November 2020

At places the surface of the creek is covered with duckweed (Lemna sp.). This photo was taken from the bridge. Most of the Water Pennywort (Hydrocotyle ranunculoides) leaves are covered with duckweed. People have remarked that the creek seems to have more duckweed this year. The water in the creek has no current. The main flow of water has shifted into the wetlands. The lack of current in the creek does not wash the duckweed downstream.

Now that the leaves have fallen the lichen is easy to see. This may be Ramalina farinacea growing on tree branches.

I like this photograph because it shows one strand of a spider web containing small droplets of water. You can see the very small leaves of the moss. In the upper right corner we see a different type of lichen with gray and pink colors.

The rose hips were colorful.

The snowberry plants (Symphoricarpos albus) were loaded.

This is a Twinberry Honeysuckle (Lonicera involucrata) flower. It almost never blooms in November. The flowers always come in pairs. Look closely and you can see the hairs on the flower. This plant is one of many native shrubs that was planted at the beginning of February, 2020. Although it is a spindly plant this flower was about 6 feet above the ground.

Seeds of a sedge. I have been confused about which sedge this might be. But these seeds look very much like photos of Tall Flatsedge (Cyperus eragrostis). The leaves look like an explosion, shooting off in all directions. This native plant grows in soggy areas.

Tall Oregon Grape (Berberis aquifolium). There are no Oregon Grape plants in our wetlands except for those that were planted this spring and those plants are doing well. Probably, the agricultural use of that land eliminated the Oregon Grape. It is nice to see that it is back and is thriving.

Cattail leaves (Typha latifolia).