Pygmy Cypress
preventing erosion and runoff. In the arctic this
species is important browse for mammals.
Reindeer
Lichen
abundantly in the Pygmy
Forest but ranges as far
south as San Francisco on
poor soils. It has small
round dark green leaves
and red peeling bark. Pink
urn shaped flowers produce
small apple-like fruit in the
fall.
38.
Notice the difference between this
rhododendron in the Pygmy Forest and the one you
looked at in the Redwood Forest. This plant, when
growing in the Pygmy Forest, has very small curled
leaves and a height of about 3 feet; in the better soils
of the redwood forest it can grow to about 20 feet
with broad, flat, much larger leaves.
39.
Reindeer Lichen, Cladonia portentosa ssp.
pacifica. This species of lichen is rare in our area
except in the Pygmy Forest. When well developed
and untrammeled it forms dense soil mats several feet
across and approximately 4 inches tall. Soil lichens
play an important role in the ecosystem by
Ecological Staircase
A Self-guided Nature Trail
40.
Across
Fort Bragg Manzanita
37.
This low growing
manzanita grows most
the
Cladonia
portentosa
ssp .pacifica
Canada. Its clustered leaves resemble its near relative
the azalea. The head of small flowers can be seen in
late summer. The leaves are toxic to livestock and
humans.
Arctostaphylos
nummularia
Jug Handle State Natural Reserve
the gully you can see where the water has cut
away the soil leaving the horizons visible. The top
dark organic layer is very thin, under that is the
deeper light colored leached area. This horizon is
named “podzol” from the Russian word for ash,
referring to the ash colored layer. It is light colored
from hundreds of thousands of years of rainfall
leaching the minerals down though the soil. Below
the podzol layer and about 18” from the surface of
the soil lies the iron hardpan. This is composed of
tiny iron concreted rock-like particles that inhibit
root growth. A clay horizon makes up the lowest
horizon beneath the iron hardpan.
You have reached the end of the trail, follow the
arrows until you come back to the gravel path.
Proceed back down the same trail to the
Jughandle parking lot.
c Text by Teresa Sholars
c Illustrations by Erica Fielder
First printed by the State of California in 1998. For
more information about the Pygmy Forest contact the
Mendocino Sector Headquarters at (707) 937-5804, or
come by the office on Hwy 1, across from the entrance
to Russian Gulch State Park, Monday-Friday, 8:00- 4:30.
Welcome to Jug Handle State Natural Reserve. You are standing on one of
the most interesting geological areas in the northern hemisphere. Here, time,
geological forces and climate have all interacted to form a staircase of distinct
plant communities and associated soils, culminating in the unique Pygmy Forest.
The numbers in this brochure correspond to numbered posts that you will
find along the trail. The trail is about 2.5 miles long and returns along the same
route (round trip 5+ miles), and takes approximately 3 hours to complete. (See
map inside pages.) There is no drinking water along the trail.
This brochure, new interpretive panels, and many improvements along the
Ecological Staircase Trail were made possible through a generous grant to the
California State Park System from a group of anonymous donors in 1995.
A Pygmy Forest at Van Damme State Park (3 miles south of Mendocino) is
accessible by auto. The Pygmy Forest portion of that trail is also accessible to
wheelchair visitors.
Posts #1 - #7 can be walked as a short
headlands loop trail.
1.
Along this portion of the Mendocino Coast the
land has been uplifted into a series of flat terraces. In
most locations along the California coast the land
was raised and tilted by geologic forces forming what
we know as the Coast Ranges. Each terrace is
approximately 100,000 years older than the lower
terrace. Here at Jughandle all 5 terraces form what is
known as the Ecological Staircase.
Here on the first terrace, known locally as
the headlands, three plant communities exist; the
North Coast Bluff Scrub, the Coastal Prairie and the
Bishop or Closed-Cone Pine Forest. This entire terrace
was formed at the same time; the three vegetation
types reflect differences in the physical environment.
2.
You are standing on the first terrace, formed
underneath the sea and uplifted by tectonic forces.
Look out at the Coastal Prairie dominated by grasses,
wildflowers and blackberries. Most of the common
grasses that dominate this prairie are introduced
species like sweet vernal grass and velvet grass. These
non-native grasses have dominated the landscape
due to past history of plowing and grazing livestock
by early settlers. The fibrous roots of grasses have
created a rich soil by adding humus through the
annual cycle of root growth and death. During the
spring and summer months colorful displays of native
wildflowers dot the landscape. Among the most
common species are: the orange and yellow
California poppies, pink sea thrift, white yarrow and
baby blue eyes.
