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Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve
The Bonny Doon Ecological Reserve is a nature preserve of in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, United States. The reserve protects several rare and endangered plant and animal species within an area known as the Santa Cruz Sandhills, an ancient seabed containing fossilized marine animals. The land was purchased in 1989 by The Nature Conservancy which deeded the property to the state, and is now managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. It is adjacent to the Laguna parcel of the San Vicente Redwoods protected area. The Santa Cruz Mountains are the only known location of the Zayante soil derived from the Santa Margarita geologic formation, that occur in three clusters in Santa Cruz County. Ancient seabed The Bonny Doon reserve protects species adapted to a type of soil known as Zayante, a Miocene-aged marine sediment and sandstone soil from an ancient sea that encompassed California's Central Valley. As the Santa Cruz Mountains were uplifted, the seabe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Santa Cruz County, California
Santa Cruz County (), officially the County of Santa Cruz, is a county on the Pacific coast of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 270,861. The county seat is Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz County comprises the Santa Cruz–Watsonville, CA Metropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the San Jose–San Francisco–Oakland, CA Combined Statistical Area. The county is on the California Central Coast, south of the San Francisco Bay Area region. The county forms the northern coast of the Monterey Bay, with Monterey County forming the southern coast. History Santa Cruz County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. In the original act, the county was given the name of " Branciforte" after the Spanish pueblo founded there in 1797. A major watercourse in the county, Branciforte Creek, still bears this name. Less than two months later, on April 5, 1850, the name was changed to "Santa Cruz ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chorizanthe Pungens
''Chorizanthe pungens'' is a species of flowering plant in the buckwheat family known by the common name Monterey spineflower. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the San Francisco Bay Area south along the Central Coast. Description It grows mainly in coastal habitat and that of the hills and mountains overlooking the coastline. This is a generally erect but sometimes spreading or prostrate plant with stems up to half a meter in length. It is green to gray to red in color and usually hairy in texture. The leaves are located at the base of the plant; there are also bracts along the stem at the bases of the inflorescences which look like leaves. The inflorescence is a dense cluster of flowers, each flower surrounded by six white to pink hairy bracts tipped in hooked awns. The flower itself is only a few millimeters wide with jagged tepals. Varieties There are two varieties of this species: *var. ''pungens'' is the more common *var. ''hartwegiana'' is known only f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Townsend's Warbler
Townsend's warbler (''Setophaga townsendi'') is a small songbird of the New World warbler family. Taxonomy Townsend's warbler was formally described in 1837 by the American naturalist John Kirk Townsend under the binomial name ''Sylvia townsendi''. The type locality is Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River in the state of Washington. After the merger of the genera ''Dendroica'' and ''Setophaga'', Townsend's warbler is now placed in the genus '' Setophaga'' that was introduced by the English naturalist William Swainson in 1827. The species is monotypic: no subspecies are recognised. Description Townsend's warbler has a yellow face with a black stripe across its cheeks extending into an ear patch, a thin pointed bill, two white wing bars, olive upperparts with black streaks on their backs and flanks, and a white belly. Adult males have a black cap, black throat and yellow lower breast; females have a dark cap and a yellow throat. Immature birds are similar to females with a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pileated Woodpecker
The pileated woodpecker (''Dryocopus pileatus'') is a large, mostly black woodpecker native to North America. An insectivore, it inhabits deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes, the boreal forests of Canada, and parts of the Pacific Coast. It is the largest confirmed extant woodpecker species in North America, with the possible exception of the ivory-billed woodpecker, which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed be reclassified as extinct. It is also the third largest species of woodpecker in the world, after the great slaty woodpecker and the black woodpecker. "Pileated" refers to the bird's prominent red crest, from the Latin meaning "capped". Taxonomy The English naturalist Mark Catesby described and illustrated the pileated woodpecker in his book ''The Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands'' which was published between 1729 and 1732. Catesby used the English name "The larger red-crested Wood-pecker" and the Latin ''Pic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Long-eared Owl
The long-eared owl (''Asio otus''), also known as the northern long-eared owlOlsen, P.D. & Marks, J.S. (2019). ''Northern Long-eared Owl (Asio otus)''. In: del Hoyo, J., Elliott, A., Sargatal, J., Christie, D.A. & de Juana, E. (eds.). Handbook of the Birds of the World Alive. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona. or, more informally, as the lesser horned owl or cat owl,Voous, K.H. (1988). ''Owls of the Northern Hemisphere''. The MIT Press, . is a medium-sized species of owl with an extensive breeding range. The scientific name is from Latin. The genus name ''Asio'' is a type of eared owl, and ''otus'' also refers to a small, eared owl. The species breeds in many areas through Europe and the Palearctic, as well as in North America. This species is a part of the larger grouping of owls known as typical owls, of the family Strigidae, which contains most extant species of owl (while the other taxonomic family of owls are the barn owls, or Tytonidae).''Owls of the World: A Photographic Guide' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Narrow-faced Kangaroo Rat
