Palm trees more than a symbol of the tropics

Palm trees typically evoke images of tropical islands with white sandy beaches and turquoise blue water. However, palm trees grow in other places besides tropical islands; they can grow along streams in the desert, along Californian boulevards or as far north as New York City. Most palm trees die or become severely damaged when temperatures dip below freezing, but cold-hardy palm trees, such as the needle palm, can survive temperatures below zero in places such New York City and Vancouver, British Columbia.

                 

Terminal crown of palm tree (note teeth-like structures on frond stems--they are sharp)

Over 2,500 species of palm trees exist worldwide, with the majority occurring in tropical America and tropical Asia. The general distribution of palm trees is between 38 degrees north latitude and 37 degrees south latitude, which is as far north as Sacramento, California and as far south as Melbourne, Australia. Palms are mainly restricted to tropical and subtropical environments because their vegetative growth is continuous (not seasonal) and they lack dormancy mechanisms (like deciduous trees).

                 

Of the eleven species native to North America, only one is native to western North America—the California fan palm. The California fan palm, also known as the desert palm, is also the largest native species with a height of up to 82 feet. The wax palm is the tallest palm worldwide at 200 feet. The smallest palm tree, the lady palm, attains a maximum height of 12 feet.

California fan palms at Rancho Jurupa Park, Riverside, California

One aspect all palm trees have in common is their unique fronds, which can weigh upwards of 25 pounds apiece. Palm fronds are divided into two main categories: pinnate and palmate. Pinnate fronds look like a feather while palmate fronds look like a hand. There are a few exceptions with some fronds looking like fish tails or wheel spokes.

Palmate-type frond on California fan palm

Palm trees are unique in how they grow. While a cottonwood tree starts as a spindly sapling and gradually grows in girth and height, a palm tree will attain its maximum girth before beginning a substantial height increase. In other words, a twelve-foot high California fan palm with have the same size base now as it will in fifty years--the only difference is that it will be taller.

                 

The upward growth of a palm is seen in the leaf scars on the outside of its slender trunk. As the palm grows upwards the older fronds on the outside of the crown die and their leaf bases create the “bark” of the tree. In some species the dead fronds fall away, but in others, such as the California fan palm, they stay attached and conceal the trunk.

Leaf scars of palm fronds create "bark" of palm tree

Between all the species of palm trees, a wide array of products is harvested. The most well-known is the coconut from the coconut palm. In addition to shredded coconut and coconut milk, coconuts produce a coconut oil that is used in the manufacture of synthetic rubber, cosmetics, vegetable shortening, margarine, perfumes, flavorings and soaps.

                 

Carnauba wax harvested from carnauba palms is used in shoe polish, surfboard wax, dental floss and as a wax coating on candies. A wax-like substance is also harvested from the fronds of the wax palm and is used to make soap and candles. Other palm trees produce dates, betel nuts, acai berries and hard nuts (used to make palm oil). Sandals, baskets and roof thatching are among a few items made from palm fronds. Not only are palm trees economically important but they are a pleasure to look at. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on January 26, 2012.

               

Is it really January?

78 degrees Fahrenheit in Riverside, California.

Same time, 33 degrees difference in latitude, 118 degrees difference in temperature.

Minus 40 degrees Fahrenheit in Bettles, Alaska--that's what winter should be. 

Urban Wildlife

Urban wildlife seems like an oxymoron--just like a sanitary landfill, but it does exist. Surprisingly, our small RV park supports a variety of creatures. The park is a tiny oasis of nature amidst the urban landscape of Riverside, California. There are two ponds and several areas of woods--which are a jungle of vegetation and a haven to small creatures.

Black-crowned night-heron in a tree on the bank of the pond

A variety of birds resides around the ponds, including great blue herons, black-crowned night-herons, great egrets, American coots, mallards, an osprey and double-crested cormorants.

Great Egret

A great horned owl resides in a large tree above the other campground and hoots in the evenings. A bevy of doves flies around the park along with numerous song birds that love the dense brush of the woods.

Great blue heron, double-crested cormorants and American coots

The coots split their time between the pond and waddling around the lawns searching for insects.

American coot (right) and pied-billed grebe (left)

The most surprising urban wildlife encounter has been a coyote. On several occasions he has walked by the trailer on the walking path. One afternoon he was after the flock of coots feeding on the lawn.

Coyote trotting on walking path

Walking in the tracks of dinosaurs

Walking on a trail near Moab, Utah, I stepped over some large depressions in the bedrock but quickly stopped and realized that these were more than depressions, these were dinosaur tracks. Not the well-defined tracks I had envisioned but what 18-ton creature leaves detailed footprints in the mud. I could stand with both feet in a track and still have extra space.

Large depressions in sandstone are dinosaur tracks made by an 18-ton dinosaur

Now knowing what to look for, I found several other tracks of a different dinosaur. This one was more defined and I could make out the three toes.  I was stepping in a footprint made by a dinosaur 150 million years ago—an incomprehensible amount of time. 

