addition – Lepidum virginicum var. robinsonii (Robinson's Peppergrass) – a California Native Plant Society rare plant. © Nancy Hamlett.

New additions:

• Amaranthaceae
  • Amaranthus blitoides (Procumbent Pigweed)
• Asteraceae
  • Hypochaeris glabra (Smooth Cat’s-Ear)
  • Lactuca serriola (Prickly Lettuce)
  • Sonchus oleraceus (Common Sow Thistle)
• Boraginaceae
  • Cryptantha barbigera (Bearded Cryptantha)
  • Cryptantha micrantha (Redroot Cryptantha)
  • Cryptantha micromeres (Minute-flowered Cryptantha)
  • Cryptantha muricata var. denticulata (Prickly-Nut Cryptantha)
  • Cryptantha nevadensis var. rigida (Rigid Cryptantha)
• Brassicaceae
  • Brassica tournefortii (Sahara Mustard)
  • Descurainia pinnata (Western Tansy-Mustard)
  • Lepidium virginicum var. robinsonii (Robinson’s Peppergrass) – listed as “Rare” by the California Native Plan Society.
    (In The Jepson Manual, 2^nd ed., this variety has been lumped with two others into Lepidium virginicum ssp. menziesii.)
  • Sisymbrium orientale (Indian Hedgemustard, Eastern Rocket)
• Fabaceae
  • Caesalpinia gilliesii (Bird-of-Paradise Shrub)
  • Lupinus bicolor (Miniature Lupine)
• Grossulariaceae
  • Ribes amarum (Bitter Gooseberry)
• Lythraceae
  • Lythrum hyssopifolia (Hyssop Loosestrife)
• Montiaceae
  • Claytonia parviflora ssp. parviflora (Streambank Springbeauty)
• Myrtaceae
  • Eucalyptus sideroxylon (Red Iron Bark)
• Oleaceae
  • Forestiera pubescens (Desert Olive)
• Onagraceae
  • Epilobium ciliatum (Willowherb)
  • Ludwigia repens (Water Primrose)
• Polemoniaceae
  • Gilia angelensis (Chaparral Gilia)
  • Navarretia atractyloides (Hollyleaf Navarretia)
• Polygonaceae
  • Persicaria hydropiperoides (False Waterpepper)
  • Polygonum monspeliensis (Annual Beard Grass, Rabbitfoot Grass)
• Sapindaceae
  • Koelreuteria bipinnata (Chinese Flame-Tree)
• Solanaceae
  • Solanum umbelliferum (Bluewitch)
• Zygophyllaceae
  • Tribulus terrestris (Puncture Vine)
• Araceae
  • Wolffiella lingulata (Tongueshape Mud-Midget)
• Arecaceae
  • Washingtonia robusta (Mexican Fan Palm)
• Asparagaceae
  • Asparagus asparagoides (Bridal Creeper)
• Cyperaceae
  • Cyperus eragrostis (Tall Flatsedge)
  • Isolepis cernua (Low Bulrush)
• Pinaceae
  • Pinus bungeana (Lacebark Pine)

Another new addition -- Lupinus bicolor (Miniature Lupine). ©Nancy Hamlett.

Deletions:

• Asteraceae
  • Centaurea solstitialis – not present on the BFS. Plants previously identified as C. solstitialis are actually Centaurea melitensis.
• Montiaceae
  • Claytonia perfoliata (Miner’s Lettuce) – mis-identification of Claytonia parviflora ssp. parviflora

A plant with a new name – carpets of Camissoniopsis bistorta (California Sun Cup) lining the road in the 'Neck'. ©Nancy Hamlett

Name changes:

