Evening Program
Tall tales—Insights from two Decades of Coast Redwood Canopy Research: Wednesday, October 9, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
Marie Antoine is a tree-climbing botanist and research associate in the Department of Forestry, Fire, and Rangeland Management at Cal Poly Humboldt. She works alongside her husband, Professor Steve Sillett, in studying the world’s tallest trees. What lessons can these trees teach us? Join Marie for a look back at some recent research highlights, and a look forward to how elder trees might guide our actions in regenerating redwood forests. Attend at Six Rivers Masonic Lodge, 251 Bayside Rd., Arcata, refreshments at 7:00, program at 7:30 p.m., or join by Zoom via www.northcoastcnps.org.
Leather fern and Antoine in a redwood canopy. Photo: S. Sillett
Retreat and Other Outings
Native Plant Garden Tour: Saturday, October 5, 1:00–2:00 p.m.
Tour our native plant and wildlife garden with Pete Haggard. The garden is on the hillside to the left of Healthsport, Arcata (300 Community Park Way), opposite the Arcata Community Center. This walk repeats every first Saturday. In case of rain, bring an umbrella.
South Fork Trinity River Weekend Retreat: October 11–13, Friday–Sunday (all or part)
Escot Farm has invited us back for a weekend of botanizing, visiting, birding, swimming, hiking, camping, sitting in the sun, or whatever, only 20 minutes from the trailhead of the South Fork Trinity River Trail (east of Willow Creek). Arrive Friday afternoon, explore the oak woodland and riverside. Saturday will be a good chance to hike the trail, famous for botanical diversity. Saturday evening will be a potluck, campfire dinner. Camp either or both nights on the spacious grounds, or for a small fee sleep in a bunk. Bring your own food and equipment; the farm, formerly a retreat center, provides an enchanting place and comfortable facilities. For details contact Carol Ralph: theralphs@humboldt1.com or 707-822-2015.
Rohner Park Restoration Work Party: Saturday, October 19, 9:00–11:00 a.m.
Help preserve Fortuna’s exceptionally old second-growth redwood forest by removing invasive Ivy. Meet at the Fireman’s Pavilion. Tools and gloves provided, but bring your own if you have them. This is a third-Saturday event.
Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Walk: Saturday, October 19, 10:00 a.m.–2:00 p.m.
Enter Samoa Dunes and Wetlands Conservation Area from New Navy Base Road, directly across from Cookhouse Road, about 1/3 mile south from Hwy. 255’s “corner” accessing the Samoa Bridge. The gate opens at 9:45. This 2- to 3- mile walk through shore pine forest and adjacent coastal dune ecosystems will focus on plant interactions with their ecological associates. Our pace will be slow, with some walking on soft dune sand and firmer forest trails. Contact Peter Warner for further information or questions: 707-235-2713 or phytopagan@sonic.net
Plant with Natives
The CNPS nursery will be open in October to the public for sales on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday from 10:00–1:00. Cash and checks preferred. By the end of the month, we will start our end-of-season clearance. The nursery website gives a list of plants for sale and plant prices: https:/northcoastcnpsnursery.org.
Salal’s “Berries” are not its Fruits
Paul Wilson
The beautiful understory shrub salal seems to have fleshy berries, but I’m inclined to quibble. The fleshy organ largely develops not from the ovary but from the calyx and the receptacle—parts of a flower that subtend the ovary. If you cut through the structure as a whole, you can see what developed from the ovary. Perhaps the fruit itself is a bit fleshy, but (a) it’s more of a dry capsule than a berry, (b) it’s only half fused to the fleshy receptacle, and (c) it cracks open just a tad as the fleshy parts ripen (left morsel in photo).
Botanists are inclined to define plant organs in an ontological sense. Fruits are what develop from ovaries. Yes, that which is called a fruit could alternatively be spoken of in a functional sense, as the stuff that presents or disperses the seeds; however, you should be able to appreciate that salal’s “berries” are not its fruits in the same way that a human’s feet do not correspond exactly to a deer’s hooves.
Salal is in the same genus as wintergreen, Gaultheria, and all the members of Gaultheria have this peculiar arrangement. Gaultheria is in the same family as Vaccinium, the family Ericaceae. Vaccinium is the genus that includes huckleberries. If you cut into a huckleberry, the skin of the fruit contains the flesh with the seeds surrounded and not exposed unless the fruit is broken open as by my knife (right morsel in photo). On the tree of life, the two genera evolved their fleshiness either in two steps or more likely by convergent evolution. The ancestor that gave rise to both Gaultheria and Vaccinium had dry fruit, a bit like a Rhododendron, which is also in the Ericaceae.
Peering further out to more distant relatives, the genus of manzanitas (Arctostaphylos) and the genus of madrone (Arbutus) also have fleshy fruits. On the tree of life, we are confident that the fleshiness of these fruits evolved separately from the fleshiness of Gaulteria and Vaccinium because several intervening plant genera have fruits that are dry capsules. With a little bit less confidence, it seems very plausible that Arctostaphylos and Arbutus evolved fleshiness separately from each other. The layers of the fruit that are fleshy do not correspond.
Thus, in the family Ericaceae, fleshiness evolved by four transitions from ancestors with dry fruits. In birds, bats, pterodactyls, and flying squirrels something like a wing evolved. Salal is like a flying squirrel.
Salal on the left, huckleberry on the right. Photo: P. Wilson