3.
Across the cove you can see the soil layers
exposed at the cliff’s edge. Resting on the bedrock of
Graywacke sandstone is a brownish colored layer of
old beach material 6 to 20 feet thick, on top of that
lies the dark layer of grassland soil. On this youngest
terrace, the soil is barely developed into soil layers or
horizons, compared to the older terraces further up
the trail. Soil microorganisms and coastal prairie
plants form the soil from the bedrock, Graywacke
Sandstone. Directly below a new terrace is being
formed under water. As the coastline continues to
rise, it will become a new step in the “staircase.” The
light turquoise colored seawater, contrasting with
the deeper dark colored water, shows the area of
the new underwater terrace being formed.
4.
The North Coast Bluff Scrub community
found along the edge of the cliff is made up of
perennial low growing shrubs like purple and
yellow seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus ), the yellow
flowered sticky gum plant (Grindelia stricta ), and
nitrogen fixing bluff lupine (Lupinus littoralis ).
These plants are adapted to strong winds and
ocean salt spray by growing low to the ground.
They lose less water to the drying winds by being
covered with many tiny hairs. The grassland or
prairie grows along the margin of the bluff
community.
Sitka Spruce
Picea sitchensis
5.
At the edge of the
bluff stands a grove of
small Sitka spruce. The
bluish needles of the
young foliage stand out
against the green
foliage of surrounding
forest trees. At close
glance this species is
easy to identify with its
flat sharply pointed needles growing from a small
sturdy peg or wooden petiole. Find a branch
without needles so you can feel the bumpy pegs.
Only spruces have these wooden pegs. Its cones
are similar to Douglas fir without the “mouse tail”
like bract. Sitka spruce is a fairly rare tree this far
south. It is found in the Pacific northwest from
Alaska down to Mendocino county.
6.
Grand Fir, Abies grandis. This oddly shaped
Grand fir is lying on its side, its upright branches
killed by the drying effect of the salt laden winds.
32.
You are at the beginning of the
boardwalk. The ecological staircase ends at the
climax community, the Pygmy Forest. The only
place in the world that the Pygmy Forest occurs is
in a few isolated patches here in northern
California. The trees and shrubs are stunted by an
extremely nutrient poor, highly acidic soil underlain
by an iron hardpan. 100 year-old trees only reach
the height of a few feet . The ground and trees are
covered by many species of lichens due to the
availability of light and the suitably moist climate
and clean air. The soil lichens help prevent erosion
by water movement.
The Pygmy Forest is essentially a bog in
that the soil never dries out beneath the surface.
Plants must tolerate low oxygen levels in the soil
because when the soil is wet, water replaces
oxygen in the soil pore spaces. Since roots take in
oxygen and give off carbon dioxide, most plants
can’t live in soils that are too wet.
Rhododendron, huckleberry and salal are
common in both the Redwood Forest and Pygmy
Forest. These species grow poorly in pygmy soil and
in the richer soils they grow larger. Bishop pine
grows in more infertile soils through out the coastal
area. The pygmy cypress, Bolander pine and Fort
Bragg manzanita tend to be more restricted to the
Pygmy Forest due to their inability to compete well
with other species.
Bolander Pine
Pinus contorta
ssp. bolanderi
33.
In the sphagnum
bogs scattered
throughout the Pygmy
Forest, Bolander pine can
grow to 75 feet but in the
rest of the pygmy forest
they only reach a few feet
tall, some of these are
100 years old! Bolander
pine has 2 needles to a
bundle and closed cones
like the Bishop pine.
34.
Red Usnea, Usnea rubicunda
Look for the red thread-like lichen on the branches of
the pygmy cypress. Lichens are a combination of a
fungus and a photosynthetic green or blue-green
alga. The lichens do not hurt the tree, they are just
taking advantage of an “empty space” to attach and
photosynthesize. Please do not pick the lichens
because it takes decades for even this small quantity
of lichens to grow. There are many species of Usnea
in the Pygmy Forest. All Usneas have a central elastic
persistent cord in the middle of their body. They are
common on trees in mature forests.