• Adoxaceae
  • Sambucus mexicana (Blue Elderberry) to Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea
• Anacardiaceae
  • Rhus trilobata (Skunkbush or Basketbush) to Rhus aromatica
• Apocynaceae
  • Sarcostemma cynanchoides ssp. hartwegii (Climbing Milkweed) to Funastrum cynanchoides var. hartwegii
• Asteraceae
  • Baccharis emoryi (Emory Baccharis) to Baccharis salicina
  • Conyza Canadensis (Horseweed) to Erigeron canadensis
  • Lessingia filaginifolia var. filaginifolia (California Aster) to Corethrogyne filaginifolia
  • Filago gallica (Narrowleaf Cottonrose) to Logfia gallica
  • Gnaphalium bicolor (Cudweed, Two-tone Everlasting) to Pseudognaphalium biolettii
  • Gnaphalium californicum (California Cudweed) to Pseudognaphalium californicum
• Boraginaceae
  • Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia (Common Fiddleneck) to Amsinckia intermedia
  • Heliotropium curassavicum (Salt Heliotrope) to Heliotropium curassavicum var. oculatum
• Cleomaceae
  • Isomeris arborea (Bladderpod) to Peritoma arborea
• Cucurbitaceae
  • Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpus (Man-Root, Wild Cucumber) to Marah macrocarpa
• Fabaceae
  • Lotus hamatus (San Diego Bird’s-foot-trefoil) to Acmispon micranthus
  • Lotus scoparius var. brevialatus (Short-winged Deerweed) to Acmispon glaber var. brevialatus
  • Lotus scoparius var. scoparius (Deerweed) to Acmispon glaber var. glaber
  • Lotus strigosus (Bishop Lotus) to Acmispon strigosus
• Gentianaceae
  • Centaurium venustum (Canchalagua) to Zeltnera venusta
• Malvaceae
  • Fremontodendron californicum ssp. californicum (Flannelbush) to Fremontodendron californicum
• Onagraceae
  • Camissonia bistorta (California Sun Cup) to Camissoniopsis bistorta
  • Camissonia californica (Mustard Evening-Primrose) to Eulobus californicus
• Polygonaceae
  • Polygonum punctatum (Dotted Smartweed) to Persicaria punctata
• Rhamnaceae
  • Rhamnus californica ssp. californica (California Coffeeberry) to Frangula californica ssp. californica
• Cyperaceae
  • Scirpus sp. (Bulrush) to Schoenoplectus sp. (Naked-stemmed Bulrush)
• Poaceae
  • Leymus condensatus (Giant Wild-Rye) to Elymus condensatus
  • Vulpia myuros var. hirsute (Foxtail Fescue) to Festuca myuros
• Potamogetonaceae
  • Potamogeton pectinatus (Fennel-leaf Pondweed) to Stuckenia pectinata

Family reassignments:

• Brassicaceae
  • Peritoma arborea (formerly Isomeris arborea) to Cleomaceae
• Portulacaceae
  • Calandrinia ciliata (Red Maids) and Claytonia parviflora ssp. parviflora to Montiaceae
• Primulaceae
  • Anagallis arvensis (Scarlet Pimpernel) to Myrsinaceae
• Liliaceae
  • Chlorogalum pomeridianum var. pomeridianum (California Soap Plant) to Agavaceae
  • Dichelostemma capitatum ssp. capitatum (Blue Dicks) to Themidaceae
• Lemnaceae
  • Lemna valdiviana (Duckweed) to Araceae

“The destroyer of weeds, thistles, and thorns is a benefactor whether he soweth grain or not.

—Robert Green Ingersoll

Nine BFS volunteer benefactors devoted part of a beautiful April day to destroying weeds, thistle, and thorns at the BFS this past Saturday. Once again our primary targets were Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus). Plants that were little rosettes back in February are now waist-high stalks with bright purple flowers and fearsome spikes.

Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) flowering along the entry drive. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Italian Thistles have a sneaky two-pronged dispersal strategy. They make two kinds of seeds – silver seeds, which are dispersed by wind and can colonize distant areas, and brown seeds, which remain in the flowerhead, falling to the ground when the stalk senesces and germinating to form a dense infestation at the site of the original plant. Thus at the BFS we have a number of thick patches scattered around the station.

This is an excellent time of year to attack these thistles, as they’ve put most of their energy into the flowering stalks but have not yet gone to seed. We removed all the Italian Thistles from two patches on the west side of the entry road and several large patches on the east side of the lower neck. Here are some before and after photos:

• A dense patch along the entry drive just above the path to the south side of the lake:
  

  Before: Thistle city! ©Nancy Hamlett.

  

  After: Thistles, what thistles? ©Nancy Hamlett.

• Another patch along the entry drive just before the paving ends:
  
  

  Before: Lots of thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett

  

  After: No thistles. ©Nancy Hamlett.

