Lagunitas and Bon Tempe Lakes Shorelines
Saturday October 8, 2016 9:00am – 12:00pm
Field Trip Leader: Terry Gosliner
As summer comes to end, the local reservoirs continue to dry out along their shorelines and many late-blooming species appear. Take a walk along the meadows and shores of Lakes Lagunitas and Bon Tempe. We will look at native trees, shrubs, and emergent, aquatic species in this picturesque area. Interesting plants we may see include lowland cudweed (Gnaphalium palustre), Rough cocklebur (Xanthium strumarium), Broad-leaved mudwort (Limosella acaulis),Yellowseed false pimpernel (Lindernia dubia), Aquatic pygmy-weed (Crassula aquatica), and Purple sand spurry (Spergularia rubra). Unusual plants like the parasitic Field dodder (Cuscuta campestris) are often found on the Xanthium cockleburs. Many of these plants are not known elsewhere in Marin County. We will also see the drying meadows where the graceful Narrow tarplant (Holocarpha virgata) and the threatened Gairdner’s yampah, (Perideridia gairdneri) are found. This is the only place in Marin where these species of tarplant are known.
Meet at the Lake Lagunitas parking/picnic area.
There is an $8.00 parking fee.
Head west on Sir Francis Drake Blvd. until you reach the Fairfax City limits, turn onto left onto Broadway Blvd. (at the Valero Gas Station), then immediately right to stay on Broadway, in approximately 500 feet turn left onto Bolinas Road. Stay on Bolinas Road for approximately 1.5 miles, turn left on Sky Oaks Road. (There is a wooden sign at 700 Bolinas Road on the left saying “Lake Lagunitas.” ) Stop at the Marin Municipal Water District Kiosk to purchase a parking permit, about one quarter mile away. Then continue along the paved road of Sky Oaks Road about 1. 25 miles until it ends at the Lake Lagunitas parking/picnic area. A bathroom and water are available at the parking lot.
Terry Gosliner, is a CNPS member and a Curator in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology at the California Academy of Sciences, where he specializes in the evolution and systematics of nudibranchs (sea slugs). While his research focuses on marine biology and often takes him to coral reefs in the Philippines, he has a life-long passion for native California plants. As a child he grew up in Marin and explored the plants of the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed from an early age.