The study and science of plants.
A lot has happened in the battle against Sudden Oak Death (SOD) since Bay Nature reported on it in January. To date, the disease has been identified in black oak, coast live oak, tanbark oak, and Shreve oak trees in … Read more
Nestled in the hills southeast of Livermore, at the border between the San Joaquin Valley and the Bay Area, the old Tesla Mine townsite in Corral Hollow sustains a vibrant mix of inner south coast range plants and animals along with the traces of a rich human history. But a state proposal to create an off-road vehicle park in the hollow threatens to reopen old scars on this tranquil landscape.
After reading The Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco, it’s difficult to know which is more significant—that Golden Gate Park exists at all, or that in today’s world of “political correctness,” this totally man-made park, full of non-native … Read more
Whether it’s cape ivy or french broom, if you want to know how to control some of the region’s most pernicious invasive plant species, pick up a copy of Invasive Plants of California’s Wildland, edited by Carla C. Bossard, John … Read more
A hike on the Hazelnut Trail at Montara Mountain leads you through several scrub communities and straight into a botanical puzzle.
At the precise moment we are looking at them, flowers are sending light rays back to us. But not all of them are sending us the same kind of light in the same way. The different colors are different wavelengths … Read more
One of the joys of our Mediterranean climate is the Bay Area’s long wildflower season. Among the first reports this year was the January sighting of blooming fetid adder’s tongue and redwood sorrel in Muir Woods. If you want up-to-date … Read more
In five coastal counties of central and northern California, thousands of oak trees are dying. The cause of this increased mortality in coast live oaks, tan oaks, and black oaks is not yet fully understood, but the syndrome seems to … Read more
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
