I went to the field! It’s been a looog time. As part of our Azolla (sub)project for the California Conservation Genomics (master) Project (CCGP), Forrest and I scheduled a day in the Central Valley. How hot could it be? (Answer: 103 degrees. Also, our vehicle didn’t have air conditioning. And I’ve grown soft.) We had some sites targeted based on recent iNaturalist observations, and also planned on exploring the rice cultivation areas in Sutter County. Azolla is hard to predict, but we needn’t have worried–we ended up sampling 14 populations for the day!
Forrest in action I. I am becoming less fond of Schoenoplectus.
Forrest in action II, in some high quality Azolla habitat.
Speaking of high quality Azolla habitat…
Or this. (We did find it in some nice riverine settings, too, to be fair).
We did also enjoy ourselves a good angiosperm here and there (this is Sesbania, apparently).
Vascular-free plants were not free from our attention, either. (Hornwort sp.)
And we even stooped to the level of vertebrates, if they were cute enough. (Western Toad).
HOWEVER — a new smut!!! The clear non-Azolla highlight. By new, I mean that I hadn’t seen it before. Which is saying very little–it was common enough that I got to be able to identify it as we drove by on the interstate. (My pandemic smut hobby may be a feature of a future blog entry). (Sporosorium cruentum, Johnsongrass Smut)
