The SCU Lightning Complex fires burned 6,000 acres of East Bay Regional Park District land last year. And already, green ground cover, reptiles, and raptors are returning in Morgan Territory.
The study and science of plants.
Naturalist’s Notebook: Fire Pines
A visual explanation of how fire helps release the seeds of knobcone, bishop, and Monterey pine trees, plus a fun experiment to try at home!
Listen Closely, the Trees are Talking
When people say that trees “talk” to each other, that’s a concept that rests, in part, on an extraordinary and microscopic relationship between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and the roots of 90 percent of all plants.
Meet the Rare Dawn Redwood at a Bay Area Park
Rare and once thought extinct, the dawn redwood is an ancient relative of the more familiar coast redwood.
San Bruno Mountain: An Ark of Diversity
The plants that grow on this 2,400-acre island amid a sea of city—including these four endemic manzanita species—help make San Bruno Mountain a world biological hotspot.
How the Mistakenly Named “Himalayan” Blackberry Became a California Summer Tradition
With five to seven leaves resembling outstretched fingers on the palm of a hand, the blackberry Rubus armeniacus grows from curved, blood-red stalks resembling veins. Sonoma County horticulturalist Luther Burbank acquired the seeds in 1885 from a trader in India, … Read more
The Tree That’s Rare, Endangered and Common
Should we worry about the Monterey pine going extinct?
Naturalist’s Notebook: Irises Through Time
Try tracking a single iris over time.
Can California Reverse Biodiversity Decline?
At a time when development is paving over habitat and climate change is transforming ecosystems at an unprecedented pace, California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot says the state has a moral imperative to focus on biodiversity.
Live Biodiversity
There’s a certain predictable expression that frequently settles on the face of the friend or family member I’m talking to when I say the word “biodiversity.” I’d call it tolerantly bored.