Helpful Water Plants

I am back in a riparian ecosystem. Riparian means near the banks of a river or stream or pond. As I came up to a stream, I saw a bed of clover-like plants growing low out of the water. This plant is Watercress. It has been eaten by tribal people. It can be eaten raw as a salad, or it can be cooked. I also found out that it would be boiled and strained. The liquid was used as a kidney and liver treatment.

The next plant is the Bulrush. What plant does it look like that we learned about recently? If you said Cat-tail, you are correct! The young shoots growing out of the water are edible. Bulrushes are very stiff and would be lashed together into bundles. These bundles were used to build walls and roof tops of shelters. Baskets, fish traps, mats, and hats were also made out of Bulrush. Incredibly, you can make a boat out of Bulrushes! Bulrushes (also called Tule ...too lee) were tied together with Cat-tail fibers and Wild Grape vines. Then these bundles were formed to make a boat in the shape of a canoe. It floats!

Where would you go if you had a Bulrush canoe?

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Rock of Ages

Look at all the differently colored rocks we found in the creek bed. Pretty much all the colors of the rainbow are here...red, orange, yellow, green, indigo, and violet. Why are rocks so many different colors? It depends on what they are made of and how they were made.

There are igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. "Ignis" is Latin for "fire."
Igneous rocks are made by volcanoes and magma. Magma is rock that is so hot, it has turned into a liquid. It's the red stuff that comes out of volcanoes. When liquid rock cools down, it turns into hard rock.

Sedimentary rock is made of sediment. Sediment is stuff that floats down through water and settles to the bottom of a lake or ocean. Sediment forms layers on the bottom. These layers are like layers of paint on your home or furniture. They build up over time. Over a long time, the layers form into one thick solid layer made of different colors. (See December 6).

Metamorphic rock is made when rocks go through more heat and pressure, so they change into something different. To make a tortilla, you have to start by mixing masa with water. Then you have to roll the mixture into a ball. Then you have to roll it flat. Then you have to heat it and it becomes a tortilla. To make metamorphic rock, you start out with one kind of rock. Then, over time, the earth squishes and heats the rock until it turns into something else. Limestone is a sedimentary rock that is made of coral, old shells, and skeletons. Over time, limestone gets heated and squished and it turns into marble. Marble is the very hard and heavy stone that builders use to make buildings. Artists use marble stone for statues.

The last picture is of a conglomerate. Conglomerate is a rock that is made up of little pieces of different rock sort of cemented together. It would be like you taking cookie dough and then adding M & M's, chocolate chips, and nuts to the dough, and then rolling it all into a ball.

Do you know anyone who has a diamond in his or her wedding ring? Can you believe that this diamond started out as charcoal???!!! I'm serious. Diamonds are made of carbon. Charcoal, or burned pieces of wood, are made of carbon. But a diamond is carbon that has been squished and heated up over millions, yes MILLIONS, of years.

What is a ruby? A sapphire? An emerald?

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The Circle of Life

These very white objects in the creek bed caught my eye. As I got closer, I realized that they were the bones of some small animal. These bones are probably the vertebrae of a rabbit. Reach around to your back with your hand. Do you feel the bones going up and down the center of your back? Those stacked bones are called vertebrae (ver-teh-bray). These stacked vertebrae make up your spine.

This rabbit was probably eaten by a coyote. You may think, "How sad :( " But producers, and consumers are all connected together in the food chain. The bunny rabbit (consumer) ate grass (a producer). The coyote (a consumer) ate the bunny. All living things must die, so the coyote will eventually die. The FIBs (consumers) will decompose the body of the coyote. They will turn it into soil. The grass needs soil to live. The rabbit needs the grass. The coyote needs the rabbit. The FIBs (fungi, insects, and bacteria) need the coyote. This IS the circle of life. It goes on and on. If the coyote did not eat rabbits and mice, squirrels and rats, there would be too many rabbits, mice, squirrels, and rats running around. So nature has a way of keeping itself in balance.