The narrow-faced kangaroo rat (''Dipodomys venustus'') is a species of rodent in the family Heteromyidae. It is endemic to California in the United States. Like all other heteromyids, the dental formula of ''Dipodomys venustus'' is . Narrow-faced kangaroo rats lives within chaparral Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant community and geographical feature found primarily in the U.S. state of California, in southern Oregon, and in the northern portion of the Baja California Peninsula in Mexico. It is shaped by a Mediterrane ..., mixed chaparral, and on sandy soils with oak or pine. They are distributed along West-central California in the coastal mountains.Best, Troy L. “Dipodomys Venustus.” ''Mammalian Species'', no. 403, 1992, pp. 1–4. ''JSTOR'', JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3504315.Retrieved 3 December 2017. References Dipodomys Endemic fauna of California Mammals of the United States Rodents of North America Fauna of the California chaparral and woodland ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polyphylla Barbata
''Polyphylla barbata'' is a rare species of beetle known by the common name Mount Hermon June beetle. It is endemic to California, where it occurs only in Santa Cruz County. There is only a single occurrence of the beetle on a stretch of territory of under . This is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.''Polyphylla barbata''. The Nature Conservancy. The beetle is about 2 centimeters long, black and brown in color with broken white longitudinal stripes on the back. The are covered in a thin coat of hairs. The female is slightly larger than the male. The female spends most of her time underground, coming out only to mate with the male. [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zayante Band-winged Grasshopper
The Zayante band-winged grasshopper (''Trimerotropis infantilis'') is a species of insect in the family Acrididae. It is endemic to a small portion of the Santa Cruz Mountains in California. Background and description The Zayante band-winged grasshopper is in the Order Orthoptera and Family Acrididae. It is known to be located only in Santa Cruz County, California within the Zayante sandhills, chiefly within a Maritime Coast Range Ponderosa Pine forest. The area has little vegetation and is primarily made up of sand and soil sediments. The male grasshoppers range from 13.7 to 17.2 millimeters in length, and females a little larger from 19.7 to 21.6 millimeters. (Donald J. Barry. 2000). They have forewings that are tan to gray with darker bands, pale yellow hind wings, with one faint thin band that is visible when they are in flight; its eyes are also banded. Its lower legs (tibiae) are blue and gray (Donald J. Barry 2000). They have good flying skills, being known to fly dis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cupressus Abramsiana
The Santa Cruz cypress (''Hesperocyparis abramsiana''; formerly classified as ''Cupressus abramsiana'') is a species of North American tree within the Cypress family. The species is endemic to the Santa Cruz Mountains within the Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties of west-central California.Wolf, Carl B. (1948) Taxonomic And Distributional Studies Of The New World Cypresses, Aliso: A Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany: Vol. 1: Iss. 1, Article 2. p. 206. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the species on the Endangered Species Act in 1987 due to increasing threats from habitat loss and disruption of natural forest fire regimes.U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1987. Endangered and threatened wildlife and plants; Determination of endangered status for ''Cupressus abramsiana'' (Santa Cruz cypress). Federal Register 52: 675-679. https://ecos.fws.gov/docs/federal_register/fr1017.pdf In 2016, the conservation status of the Santa Cruz cypress changed to Threatened. The cited ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sierra Nevada
The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily in Nevada. The Sierra Nevada is part of the American Cordillera, an almost continuous chain of mountain ranges that forms the western "backbone" of the Americas. The Sierra runs north-south and its width ranges from to across east–west. Notable features include General Sherman, the largest tree in the world by volume; Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at , the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers from one-hundred-million-year-old granite, containing high waterfalls. The Sierra is home to three national parks, twenty wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon National Parks; and Dev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eriogonum Nudum
''Eriogonum nudum'' is a perennial shrub of the wild buckwheat genus which is known by the common name naked buckwheat or nude buckwheat. Description The ''Eriogonum nudum'' plant is a tall, bare, leafless stem, bifurcating into more stems, each topped with rounded clusters of white or pale pink or yellow flowers growing up to six feet from a basal rosette at the ground, where the flat green leaves are located. An striking characteristic is that flower clusters typically occur at the branch as well as the branch tips. The naked stem gives the plant its common name. Distribution Naked buckwheat can be found scattered around the west coast of the United States. This species has one of the widest ecological distributions of all of the buckwheats. It can be found at wet coastal sea level locales and the coldest, driest elevations of the Sierra Nevada, as well as many areas in between. The species is not uncommon, but some specific varieties are quite rare. Butterflies Nectar-f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brassicaceae
Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leaves are simple (although are sometimes deeply incised), lack stipules, and appear alternately on stems or in rosettes. The inflorescences are terminal and lack bracts. The flowers have four free sepals, four free alternating petals, two shorter free stamens and four longer free stamens. The fruit has seeds in rows, divided by a thin wall (or septum). The family contains 372 genera and 4,060 accepted species. The largest genera are '' Draba'' (440 species), '' Erysimum'' (261 species), '' Lepidium'' (234 species), '' Cardamine'' (233 species), and '' Alyssum'' (207 species). The family contains the cruciferous vegetables, including species such as '' Brassica oleracea'' (cultivated as cabbage, kale, cauliflower, broccoli and co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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