PYGMY FOREST INTERPRETIVE PANEL:
This rare plant community occurs only in a
few sites where sea-cut terraces and their soil
surfaces have remained flat during half a million
years of geological uplift. The soils here are 1000
times more acidic than soil found in the redwood
forest. Heavy winter rains have leached iron and
other soil nutrients from the surface of the ground
and washed them down to the subsoil. The iron,
soluble under acidic conditions, combines with
eroding bedrock (subsoil) to form an ironconcreted hardpan eighteen inches beneath your
feet. Extremely acidic conditions and poor soil
fertility, coupled with shallow hardpan formation,
contribute to the stunted, sparse growth of the
Pygmy Forest.
35.
Pygmy Cypress, Hesperocyparis pygmaea
This is a mature pygmy cypress, perhaps a hundred
years old. It has small scale-like needles and round
cones that open in heat or after a fire. It can grow
close to 150 feet tall in better soils, and is generally
restricted in range to the Pygmy Forest or sphagnum
bogs in the Pygmy Forest. (see illustration next page)
36.
Labrador Tea, Rhododendron columbianum
This evergreen shrub grows in the Pygmy Forest and
in bogs and wet meadows, sea level to 10,000 feet
throughout the Sierra Nevada and coast ranges to
Grand Fir Abies grandis
red berries. All huckleberries are edible. The leaves
are thin smooth to serrate. The urn shaped, greenish
to pink flowers are shaped like the flowers of its
cousins the manzanita and madrone. You will often
find red huckleberry growing on top of old stumps in
moist shaded woods, between sea level and 4,500’.
They range along the coast from San Francisco to
Alaska and throughout the Sierra Nevada.
27.
A few hundred feet off to your left is a large
bog. Here pygmy cypresses grow to over a hundred
feet tall with an understory of labrador tea. Because
of the bowl shaped topography, a bog developed
with many of the typical Pygmy Forest species
growing many times the height that they normally
grow.
Western
Hemlock
Tsuga
heterophylla
28.
The
nodding top of
this young hemlock is quite different from the erect
tops of the other conifers. Its light green needles are
of different lengths, its branches drooping giving the
tree and overall lacy or pendulous appearance. The
bark is thin, and the sapwood and heartwood are
white to yellow. Hemlock cones are round and about
an inch in diameter. You will see this tree germinating
on old rotten logs and in moist shady sites. The trees
live up to 500 years and can grow to over 200 feet
tall. Western hemlock can have more than a hundred
different fungi attached to its roots in a mycorrhizal
association that helps the tree to grow by extending
its root mass for water and mineral absorption. The
tree provides sugar to the fungus from
photosynthesis. An important pulp tree in the Pacific
northwest, western hemlock grows from the
northern California coast to Alaska. Commercially, it is
mixed with Grand Fir and sold as “Hem-Fir”, an
inferior construction grade wood.
29.
Salal, Gaultheria shallon
This low growing evergreen shrub with its glossy
leaves is often used in the florist trade as “lemon
leaf”. Its beautiful pink flowers are shaped like its
relatives the manzanita and huckleberry. The large
blue berries are edible but not quite as tasty as
huckleberry. Salal grows below 3,000’in the coastal
mountains from the San Francisco Bay to Alaska.
30.
You have arrived at the third terrace, the
beginning of the Pygmy Forest community. In front
of you is a stunted redwood. The soil is so low in
nutrients here that redwood needles turn yellow.
Look at the color of the soil; hundreds of thousands
of years of leaching have produced a white soil
leached of nutrients. As you walk, stay on the gravel
path and boardwalk in order to preserve the fragile
lichen crust that remains only in undisturbed Pygmy
Forest. The section of forest that you will walk
through at first is undergoing restoration. It has had
years of abuse from vehicular, foot and horse traffic.
Blue
Huckleberry
Vaccinium
ovatum
31.
This
evergreen
shrub has
small serrate
leaves and
delicious blue
berries. The fruits are gathered and sold
commercially. The leaves are used in fresh flower
arrangements and are important food for deer and
other mammals. White to pink urn shape flowers
hang from the branches. It is abundant from sea
level to 3,000’ in coastal mountains from the
Transverse Range of southern California to British
Columbia .
Growing to about 200
feet, its thin bark is
often covered with
patches of white
crustose lichens and
sap pockets. The needle
tips are shaped in an
“m”, with two white
stomatal lines on the
back of each needle. All
true firs have erect
deciduous cones,
shattering on the tree,
spreading their seeds in the winds. Thus mature
cones are seldom seen on the ground. Occasionally
immature cones partially eaten by a Gray or
Douglas squirrel may be seen along the trail.
