Old-growth chaparral secrets
California chaparral contains some of the most magnificent plant forms in the world. The large, dark green shrub in the lower left hand corner of the photo below is an ancient specimen of mission manzanita, Xylococcus bicolor.
In this stand of old-growth mixed chaparral stands one of the oldest specimens of mission manzanita known.
The photo below is a close-up of the shrub’s interior. The branches are at least 85 years old. The burl below is likely several centuries. This plant survives fires only by resprouting so the burl below has no doubt seen a number of fires, regenerating the plant each time.
The interior of the ancient mission manzanita (Xylococcus bicolor).
January 25th, 2009 at 11:34 am
Hi Rick,
I would like to use these photos and captions in the Wikipedia article. If you would allow that, could you upload them to the Wikipedia Commons so I will have access to them? (I cannot upload them myself because you own the rights to them.) The commons is here: http://commons.wikimedia.org.
Thanks,
–Brian Godfrey
February 1st, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Fascinating. I know of a couple of Manzanita around here (Rialto, ca) that are very large (not as large as the one in your photo I don’t think) and I never considered how old they must be. Few and far btween though.
Same with the Alligator Lizard (sorry, I don’t know the real name of it, but it’s the only lizard variety around here that will stand it’s ground and fight ANYTHING no matter how big.) and I haven’t seen a “Horney Toad” since I was a kid.
Strangely I do see many more types of insects now. Mud Daubers are quite common, many more of those “tick tick tick tick”, and “BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzZZZZzz” (heh) things that hang out in the trees, and there’s a new type of spider. Its shaped like a black widow, and it “spins” the same kind of randomly strewn, very strong (you can hear them snap) webs. The color, however, is dark brown and has a sort of striped white and orange pattern. email me if you’d like a good macro JPG of the spider.