Allosaurus dinosuar track

Finding fossils is exciting but touching these tracks was mystifying. The fossils I’ve found before I could relate to, like plant fossils, mud crack impressions and ripple marks. However, there is no present-day comparison for dinosaurs, nothing even close.

                 

Trying to imagine the colossal size of the creature that made the tracks was beyond my imagination. Try to picture a dinosaur that weighed 18 tons crossing a muddy river bar looking for plants to eat. Later a 39-foot long Allosaurus walking on its hind legs crosses in the opposite direction looking for smaller creatures to eat with its powerful jaws and short forelimbs. The world was completely different 150 million years ago. 

Allosaurus dinosaur track in sandstone near Moab, Utah (Copper Ridge Trackway)

During the Jurassic period, the largest dinosaurs were up to 135 feet long and over 60 feet tall, making them the largest land mammal ever. The tallest dinosaur was three times taller than a giraffe and the longest dinosaur was longer than three school buses. Dinosaurs were not the largest animal ever; that distinction goes to the blue whale at 70 feet long and 63 tons. Interestingly, one of the big paleontological mysteries is why dinosaurs grew so large back then and why no land animals are that large today.

                 

Tracks of an Allosaurus dinosaur across sandstone which was a muddy river bar 150 million years ago

Studying dinosaurs is difficult since there is nothing to compare them to and the only way to study them is through fossils and tracks. Dinosaur tracks and fossils are continually being found throughout Utah and new species are still being discovered. As wind and water erode away each layer of sandstone in red rock country, a new layer of rock is exposed—maybe 150 million years after it was buried.

                 

Sometimes, pure happenstance reveals treasures. In a location along the Colorado River, slabs of sandstone had fallen from an eroding cliff and upon hitting the rock below the slab cracked along a weak spot between different rock layers and exposed several dinosaur tracks. Like a textbook picture, the one piece of slab held the dinosaur imprints while the opposing piece held the casts of the tracks.  These tracks had not been exposed to daylight for 190 million years. There are probably more tracks in that corresponding layer of sandstone high in those cliffs that someday will be exposed to daylight. 

190 million-year-old dinosaur tracks at Poison Spider Trackway above Colorado River

As wind and water keep eroding the red rock of Canyonlands and Arches country, more of those tracks will be exposed and will eventually be found by someone looking to walk in the tracks of dinosaurs. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on January 19, 2012. 

                  

On the road to California

Naturally, the temperature kept rising the farther south we drove. Temperatures in the sixties are quite pleasant, especially when the sun is shining.

Orange tree in Casa Grande, Arizona

Winter in Arizona and California is like summer in Bettles--but there are no grapefruit and orange trees in Bettles.

Nelson's first night in California

Foothills of east of San Diego

The geology across southern California was interesting and not what I expected. First there were sand dunes on the east side, then lots of desert and then boulder-filled mountains before San Diego. The mountain pass was over 4000 feet on the freeway and we came from sea level on the eastern side. 

Imperial Sand Dunes, southern California

Four-wheelers playing on sand dunes (dark dots in middle of photo), southern California

Mountains to the east of San Diego covered with boulders eroding off the mountains

Dinosaur Tracks and Petroglyphs

On our way to California, we took the scenic route through Utah and Arizona. Southeastern Utah is amazing country with all the exposed rock. We explored dinosaur tracks and petroglyphs in several different locations.

There were the Poison Spider Tracks made by dinosaurs 190 million years ago.

Dinosaur tracks above the Colorado River

 Then the Copper Ridge Trackway dinosaur tracks that were made 150 million years ago.

Nelson sniffing out the tracks of a dinosaur

The Potash Petroglyphs were made by Indians of the Southern San Rafael Fremont Culture, which flourished between 600 A.D. and 1300 A.D.

Petroglyphs above the Colorado River

Petroglyphs at the bottom of a sandstone cliff, viewed from the base

Petroglyphs on a shelf above the Colorado River

The last set of petroglyphs we found was at the Sand Island Campground, along the San Juan River. These petroglyphs are 800 to 2500 years old and possibly date back to 6500 B.C. Most of the rock was done by the Anasazi Indians but more recent rock art was done by the Utes and Navajos.

Petroglyphs near Bluff, Utah

Then onto Arizona where we descended into the Salt River Canyon just to drive up the other side. A beautiful drive.

The Salt River Canyon in eastern Arizona

When the ants go marching into your home

Willingly bringing natural items into my home, such as Christmas trees, plants and pinecones, is fine but when the outdoors comes inside uninvited there is a problem. There are the semi-tolerable stink bugs, houseflies and spiders, but there is nothing pleasant about an ant invasion--especially over the holidays. The ants in my house were marching in more than one by one; it is more like hundreds by hundreds. Unfortunately, I found out I was not the only one with ant problems this winter.

Ants invade houses not because they are dirty, but because the house offers shelter, nesting space and maybe a food source. Ants can nest in a variety of habitats. When outside it may be in soil or decaying wood and when inside a house it can be behind moldings, baseboards and countertops. A house may also be close to a food source outside or offer a food source inside, depending on the species of ant.