Seedlings germinate well in shady sites. The
heartwood and sapwood is white and like the
foliage is quite aromatic. These trees are common
near the coast, where they tolerate the salty winds,
but more rare inland to about 10 miles. They grow
from northern Sonoma Co. to southern British
Columbia eastward to Montana and Idaho. The
wood is used for general construction and
pulpwood. They live up to 200 years.
headlands. Now it is only common in isolated patches
in the Closed-Cone Pine Forest and in the Coastal
Prairie where occasionally it can compete with the
introduced grasses.
Pink Flowering
Currant
Ribes sanguineum
var. glutinosum
8.
This deciduous shrub
has pink flowers in the
spring and purple currants
in the fall that provide food
for wildlife. The alternate
leaves are veined and
lobed like a maple leaf. Its
flowers and leaves have a
distinctive smell. This
species is often used in
ornamental landscapes
and occurs in riparian and
moist sites from
Washington to central
California.
KRUMMHOLZ INTERPRETIVE PANEL:
Notice that most of the trees before you
are sculpted by salt-laden north winds that dry
and kill the tips of the branches. The bent and
twisted quality of this tiny grove is called
krummholz, from the German word meaning
“bent wood.” These trees, also found along the
rest of the Ecological Staircase Trail, usually grow
tall and straight. This grove creates a sheltered
environment for many local species of birds,
mammals and insects that otherwise could not
live on this windswept bluff.
7.
Pacific Reed Grass, Calamagrostis nutkaensis
This large bunch grass is called Pacific reed grass.
Once, before plowing and grazing of the Coastal
Prairies, this large tufted grass covered much of the
Bishop Pine
Pinus muricata
9.
You are
standing in a
forest type that
is not common
in California, the
North Coast
Bishop Pine
Forest. Unlike
most conifers,
Bishop pine,
Pinus muricata, does not open its cones and
distribute its seeds when they are mature. They
release their seeds only when the cones are exposed
to intense heat. This adaptation to fire discharges
seeds into a bed of fertile ash. Bishop pine grows to
less than a hundred feet and is fairly short lived to
Shining Willow
Salix lasiandra
approximately 80 years. It has deeply furrowed bark
and two needles to a bundle. It grows on sandy soils
here on the first terrace near the ocean, on old dunes
in patches in the Redwood Forests and in older soils
in the Pygmy Forest. It ranges from coastal northern
Baja California to Humboldt Co. Look up at the tall
pines and notice that the mature trees are roundheaded instead of the typical cone shape of most
conifers. This lends quite a different look to the
mature Closed-Cone Pine Forests.
10.
From here you can see the small floodplain
of Jughandle Creek. All life here is adapted to the
constant surge and flow of floods, distributing fertile
silt along the edges of the creek. Flooding is a natural
and necessary part of the ecology of riparian systems.
Plant roots constantly grow toward the surface to
survive being buried by silt again and again. Look up
the slope at how the darker green evergreen
coniferous forest contrasts with the lighter green
creekside community dominated by broadleaf
deciduous trees and shrubs. These riparian
communities abound with wildlife.
Cascara
Sagrada
Frangula
purshiana
11.
During
World War
II these
deciduous
trees were
harvested
for their bark in the Fort Bragg area. A laxative called
“cascara sagrada” is derived from the bark. This
species grows up to 50 feet tall, with alternate glossy
leaves, distinct veins and leaf margins that can be
smooth to serrate. Black round fruits provide food for
birds and small mammals. Cascara sagrada grows in
riparian areas and other moist sites from British
Columbia to Baja California.
12.
Willows are
one of the
most
common
riparian plants in temperate regions world wide.
Willows are all deciduous with long alternate
leaves. This species can be a shrub or tree to 40 feet
tall. At the base of its finely serrate, darker green
leaves is a leaf-like structure called a stipule. Willow
bark has long been known as a pain reliever.
Chemists copied natural molecules from this plant
to make the synthetic drug aspirin. Shining willow is
common in wet meadows, along rivers and
seashores to 6,000 feet throughout California north
to Alaska.
Red Alder
Alnus rubra
13.
Red
alder reaches
up to 130’ tall.
It has
alternate,
doubly serrate
deciduous
leaves with distinct veins. Turn over the leaf and
look at the rolled under leaf margin. This feature
distinguishing it from the inland white alder that
has flat leaf margins. Alder fruits resemble small
cones, distributing the seeds by gusts of wind. Red
alder is a very important tree due to the nitrogenfixing bacterium, Frankia, living within its roots. The
bacterium provides the nitrogen that is used to
create amino acids and protein. These nutrients
then filter though the riparian food web. Red alder
also harbors the bacterium Streptomyces in their
roots that can inhibit root rot pathogens. This
bacteria genus produces many of our antibiotics like
streptomycin, tetracycline and erythromycin. Red
alder occurs along stream beds and moist sites
along the coast from Alaska to southern California.