• A large patch on the east side of the neck:
  
  

  Before: Paul Stapp wades into a thick bunch of Italian Thistles to start the attack. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  

  After: Tim Cox checks to make sure no thistles are still lurking in the area. ©Nancy Hamlett.

While we at it, we also pulled out any flowering invasive mustards that crossed our path. Ben Stapp (who pulled over 200 Italian Thistles) shows off the impressive tap roots of a Black Mustard (Brassica nigra) plant.

Ben Stapp showing the roots of Black Mustard (Brassica nigra). ©Nancy Hamlett.

After we did in the Italian Thistles, we went to the ‘new’ toad pond, where we picked up trash, repaired the pond edges where the liner had been exposed, and removed Black Mustard, a big Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare), and Maltese Star Thistles (Centaurea melitensis) from the divider and the perimeter.

Dick Haskell and Carol Cox put weeds and trash in the garbage can at the toad pond. ©Nancy Hamlett.

We also removed a large American Bullfrog (Lithobates catesbeianus) and put it back in pHake Lake.

Ben Stapp checks out the Bullfrog we found in the toad pond. ©Nancy Hamlett.

The toad pond free of mustard, thistles, and trash. ©Nancy Hamlett.

The volunteers also had the opportunity to see some nice BFS wildlife. There were two kinds of tadpoles in the toad pond – small black ones of the Southern California Toads (Anaxyrus boreas halophilus) and larger ones of Baja California Treefrogs (Pseudacris hypochondriaca), some which had already grown legs. A San Diego Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer annectens) crossed the entry drive right near the first thistle patch.

A San Diego Gopher Snake in the entry drive. ©Nancy Hamlett.

While the volunteers were enjoying their pizza lunch in the outdoor classroom, House Wrens (Troglodytes aedon) sang in the shrubbery, an Oak Titmouse (Baeolophus inornatus) gathered fur for its nest, a cheeky young California Ground Squirrel (Otospermophilus beecheyi) wandered among the benches looking for handouts, and a cute little jumping spider (Thiodina hespera) crawled onto one of the stools.

The jumping spider who joined us for pizza. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Two new plants have recently been discovered at the BFS. Many thanks to Leroy Gross and Erika Gardner of the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden for identifying the plants and making voucher specimens.

• Gilia angelensis

  A patch of Gilia angelensis (Chaparral Gilia) is flowering in a grassy area along the path by the Foothill Blvd fence.

  

  G. angelensis flowers among the brome – as you see them when walking by. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  This dainty wildflower in the Phlox family (Polemoniaceae) has five-petaled pale lavender flowers with blue anthers.

  

  Close-up view of G. angelensis flowers. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  The slender plants are about 6″ tall. The flowers only open in bright sunlight. When the flowers are closed – as on overcast mornings or late in the day – the plants are quite inconspicuous.

  

  Individual G. angelensis plants. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  We’re not certain why we haven’t previously spotted these petite wildflowers, which are native to California and Baja California. Gibson and Prigge (2003) say that G. angelensis is “abundant in certain years and sparse and uncommon in others due to differences in rainfall patterns.” Also, as far as we know there is only one patch of these flowers. If you spot them in other locations, please tell the BFS Manager (jennifer_gee@cuc.claremont.edu).

  To see all our photos of G. angelensis, click here.

• Forestiera pubescens

  A lone shrub on the north shore of pHake Lake near the little island has puzzled us for some time. We now know it’s Forestiera pubescens, a member of the Olive family (Oleaceae), that’s native to the southwestern US (from Texas and Oklahoma to California) and Mexico. F. pubescens has a plethora of common names – Stretchberry, Desert Olive, Tanglewood, Devil’s Elbow, Spring Goldenglow, Spring Herald, Texas Forsythia, and others.

  

  Forestiera pubescens growing by pHake Lake. ©Susan Schenk.

  The stems of F. pubescens are opposite and come off the branch at nearly right angles, apparently leading to the names Elbow-Bush and Devil’s Elbow.

  F. pubescens blooms before the leaves emerge, so in late winter or early spring, the bare branches “glow” with many yellow or yellow-green flowers (hence “Spring Herald” and “Spring Goldenglow”). F. pubescens is dioecious, meaning that male and female flowers occur on different individuals, and the plant at the BFS is a male.