                

People don’t willingly allow ants into their homes, but instead unknowingly invite them in. Do you have any shrubbery or tree limbs touching your house along the base or roof? These are like a highway between your house and their food source. One food source is honeydew secreted by aphids or certain caterpillars when they feed on plant sap. The shorter the distance between the ant’s nest and the food source, the more likely the ants will keep nesting there.

                 

A well-sealed home is one way to prevent invasion. Any cracks should be caulked around the base of the house and firewood stored away from walls. Ants also love moisture as demonstrated by the ants swarming my faucet. To deter ants, make sure gutters are clean, downspouts drain away from the house and that bathroom and kitchens are well caulked.

                 

Normally ants survive the winter by entering a state of dormancy or inactivity because their natural food source is unavailable. However, if food is available in a house, then why would an ant want to be inactive?

                 

Only one ant has to find the food or water source in a house to bring in the rest of the colony. Certain ants in a colony are designated foragers, usually wingless females. Once a foraging ant finds food, it will leave a scent trail from the food source back to the nest. Then other foragers will follow the trail and lay down their scent also, which reinforces the trail. The number of ants following the trail can quickly multiply depending on the size of the colony (which can range from 10 ants to 10,000 ants).

                 

These trails can be temporarily disrupted with a mild vinegar and water solution but it will not keep them at bay for long—as I found out. The best way to eliminate an ant colony is with slow-killing bait. Some baits kill the foraging ants before they return to the nest. The slow-killing baits are ideal because they allow the ants to return to their nest and feed the other ants, including the queen. Since foraging ants are the only ones obtaining the food, they also feed the remainder of the colony, including the larvae. They do this by regurgitating the liquid they have obtained (a process known as trophallaxis) and feeding it to other ants. Therefore, when they regurgitate the slow-killing bait they are spreading it throughout the colony.

                 

A colony can only be eliminated if the queen is killed since the queen is the sole reproducer of the nest. Queen ants can live up to 28 years while worker ants only live one to three years. Some colonies even have multiple queens, which makes controlling the ant invasion harder since the colony multiplies faster.

                 

The key to controlling an ant invasion is to act quickly once ants are noticed—the longer you wait to handle the problem, the longer it will take to eliminate the problem. So when the ants go marching into your home: take notice and take action.

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on January 12, 2012.

Pacific Yew: Thriving in the shadows of towering conifers

In the dim light below canopies of towering Douglas-fir, spruce, cedar or hemlock, the little-known Pacific yew resides. Unlike most other trees that rocket towards the sky competing for sunlight, the yew thrives in the understory of moist forests in the coastal and inland Northwest. 

Since yews are not large trees, they are often stumbled upon when wandering through the woods. Sometimes yews do not even resemble a tree. They can grow as a gangly shrub hugging the ground or grow upright to approximately 49 feet. The trunks are often twisted or curved with straight trunks being rare. Regardless of the small trunk, yew wood is hard, heavy and resistant to decay. The thin, reddish-purple bark flakes off in long, papery scales revealing the inner rose-colored bark. 

Pacific yew bark

Of all the unlikely trees that the yew’s foliage could resemble, the giant coastal redwood is the closest. The yew’s needles are dark green above and yellowish-green below, whereas the redwood’s foliage is more whitish underneath. The yew’s needles are about two-thirds of an inch long with slender but not sharp points. The needles appear two-ranked (slightly offset) on the flat sprays. 

Two other similarities the yew has to the giant coastal redwoods are that it can grow sprouts from cut stumps and that the new twig growth remain green-colored year-round--unlike most other conifers. Yews can also be propagated from cuttings. 

Interestingly, the yew’s cone is bright-red and berry-like. The pea-sized red cone is called an aril, which consists of a single seed incompletely surrounded by a cup-shaped, fleshy pulp. Separate male and female trees produce pollen and arils. Birds, squirrels and chipmunks devour the arils with the flesh supposedly tasting like mild cherry Jell-O (sources differ on the edibility). The conspicuous arils make it easy for animals to find the seeds, with birds only eating the fleshy part and dispersing the seed and squirrels and chipmunks discarding the flesh and caching the seeds. 

Pacific yew foliage

Despite the marginally edible red flesh, the majority of the yew is poisonous, including the seeds, foliage and bark. However, moose are known to feed on the yew’s foliage in the winter which results in their urine producing bright orange splotches in the snow. 

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, yew trees were in the medical spotlight for a chemical found in their poisonous bark that inhibited cancer. Taxol, the chemical extracted from the thin bark, was found to inhibit ovarian and breast cancer. Yews were being harvested from the Northwest’s forests more than ever before until scientists figured out how to synthesize the chemical and agricultural plantations began producing yews in harvestable quantities. Now the yew grows unnoticed again in the shadows of its towering neighbors. 

Note: Published in the Bonners Ferry Herald on January 5, 2012