Redwood
acidic soils in moist coniferous forest in coastal
mountains from San Francisco to British Columbia.
REDWOOD INTERPRETIVE PANEL:
Redwood trees grow the tallest, live the
longest and are among the most fire resistant
and flood tolerant of the trees found along
coastal California. They grow on slopes, flood
plains and level sea-cut terraces, away from the
drying effects of ocean breezes.
Redwood trees create their own
environment. Their specially formed needles
collect moisture from summer fog and drip it to
their roots. Tall groves, especially of old-growth
trees, create deep shade where few species of
plants can survive. Some birds, insects, mammals
and amphibians live high up in the canopy,
where they can find the most light and food. In
addition, certain lichens found in the canopy fix
nitrogen essential for the food web of the
Redwood Forest ecosystem.
Tanbark
Oak
Notholithocarpus
densiflorus
23.
The leaning
moss
covered
tree near
you is a
tanbark
oak. This evergreen tree can grow over a 100 feet
tall. Its stiff, leathery sharply serrate leaves have
distinctive veins, with thick hair covering the
underside. In the spring new leaves emerge pink
and then turn green. Its acorns are highly sought
after by squirrels and birds and the bark was
harvested in the past for tanning leather. Today
tanbark oak is used for fax paper, flooring, furniture
and fuel. It’s an extremely vigorous stump sprouter
after it is cut.
Sequoia
sempervirens
24.
Now
that we are
away from the
salt laden
breezes of the
ocean the
forest changes and is now dominated by redwoods.
Redwoods have a limited distribution, occurring only
along the coast,
between southern Oregon and central California
where summer fog and moderate temperatures
prevail.
The bark is thick, red, fibrous and fire
resistant. Look on the ground and you can see that
the needles fall in branchlets instead of singly like in
other conifers. The heartwood is red, and the
sapwood is pink. The small oval cone is about 1 inch
in diameter with its scales touching like in a soccer
ball instead of overlapping like in the cones of pines,
firs and spruces. The heartwood, especially in old
growth, is rot resistant. The timber is highly valued for
use as siding, paneling, fencing, decking, garden
landscaping and building foundations. This tree can
live to about 2,000 years. It is one of the only conifers
that stump sprouts, forming rings of trees after one is
cut. The tallest redwood measures 368’ tall and 12’6”
in diameter.
25.
You are standing by one of the many small
tributaries that make up the watershed of Jughandle
Creek. To your left is a line of corn lilies (Veratrum
fimbriatum) with their large pleated leaves. In the
winter a stream runs here and in the summer these
moisture loving plants are the only indication of that
stream.
26.
Red Huckleberry, Vaccinium parvifolium
A large hemlock with exposed roots shades the red
huckleberry and deer fern (Blechnum spicant ). The
red huckleberry differs from its relative the blue
huckleberry by its strongly angled, green twigs and
18.
You have now reached the second terrace
dominated by Sitka spruce and Grand fir. This plant
community is part of the great Pacific northwest
forest that ranges close to the coast from southern
Alaska south to Mendocino county. Other species
that commonly occur in this forest type are western
hemlock, Douglas fir, salal, sword fern and blue
huckleberry.
19.
Look at the scaly bark of this Sitka spruce,
notice how it compares to the flatter bark of the
nearby Grand fir. At your feet you may find the small
cones of the spruce. It grows up to about 200 feet
and lives to about 850 years. It tolerates moist soils by
growing its roots along the forest floor often forming
a buttressed base. Sitka spruce is used for lumber for
light construction, siding and pulpwood.
Douglas Fir
Pseudotsuga
menziesii
20.
This is a
young tree, at
maturity it can
grow well over
300 feet. Douglas
fir is easy to
identify with its
uniform length
needles on branches that end in a red pointed bud.
The sapwood is white and the heartwood pink. Old
bark is deeply furrowed, when cut you can see
alternating layers of red phloem and yellow cork. The
cones resemble Sitka spruce cones except that it has a
3-lobed bract sticking out from each scale. This is a
very widely distributed tree growing in the
mountains and coastal regions from central California
to British Columbia and from mountains in Mexico
north through the Rocky Mountains to Canada.