  

  Male Forestiera pubescens flowers on the plant by pHake Lake. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  The flowers are an early source of nectar and pollen for bees and other insects, and they seemed to be enjoyed by this little native bee:

  

  Lasioglossum sp. on a Forestiera pubescens flower. ©Nancy Hamlett.

  Female plants produce fleshy, blue-black fruits that are an important food source for birds and small mammals; however, since our lone plant is male, we won’t be seeing any fruits at the BFS.

  Although F. pubescens is native to this general area, it’s not normally found in the plant communities of the BFS. It could possibly have been brought here by a bird.

  To see all our photos of F. pubescens, click here.

• Sources:
  • Gibson, A. and B. Prigge. 2003. Gilia angelensis. Revised Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains: Final Report Task Agreement Number- J8540010001. UCLA Herbarium, Los Angeles. PDF
  • Bryant, P. 2008. Los Angeles Gilia, Gilia angelensis. Vascular Plants of Orange County, California. University of California, Irvine. http://nathistoc.bio.uci.edu/plants/Polemoniaceae/Gilia%20angelensis.htm
  • Steele, R. 2005. Oleaceae: Forestiera pubescens. Image Archive of Central Texas Plants. BIO 406D (Native Plants of Central Texas), University of Texas at Austin. http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/ole/forestiera_pubescens.htm
  • Texas Agriculture Program. 2002. Texas Elbow-Bush. Texas Native Shrubs. Department of Horicultural Science. Texas A&M University. http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/ornamentals/nativeshrubs/forestierapubescen.htm
  • TWC Staff. 2011. Forestiera pubescens Nutt. Native Plants Database. Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, University of Texas at Austin. http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=FOPU2

Update: On March 11, the valiant BFS Volunteers removed every known Sahara Mustard plant on the BFS. Way to go, Volunteers!

The very nasty Sahara Mustard (Brassica tournefortii) has just appeared at the BFS in two small infestations along Foothill Blvd. near the BFS entrance and the near College Avenue.

The nerve! A Sahara Mustard plant growing right next to our Bernard Field Station sign. ©Nancy Hamlett.

The Sahara Mustard, a native of semi-arid and arid deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, as well as Mediterranean lands of southern Europe, probably arrived in California with date palms from the Middle East. It was first collected in North America in 1927 in the Coachella Valley, and that specimen, which was part of the Pomona College Herbarium, is now housed at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden Herbarium (POM147846). Sahara Mustard has only become prominent in Los Angeles County in the last decade.

Sahara Mustard plants are 4 to 40 inches tall and generally have an open bushy appearance, although the form is quite variable. The basal leaves are are long, with pairs of deep toothed lobes, and are covered with stiff hairs.

A Sahara Mustard leaf. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Sahara Mustard plants flower early – the ones at the BFS are blooming and have already formed fruits. The flowers are small (petals less than one-quarter inch) and dull yellow, making them less conspicuous than our other exotic mustards. The fruits diverge stiffly from the stem at a forty-five degree angle. They are born on a half-inch pedicel (stalk) and have an obvious beak at the tip.

A fruit of Sahara Mustard with a flower at the bottom right. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Sahara Mustard is very prolific – large plants produce up to 16,000 seeds. Dried plants can break off at the base and tumble like tumbleweed, spreading seeds rapidly across the landscape. When wet, a sticky gel forms over the seed case enabling seeds to disperse long distances by adhering to animals and probably automobiles. It often first appears along roadways as it has at the BFS.

Because Sahara Mustard seeds germinate early and the plants grow rapidly, they out-compete native plants for soil moisture and light, and they produce seeds before many native species have even begun to flower. In the winter-spring of 2005 about three-quarters of the most famous wildflower areas in California and Arizona were overrun with Saharan Mustard.

A photo taken in 1998 of wildflowers in the northern end of the Mohawk Dunes in western Arizona. ©Mark Dimmett, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

The same area photographed in 2005 when Sahara Mustard covered 70-90% of the surface area, and almost no native wildflowers bloomed. ©Mark Dimmett, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

As if that weren’t enough, Sahara Mustard increases fuel loads and fire hazard in coastal sage scrub, and its high oxalic acid content may be toxic to native herbivores.