I was taking pictures up so closely to the rabbit bones, at first I did not notice a much bigger bone off to the right. This looks like a rib bone. Put your hands over your heart, now go down and around your chest and back. Do you feel the bones that curve around your chest to your back? Those are your ribs. This could be the rib bone of a medium sized mammal. I am not sure which one. Off to the right of the rib was another set of bones. These bones are a couple of vertebrae attached to a broken rib.

These bones are proof that the food chain is working. The circle of life keeps just the right amount of animals in an ecosystem. These bones also are proof that different kinds of animals still survive within walking distance of apartments, a gas station, and a supermarket. And that is a good thing.

What would happen if there were too many dogs in the world? Too many goldfish? Or too many snakes? Or too many flies? Or too many sparrows?

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The Buckeye Butterfly Needs Weeds

Taking a little break is this Buckeye Butterfly. It is called that because the spots on its wings look like the eyes of a buck, a male deer. This is probably a male. Male buckeyes rest on the bare soil waiting for females. The large “eye” spots act as a defense mechanism against predators. The spots almost look like the eyes and nostrils of a larger animal. This might frighten away a bird that otherwise was thinking about eating the Buckeye.

Humans think of Narrowleaf Milkweed as a major weed, but Buckeyes need it to survive. The butterflies lay their eggs on the Milkweed. The eggs hatch and out pop larvae (a bunch of larva). The larvae of the Buckeye eat the milkweed leaves and turn into caterpillars. Then the caterpillars make cocoons. After a while, a new Buckeye Butterfly emerges out of the cocoon.

There is an expression, “One man’s junk is another man’s treasure.” Well, in the case of Narrowleaf Milkweed, one creature's "weed" is another creature's source of survival. When you're walking around town, look for weeds. Take a closer look at the "weed." Are there any holes that have been nibbled out of the leaves? Are there any creatures crawling around on it? Are there any webs or cocoons? Chances are, that "weed" is an insect's home. Coming up in the spring, you will probably see lots of butterflies and ladybugs on weeds.

So, the little Buckeye Butterfly is glad there are still some "weeds" around. It is pretty easy to grow a butterfly garden at school. Ask your teacher how you can do this. Tell your teacher that you would like to get one started. You can read which butterflies like which plants. Pretty soon, you'll have beautiful butterflies flying outside your classroom.

What butterflies have you seen flying around your home?

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Yerba Mansa--The Gentle Herb

My sons will be the first to tell you that I get excited about little things. I was excited to come across these plants! These are Yerba Mansa plants. Yerba Mansa is Spanish for "gentle herb." These plants only grow where the soil is squishy with moisture. These will get white flowers in the spring.

Yerba Mansa plants are like pharmacies growing out of the ground. Tribal people used different parts of the plant to make different medicines. The roots were used to make cold decongestant. The skins over the roots were used for making a kind of "Bactine" and liquid which relieved stomach ulcers. It was used to purify blood, and to relieve kidney problems and asthma. The leaves were boiled in water and then the water was cooled and used for a "bath" for muscle aches. The list goes on and on. You could call Yerba Mansa a "cure-all."

The cool thing is you can buy this plant. There are online nurseries which carry Yerba Mansa. The plant takes special care as it needs lots of moisture all the time and it needs soil that is more alkaline. Soil can be alkaline or it can be acidic. Alkaline soil has more stuff called "hydrated lime." You can add hydrated lime to your soil to make it more alkaline. Then a Yerba Mansa plant can grow better.

Check out these plants, where they come from, and what they are used for...

Quinine--Bark of a Tree--Used for Malaria
Morphine--Poppy Plant--Used for Extreme Pain Relief
Digitalis--Fox Glove Plant--Heart Medicine
Salicylic Acid--Willow Tree--Aspirin
Penicillin--Mold (A Fungus)--Antibiotic Treatment

Amazing! What disease would you cure? What plants would you experiment with and what part of the plant would you use to find medicine?