Depending on local conditions it can live from 500
to1,200 years. Douglas fir is the most important
timber tree in U.S. because its wood is very strong
and hard. Most framing lumber is made from this
wood. It is also the leading species for plywood
veneer. The bark is used as a potting soil
amendment and as a source of tannins, waxes and
food preservatives. Important nitrogen fixing lichens
live in the canopy of old growth Douglas fir and
contribute to the minerals cycle that is needed for
forest health. This tree provides food for the
Douglas squirrel and other animals of the forest.
21.
Hairy Manzanita, Arctostaphylos
columbiana. Feel the bark on this manzanita. Last
years bark is sparse and peeling away, this years
bark is red, hard and smooth. Hairy manzanita can
grow as a shrub or a small tree depending on light
availability. It has white flowers, blooming in
January and February when there are few other
flowers in bloom, providing an important source of
food for bumblebees. It is similar to one of its
relatives, the madrone tree, which has orange
peeling bark and larger leaves. Madrones are rare
this close to the coast. Manzanita berries are mealy
but edible, resembling little apples, hence its spanish
name “manzanita”. Hairy manzanita grows in
coniferous forest along the coast from sea level to
2,500’, from northern California to British Columbia.
Rhododendron,
Rhododendron
macrophyllum
22.
There are
over a thousand
species of
rhododendron in
the north temperate
region and Australia.
The word
rhododendron
means “tree rose” in
Greek. The leaves
are considered
poisonous to
livestock. This
species is an
evergreen shrub or
small tree with beautiful pink flowers and leaves
that cluster at the ends of branches. It grows in
RIPARIAN INTERPRETIVE PANEL:
This habitat is called Riparian, which
means "by the river." The trees and shrubs that
grow here require much more summer moisture
than plants growing far from the stream. These
trees shade the stream in summer. Because most
of them lose their leaves in late fall, they let in
light and warmth in winter. This keeps the water
temperature at levels that provide optimal
conditions for fish such as our local Steelhead
and Coho Salmon.
Red Alders are vital to the food cycle of
forest life. Thousands of bacteria nodules cling
to their roots and convert atmospheric nitrogen,
useless to most organisms, into a form of
nitrogen which all life uses to make protein. In
autumn, alder leaves fall into the stream and
decompose, providing food for the aquatic larva
of mayflies, midges and stoneflies. Fish, lizards,
salamanders, birds and bats eat the flies. Their
droppings, rich in useful nitrogen, provide
nutrients for plants and other animals, which
then continue the recycling of nitrogen
throughout the ecosystem.
Red
Elderberry
Sambucus
racemosa
14.
Notice the
opposite,
leaves on this
deciduous
tree. Each leaf
is made up of
5 to 7 leaflets. The white flowers produce red fruits
that are toxic to humans, but important to birds. The
blue fruited species found inland do have edible
berries though the leaves of all elderberries are
toxic. Red elderberry grows along the coast from
British Columbia to southern California. The word
Sambucus for the genus of all elderberries is derived
from the musical instrument the Sambuke because
this tree was the source of its wood. The pith used
in botany laboratories is derived from this tree.
Wax
Myrtle
Morella
californica
15.
This
white barked
small
evergreen
tree can
grow to
approximately 30’. The fruit of its eastern relative, the
bayberry, is widely known for its use in making
bayberry candles. Wax myrtle only has a small
amount of wax on its fruit, occasionally used for
candles, but is a favorite fruit for many birds. Its roots
also host the important nitrogen fixing bacterium
Frankia.
16.
For the next few hundred yards, until you
reach post #17, you will be walking through an area
dominated by non-native plants such as Monterey
pine, and yellow flowering, spiny gorse, French and
Scotch broom and the ever-present non-native sweet
vernal and velvet grasses. The Monterey pines were
planted here by early landowners but are native only
to the Monterey peninsula. Gorse and the brooms
were originally brought to the west coast as
ornamentals for their abundant yellow flowers. They
have invaded the natural environment where the
land has been disturbed by grazing, logging and
development. This area is in the process of having all
of the non-native Monterey pines taken out.
17.
Monterey Pine, Pinus radiata
Look and see if you can tell the difference between
the greener 3-needled Monterey pine and the native
2-needled grayer Bishop pine. Monterey pine is
planted as a timber tree in South America, Australia
and New Zealand; it is also an important ornamental
tree through out California.
Jug Handle State Natural Reserve:
Map to the Interpretive Posts along the Ecological Staircase Trail