The BFS Volunteers are planning to eradicate this nasty mustard from the field station. If you would like to help, please contact Nancy Hamlett, BFS Volunteer Coordinator, at nancy_hamlett@hmc.edu or 909-607-3811.

Sources and further information:

• Sahara Mustard – from the California Invasive Plant Council.
• Sahara mustard (Brassica tournefortii) – from the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.

On our last two BFS Volunteer Days, we’ve continued our attacks on Italian and Bull Thistles as well as doing some trail maintenance.

On February 18, ten valiant volunteers pulled up 22 bags of Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus) from the mound with the “old” toad pond.

The February 18 thistle pullers with their haul of thistles! Left to right: Will Chen (HMC '12), Diana Mar (HMC '14), John Robinson (HMC '12), Anwen Evans, Elsie Gibson (HMC '15), Carol Cox, Tim Cox, Sarah Stevens (HMC '15), and Cleo Stannard (HMC '15)

Although we pulled a lot of thistles, more still remain. We did, however, make great inroads! This area may be the original infestation of Italian Thistles. There are certainly more here than in any other location. We’ll probably attack this area again when the thistle are a bit larger.

On March 3, we turned our attention to one of a couple of newly spotted patches of Bull Thistles (Cirsium vulgare). These patches are fairly small with very few dead stalks, so we think they are relatively new infestations. If they’re recent, there may not be much of a seed bank, and we have a good chance of wiping them out. We worked on a corner of the east field that had the biggest thistles – some of the rosettes were more than two feet across and were starting to bolt.

Now that's a thistle! Bull thistles are very large and spiky and have coarse hairs on the tops of the leaves.

Prof. Dick Haskell (HMC) with a trophy thistle headed for the trash can. For scale, Prof. Haskell is over 6 feet tall.

We think we removed every single thistle from this little patch and in the process filled three large trash cans with thistles.

Three cans full of thistles!

Look, Ma – no thistles!

After pulling thistles, we did some trail maintenance – clearing some overgrown areas on the trail around pHake Lake.

A newly cleared stretch of trail. Doesn't it just invite you in?

If you’re interested in volunteering at the BFS, please contact Nancy Hamlett – nancy_hamlett@hmc.edu or 909-607-3811.

The latest skirmish in the BFS’s war on invasive exotic plants took place Saturday, February 4, when 15 hardy volunteers attacked two patches of Italian and Bull Thistles. These two large very spiky purple-flowering thistles are native to Europe, western Asia, and north Africa. The were both introduced to North America accidentally — the Bull Thistle during colonial times and the Italian Thistle in the 1930s. Both compete with and exclude native plants.

Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare) growing on the east side of pHake Lake. ©Nancy Hamlett.

Italian Thistle (Carduus pycnocephalus) photographed at an unknown California location. ©Br. Alfred Brousseau.

The two targeted areas were a small patch of mixed Bull and Italian on the east side of pHake Lake and a larger patch of Italian Thistles on the east side of the mound with ‘old’ toad pond. At this time of year, the plants have not formed stalks — only basal rosettes, which we dug out with their tap roots.

Rosettes of Italian Thistles (Carduus pycnocephalus). ©Nancy Hamlett.

The weed diggers in action — Sarah Stevens, Cleo Stannard, Dennis Callaci, Harmonie James, and Dick Haskell digging up Italian thistles by the path to the old toad pond. ©Nancy Hamlett.

A job well done — The thistle diggers with 18 bags of thistles! Left to right: Cleo Stannard, Sarah Stevens, John Robinson, Noah Libeskind, Ben Stapp, Paul Stapp, Dick Haskell, Tim Cox, Elliott Cox, Benjamin Libeskind, Laura Kotovsky, Dennis Callaci, and Harmonie James. ©Nancy Hamlett.

We will be very interested to see next year how much the thistle population has been reduced in these two locations.

More information and resources from the California Invasive Plant Council:

• Cirsium vulgare (Bull Thistle)
• Carduus pycnocephalus (Italian Thistle)

BFS Manager Jennifer Gee’s quail research is featured both in the New York Times and on NBC’s Rock Center with Brian Williams.

A female Gambel's Quail. ©Jennifer Gee.

Since April 2010, the New York Times has been running a blog called “Scientist at Work – Notes from the Field”. According to the NY Times website, “This blog is the modern version of a field journal, a place for reports on the daily progress of scientific expeditions — adventures, misadventures, discoveries. As with the expeditions themselves, you never know what you will find.”