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A Most Excellent Estuary

I went to a different ecosystem. It is called an estuary (ess-tu-air-y). This is where the salty ocean meets rivers and streams. The Pacific Ocean is salty. Rain water is fresh water. Rain water runs down mountains and hills in streams. The streams turn into creeks and rivers. The rivers flow to the sea. This place is where the fresh water from San Diego Creek mixes with the salt water of the Pacific Ocean.

During the last 100 years, lots of estuaries got filled up with dirt by humans. Humans would fill and build on these wetlands. Estuaries were thought to be stinky, swampy waste land. Then humans started to realize how much wetlands are needed by us and other animals.

Estuary mud is like a layer of sponge. This mud has little creatures living in it. These creatures clean out the water that comes down stream. Then the water is clean when it gets to the ocean.

Worms, clams, and bacteria live in the mud. Plants live in the mud. Creatures that look like tiny shrimp live in the mud. Other animals live on top of the mud. Snails live on top of the mud and fish swim above the mud. All of these creatures work together to clean out the fresh water coming down from the mountains. Then this filtered water mixes with the salty water and flows out to the ocean.

The estuary at Upper Newport Bay is VERY IMPORTANT for our feathered friends, the birds. Have you ever gone on a long walk, or a long drive? Did you have to spend the night at a friend's house or a relative's house or a hotel? Did your friends or relatives make dinner for you or did you stop at a restaurant for food? Well, estuaries are the hotels and restaurants for birds. Whaaaaaaaat? Yup, it's true. Many kinds of birds do not stay in one place all year. They migrate, or go from place to place. Sometimes birds migrate to go to warmer places. Sometimes they migrate to follow their food. Sometimes they migrate to go back to the places where they were born.

Birds can fly for THOUSANDS of miles when they migrate. So they need a place to sleep. They need a place to eat. They need a place to make nests and have babies.
Estuaries provide food, shelter, and materials for nest making.

Let's take a look at some of the birds that I spotted at the estuary. The fat, round, black birds in the water are American Coots. They are feathered "garbage disposals," eating almost anything...algae, tadpoles, small fish, worms, snails, insects, and eggs. They have large feet that spread out. These feet support them so they don't sink into the mud. See the cinnamon colored birds resting on top of the mud? Those are American Wigeons. They like to eat plants. They have webbed feet so they can swim through the water. The white and black bird in the water is an American Avocet. It has long skinny legs for wading through the water. It has a long skinny beak. It swishes the beak through the water and mud, stirring up little insects and crustaceans (sort of like shrimp) to eat.

In the next picture, we have Mr. and Mrs. Mallard Duck. Mrs. Mallard is brown so that she can hide on her nest and not be seen in the dry plants. Look at Mr. Mallard's webbed, orange feet. These support him on the mud and help him swim in the water. Like the Coot, the Mallard will eat just about anything.

In the third picture, we see a Snowy Egret going for a stroll in search of food. This bird also has a long skinny beak and long legs like the Avocet. It wades through the plants and water, looking mostly for small fish. The white feathers were used on the hats of women. These birds were killed for their feathers. They almost became extinct. Then laws were passed to protect them.

There is an Avocet near two American Shovelers in the fourth picture. Their name gives away what they do. They walk through the water and mud, and shovel through it with their beak. They are looking for seeds from wetland plants and also tiny animals.

I have only talked about six species of birds today. But there are dozens of species of birds who rely on this estuary for their survival. About 40 years ago, humans were going to fill up the Upper Newport Bay. Then they were going to build on it. Thank goodness some people realized that this estuary is a very important place. Hundreds of animals need this estuary. And humans need this estuary. This estuary cleans and filters the fresh water that will join the Pacific Ocean.

Where do you rest in your house? Where do you eat?

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