DATE OF FIELD TRIP: Saturday, 22 May 2004, Conducted by Rudolf Schmid under the auspices of the University of California Botanical Garden, University of California, Berkeley.

PERSPECTIVE: The purpose of this field trip is to examine the plant communities that occur along an itinerary traveled between Berkeley and the Pacific Ocean bordering the Point Reyes National Seashore, Marin County, California. We will actually walk in the following communities, as visited at six stops (Note: Stops #3-#6 are in the Point Reyes National Seashore.):

• 1: Riparian Woodland and especially Redwood Forest, Samuel P. Taylor State Park
• 2: Coastal Closed-cone Coniferous Forest (unburnt), on hill just before the entrance to the Point Reyes National Seashore northwest of Inverness
• 3: Coastal Salt Marsh, at head of Schooner Bay
• 4: Coastal Beach and Dune, North Beach
• 5: Freshwater Marsh, Northern Coastal Scrub, and Northern Coastal Prairie, Drakes Beach
• 6: Coastal Closed-cone Coniferous Forest (burnt October 1995), Limantour Road trailheads for Bayview and Inverness Ridge Trails

While in the vehicles we will also pass some of these eight plant communities and, additionally, drive by these communities: Intertidal-Subtidal; Northern Mixed Evergreen Forest; Chaparral; Annual Grassland; Artificial Grassland; Vernal Pool. We thus will see all of the coastal or near-coastal communities in central and northern California except Oak Woodland (specifically Northern Oak Woodland). Incidentally, Shuford & Timossi (1989) discuss twelve plant communities that occur naturally in Marin County.

READING: Some of these items can be purchased at the Point Reyes National Seashore headquarters (Point Reyes Station, CA 94056, 415/663-1092) as well as from the website for the Point Reyes National Seashore Association.

• Anonymous. 1996. Jepson manual changes to "Marin flora" plant names. Point Reyes: Point Reyes National Seashore. 19 pp., unill. [Update to Howell 1970.]
• Beidleman, L. H. & E. N. Kozloff. 2003. Plants of the San Francisco Bay region: Mendocino to Monterey. 2nd ed. University of California Press, Berkeley. x, 504, [1] pp., ill., 64 pp. pls. (col.), text ill. (B&W). [Ed. 1 1994 by Kozloff & Beidleman, iii, [ii], 332 pp., 110 pp. pls. (64 col., 46 B&W), text ill. (B&W).]
• Evens, J. G. 1993. The natural history of the Point Reyes Peninsula. Rev. ed. Point Reyes: National Seashore Association. xii, 224 pp., ill. [Ed. 1 1988, xiii, 226 pp. Chap. 3, pp. 42-71, on plant communities; pp. 189-197 a list of selected plants.]
• Fellers, G. M., V. Norris & W. Follette. 1990. Point Reyes National Seashore plant checklist. Point Reyes: Point Reyes National Seashore. 42 pp., unill.
• Ferris, R. S. 1970. Flowers of Point Reyes National Seashore. Berkeley: University of California Press. [vi], 119 pp., ill. (B&W).
• Hickman, J. C. (ed.). 1993. The Jepson manual: Higher plants of California. Berkeley: University of California Press. xvii, 1400, [3] pp., ill. (B&W, 1 p. col.), col. ep. maps. [Also Mar. 1996 "third printing with corrections."]
• Holbrook, K. H. & E. Ptak (ed.). 1996. Wildflowers of Point Reyes National Seashore. Point Reyes Station: Point Reyes National Seashore Association. [ii], 21, [1] pp., ill. (col.). [Color photos of 60 taxa.]
• Howell, J. T. 1970. Marin flora: Manual of the flowering plants and ferns of Marin County, California. 2nd ed. Berkeley: University of California Press. ix, 366 pp., 24 pp. pls. (B&W), text ill. (B&W). [A mere reprint of the original 1949 ed., with added 42-p. 1969 supplement (incorporating over 350 entries). For update see Anonymous 1996 and Howell et al. 1981.]
• Howell, J. T., G. H. True & C. Best. 1981. Notes on Marin County plants 1970-1980. Four seasons 6(3):3-18. [Update for Howell 1970.]
• Keator, G. 2002. Introduction to trees of the San Francisco Bay Region. University of California Press, Berkeley (series: California natural history guides, 65). [viii], 251 pp., ill. (most col.).
• Lyons, K. & M. B. Cooney-Lazaneo. 1988. Plants of the coast redwood region. [2nd ed.] Boulder Creek: Looking Press. [iii], viii, 197 pp., ill. (most col.).
• Moyer, A. 1999. Wildflowers of Marin County. San Anselmo: Ross Valley Community for Schools. 91.5x61.0cm col. poster. [Ross Valley School District, Box 2, San Anselmo, CA 94979; 415-721-1555. A beautiful poster depicting 65 common species (46 di-, 19 monocotyledonous) in 55 genera (40 di-, 15 mono-) and 28 families (25 di-, 3 mono-).]
• Munz, P. A. 2003. Introduction to shore wildflowers of California, Oregon, and Washington. Rev. ed. Ed. by P. M. Faber & D. Lake. University of California Press, Berkeley (series: California natural history guides, 67). xi, [i], 234, [1] pp., ill. (B&W, col.). [Ed. 1 1964, as Shore wildflowers of California, Oregon, and Washington, [v], 122 pp.]
• Ornduff, R. 2003. Introduction to California plant life. Rev. ed. Rev. by P. M. Faber & T. Keeler-Wolf [cover authorship as Ornduff, Faber & Keeler-Wolf]. University of California Press, Berkeley (series: California natural history guides, 69). xvi, 341 pp., ill. (most col.). [Ed. 1 1974 (series: Idem, 35), [iv], 152 pp., 16 pp. pls. (col.), text ill. (B&W).]
• Roos-Collins, M. 1990. The flavors of home: A guide to wild edible plants of the San Francisco Bay Area. Berkeley: Heyday Books. xv, 224 pp., ill. (B&W).
• Schoenherr, A. A. 1992. A natural history of California. Berkeley: University of California Press (series: California natural history guides, 56) ("A centennial book"). xi, 772 pp., 16 pp. pls. (col.), text ill. (B&W).
• Shuford, W. D. & I. C. Timossi. 1989. Plant communities of Marin County. Sacramento: California Native Plant Society (series: Special publication no. 10, California Native Plant Society). 32 pp., ill. (B&W).
• Smith, D. 2004. Plant. communities of Marin County. Website (Accessed Apr. 2004).

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Last revised: May 2004