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| Oaks on Whiskey Hill, Golden Gate Park (4/26/24 and 8/9/24) |
One of my daily walks takes me along the spine of a low hill that parallels Lincoln Way on the southeastern edge of Golden Gate Park. I never knew the hill had a name until it appeared in a newsletter published by a neighbor who mentioned it in relation to some large eucalyptus trees that can be found there (upon one of which I saw a large fruiting of chicken-of-the-woods back in 2023; photo below).
Back in late April of this year I was struck by the fresh spring beauty of the oaks and grass at the eastern edge of the hill and knew I'd want to make a comparison shot once the grass turned brown. Well, the grass is Earharta erecta, aka panic veldtgrass. It's a widespread invasive that San Francisco park staff and volunteers do their best to keep in check where possible.
I had to wait a long time for enough of the Earharta to turn brown for the "after" picture. The grasses on Mt. Tam had been brown for weeks before this stuff finally went to seed, and I wonder if its ability to thrive while other grasses have gone to seed is part of its key to success.
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| Deciduous Street (3/13/24 and 6/25/24) |
I'm including the "Deciduous Street" now because I couldn't find the bare-branch photo in my files back in June, when I took the leafy shot. I probably thought March was too late in the season to look for bare branches, but I came across it by accident just the other day.
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| This is the chicken-of-the-woods that was growing on the eucalyptus on Whiskey Hill back on December 8, 2023 (it didn't make the blog at the time). |
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| I photographed this pine near the start of my Friday morning walk, with the thought that it's winter now in Australia and the southern hemisphere -- and also in San Francisco. |
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| These little Coprinus mushrooms were sprouting below a planted tree on the UCSF campus on Parnassus Heights. |
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| A patch of Crocosmia lilies was sprouting colorfully through the slats of its fenced garden enclosure on 10th Avenue. |
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