Dr. Gee and her collaborator, Dr. Jennifer Calkin, are blogging about their investigations of the interface between two quail species, Gambel’s Quail (Callipepla gambelii) and Elegant Quail (Callipepla douglasii), in Sonora, Mexico. You can click here to see all of Dr. Gee’s posts on her Mexican adventures.

Sunset from Navopatia Field Station, Sonora, Mexico. ©Jennifer Gee.

Drs. Gee and Calkin were featured in a December 26 Rock Center with Brian Williams piece on the crowdsourcing website Kickstarter, which they used to fund their initial Mexican Expedition. You can see a video here. The segment on Drs. Gee and Calkin starts at 6:19. You can also check out our previous post on their use of Kickstarter.

One of the initiatives our Interim Manager, Dr. Jennifer Gee, has undertaken this year is to produce a BFS Vegetation Management Plan, which she developed in consultation with Dr. Chris McDonald, Desert Natural Resources Advisor for the University of California Cooperative Extension, San Bernardino County.

Dr. Chris McDonald, UC Extension Service, and Dr. Jennifer Gee, BFS Interim Manager, contemplate the cattail problem at pHake Lake.

The goals of the Vegetation Management Plan are to preseve the academic and ecological functions of the Field Station, to maintain fire safety, and to monitor and manage exotic, invasive, and pest species.

The Plan was approved by the BFS Faculty Advisory Committee this fall, and we are now beginning to implement the plan, using a combination of outside contractors, interns, Claremont College classes, and volunteers. Here are some the vegetation management activities that have been going on this fall:

• Cattail control:
  pHake Lake has a thriving population of Broad-leaved Cattails, Typha latifolia, which grow very rapidly and would take over large portions of the lake if we did not trim them back. Our goal for cattail control is to maintain some open shoreline for boat-launching and observation as well as some relatively open shallow-water areas for wading birds and dabbling ducks, while retaining areas of dense cattails for use by birds like American Coots, Song Sparrows, Yellowthroats, and the occasional Virginia Rail or Sora.In September Johnny’s Tree Service trimmed back cattails from the boat landing area, the south shore “beach”, and shallow area around the little island in the northeast corner of the lake.
  

  John Garbo of Johnny's Tree Service with cattails removed from pHake Lake.

• Mapping exotics and invasives:
  Monitoring exotic, invasive, and pest plants is an essential part of the vegetation management plan, and we’ve started using GIS to map the location of some of these plants. Prof. Elise Ferree’s Keck Science class, Bio 57–Concepts In Biology, mapped the locations of Century Plants (Agave americana) and Peruvian Pepper Trees (Schinus molle), and Christi Gabriel, Seeds of Success Intern at RSABG, has mapped a number of additional trees.
  

  Peruvian Pepper Trees mapped by the Bio 57 class (left) and various plants mapped by Intern Christi Gabriel (right).

• Removing invasive plants:
  Volunteer workers have started removing invasive plants from the BFS perimeter to prevent their incursion into the field station. Last Saturday’s volunteers targeted Tree-of-Heaven, Ailanthus altissima. This is a highly invasive species, native to the far east, including China and Taiwan. Last summer as part of weed abatement for the LA County Fire Department, Johnny’s Tree Service dug out a group of trees that had colonized the highly disturbed strip of land between Foothill Blvd and the BFS fence. But with the recent rains, small trees have resprouted vigorously, and volunteers rooted these out.
  

  Prof. Paul Stapp, Cal State Fullerton, and Mari Bennett, HMC ’14, dig up Ailanthus.

  

  Ben Stapp, son of Prof. Paul Stapp, and Prof. Richard Haskell, HMC, attack a big Ailanthus root.

  The little trees, however, proved to be attached to very large roots, so the task was not as easy as it appeared.

  

  Big, bigger, biggest! Ben Stapp shows off the Ailanthus roots.

  Once the Trees-of-heaven were dug out, we scoured the rest of the perimeter for other invasives and also removed one small eucalyptus tree, one Tree Tobacco, and small colony of Mexican Fan Palms.

  

  Tim Cox, Paul Stapp, Elliott Cox, and Sandra Schmid dig out the palm colony.