This past month I have had the opportunity to explore one of the strangest natural places I’ve ever seen just 100 miles away from my hometown.  The Clear Creek Management Area is a large (30,000 acre) section of public land located at the southern end of California’s Diablo Mountains that hosts many diverse natural resources. What makes this area so interesting to me is its “kooky” serpentine soil.

As many of you know serpentine is an ultramafic rock type that weathers to produce soils that are characterized by low calcium-to-magnesium ratios and high levels of heavy metals. In addition to difficult soil chemistry serpentine outcrops are often steep and rocky. These harsh soil conditions make it difficult for many plant species to survive and foster uniquely adapted and rare endemics.

Serpentinite outcrop within Clear Creek Management Area.

The Clear Creek Area is host to the largest stretch (at least 8,000 acres) of natural serpentine barrens in North America. Here, tectonic milling has produced expansive stretches of sheered and pulverized serpentine rock fragments with next to no plant cover making it very popular with OHV riders. Several rare serpentine endemic plant species grow at CCMA including listed Threatened Camissonia benitensis (San Benito evening primrose), Layia discoidea, Monardella antonina ssp. benitensis, Fritillaria viridea, Fritillaria falcata, Solidago guiradonis, and Trichostema rubisepalum.

Barren serpentine slopes in the Clear Creek area.

San Benito evening primrose (listed Threatened).

250 year old Pinus coulteri (upper left) dwarfed by stressful soil environment.

I’m beginning to recognize just how closely plant diversity is linked to geology. With the help my mentor, Ryan O’Dell I hope to learn more about serpentine ecology, edaphic endemism, plant evolution and adaptation, and revegetation of harsh sites.