{"id":55736,"date":"2014-06-12T07:29:03","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T14:29:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-clm-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=55736"},"modified":"2014-06-12T07:29:03","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T14:29:03","slug":"san-miguel-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/?p=55736","title":{"rendered":"San Miguel Island"},"content":{"rendered":"

On June 3, I returned from a week-long trip to San Miguel Island, where I assisted a botanist with a vegetation mapping project on the island.\u00a0 San Miguel, a windy, treeless island, is the westernmost of the Channel Islands.<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span><\/span><\/span>Dominant shrubs species on the island include coyote bush (Baccharis pilularis<\/i>), prostrate coastal goldenbush (<\/span>Isocoma menziesii <\/i>var. <\/span>vernonoides<\/i>), and silver lupine (<\/span>Lupinus albifrons <\/i>var. <\/span>douglasii, <\/i>pictured, sand-covered).<\/span>\u00a0 Giant coreopsis (<\/span>Leptosyne gigantea<\/i>), San Miguel Island deerweed (<\/span>Acmispon dendroideus <\/i>var. <\/span>veatchii<\/i>) and golden yarrow (<\/span>Eriophyllum confertiflorum<\/i>)<\/span> <\/i>are abundant in areas on the eastern side of the island, but are largely absent from its western side. While common on the larger islands and on the mainland, toyon (<\/span>Heteromeles arbutifolia<\/i>), black sage (<\/span>Salvia mellifera<\/i>) and lemonade berry (<\/span>Rhus integrifolia<\/i>) are infrequent on San Miguel.<\/span>\u00a0 The rare Northern Island tree mallow (<\/span>Lavatera assurgentiflora <\/i>subsp. <\/span>assurgentiflora<\/i>, pictured)<\/span> <\/i>also occurs on the island.<\/span>\u00a0 Common herbs include San Miguel Island locoweed (<\/span>Astragalus miguelensis<\/i>), Greene\u2019s dudleya (<\/span>Dudleya greenei<\/i>), <\/span>Malacothrix <\/i>species (pictured is the white-flowered M. saxatilis implicata<\/em>)\u00a0and the non-native sea-fig (<\/span>Carprobrotus chilensis<\/i>).<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The seals were another fascinating part of the trip.\u00a0 In some areas on the western side of the island, we were guided by one of the pinniped (seal) researchers. <\/span>\u00a0We saw four species of seals over the course of the week:<\/span>\u00a0 northern fur seals, harbor seals, California sea lions, and elephant seals.<\/span>\u00a0 Elephant seals breed on the island from December through March.<\/span>\u00a0 We only saw a few northern fur seals; the males were on the island establishing their territory.<\/span>\u00a0 The trip was a great opportunity to learn the most common elements of the SMI flora (as well as many less-common species), and to talk to biologists and botanists about their work on the islands.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Mountaintop RD, San Bernardino National Forest, US Forest Service<\/p>\n

\"Northern<\/a>

Northern Island tree mallow<\/p><\/div>\n

\"DSCN0869\"<\/a>

A view of Prince Island and eastern Cuyler Harbor.<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Sand-covered<\/a>

Sand-covered silver lupine<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cliff-aster\"<\/a>

Cliff-aster<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On June 3, I returned from a week-long trip to San Miguel Island, where I assisted a botanist with a vegetation mapping project on the island.\u00a0 San Miguel, a windy, treeless island, is the westernmost of the Channel Islands.\u00a0 Dominant … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5827,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55736"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5827"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=55736"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55805,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55736\/revisions\/55805"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.clminternship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}