Making lists

Since I discovered the carnivorous bladderwort in the beaver pond beside the highway, I've gone back to the same spot on the path across the pond several times to see what else grows there, bringing samples home (when I could reach them) for closer inspection. And I've been making a list; it's getting long.

Plants: These are the ones growing underwater, or at least with the roots in the water.

bladderwort	Utricularia macrorhiza
bulrush	Scirpus sp.
cattail	Typha latifolia
floating leaved pondweed	Potamogeton natans
hardhack	Spiraea douglasii
marsh cinquefoil	Comarum palustre
small bur-weed	Sparganium natans
pondweed or smartweed
starwort?
swamp horsetail	Equisetum fluviatile
yellow water lily	Nuphar polysepala
sedges, unidentified

Water lily leaf. Speckles on top are hardhack seeds.The little reddish-brown leaf is pondweed. Upright stems, I think, are bulrushes. And under the water, the bladderwort is faintly visible.

Pondweed; I need to collect some for a closer id.

Swamp cinquefoil.

Bulrushes, Scirpus sp.

Green in the background is mainly Swamp horsetail, Equisetum fluviatile.

More plants: these are growing a few metres away, at the edge of the pond. I'm missing quite a few here.

red alder	Alnus rubra
fireweed	Epilobium angustifolium
twinflower	Linnaea borealis
common eye-bright	Euphrasia nemorosa
Salal	Gaultheria shallon

 

Insects and other critters: some in the air above the pond, some in the samples of plants that I brought home.

acute bladder snail	Physella acuta
autumn meadow-hawk	Sympetrum vicinum
boreal bluet	Enallagma boreale
caddis-fly larva	Trichoptera sp.
damsel-fly larva	Zygoptera sp.
honey bee	Apis sp.
midges
milky back-swimmer	Notonecta sp.
other bees
other dragonflies
weevil

 

And birds, mostly seen on the far shores:

red-winged blackbird

common merganser

wood duck

robin

And what I have never seen here yet: the beavers. Their lodge, yes, and the dam they made, and their tracks in the mud and snow. Just not the beavers themselves. Someday ...

I'll be going back in a couple of days; the lists will grow.

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Desde que descubrí la planta acuática carnívora en la laguna de los castores, he regresado varias veces, al mismo sitio en el camino que cruza la laguna, para determinar que más crece allí. Traigo muestras a casa para examinarlas mejor. Y he estado haciendo una lista de lo que encuentro.

Plantas:  Estas son las que crecen debajo del agua, o que por lo menos crecen con las raices en el agua.

utricularia común	Utricularia macrorhiza
tules	Scirpus sp.
totoras	Typha latifolia
espiga de agua	Potamogeton natans
hardhack	Spiraea douglasii
Potentilla de humedal	Comarum palustre
small bur-weed	Sparganium natans
otra espiga de agua o hierba "inteligente"
hierba estrella?
cola de caballo acuática	Equisetum fluviatile
lirio acuático amarillo	Nuphar polysepala
	Carex sp.?

Fotos:

1. Hoja de lirio de agua. Encima lleva semillas de Spiraea douglasii. La hojita rojiza es una de las hierbas de laguna flotantes, espigas de agua. Los tallos emergentes, creo, son de la familia de los tules. Y debajo del agua se pueden ver las hojas de urticularia.
2. Espigas de agua.
3. Potentillas de humedal.
4. Una especie de los tules, Scirpus sp.
5. Las plantas verdes en el fondo, creo que son Typha sp.

Y otras plantas, estas crecen en el borde de la laguna. Y me faltan muchas.

aliso rojo	Alnus rubra
Epilobium, hierba de fuego	Epilobium angustifolium
flor gemela	Linnaea borealis
"ojos  brillantes"	Euphrasia nemorosa
Salal	Gaultheria shallon

 

Insectos y otros bichos: algunos vistos en el aire, otros en las muestras de plantas que traje a casa.

caracol	Physella acuta
libélula	Sympetrum vicinum
caballito del diablo	Enallagma boreale
larva de trichóptero	Trichoptera sp.
larva de libélula	Zygoptera sp.
abeja melífera	Apis sp.
moscas miniaturas
escarabajo natante	Notonecta sp.
otras abejas
otras libélulas
gorgojo

 

Y pájaros, vistas al otro lado de la laguna;

Agelaius phoeniceus

Mergus merganser

Aix sponsa

petirrojo

Y lo que nunca he visto aquí; los castores. Su madriguera, sí. Y la presa que hicieron, y sus huellas en el lodo y en la nieve. Pero los animales, no. Algún dia  ...

Regresaré a la laguna en un par de dias. Mis listas seguirán creciendo.

Another carnivorous plant

In the beaver pond, where yesterday's bluets were partying, I found two aquatic plants I'd not seen before.

Bladderwort, probably Utriucularia intermedia.

I found this at the edge of the pond, in shallow, muddy water, hedged by hardhack on the land side, by water lilies all around. It is a carnivorous plant.

All Utricularia are carnivorous and capture small organisms by means of bladder-like traps. ... Aquatic species ... can feed on more substantial prey such as water fleas (Daphnia), nematodes and even fish fry, mosquito larvae and young tadpoles. Despite their small size, the traps are extremely sophisticated. In the active traps of the aquatic species, prey brush against trigger hairs connected to the trapdoor. The bladder, when "set", is under negative pressure in relation to its environment so that when the trapdoor is mechanically triggered, the prey, along with the water surrounding it, is sucked into the bladder. Once the bladder is full of water, the door closes again, the whole process taking only ten to fifteen milliseconds. (Wikipedia)

And when I went back to get better photos, (not much luck), I found these, too. Also something I'd not seen before.

Bur-Reed, possibly Sparganium natans.

This is a small plant, with long, narrow floating leaves. I didn't see the leaves among all the other bits of vegetation in the water.

From E-Flora:  Inflorescence simple, of 1 to 3 female heads below and 1 male head above, the heads globe-shaped.

I'll have to go back this week, while the flowers are still blooming, to look at underwater leaves and see if I can find any of those carnivorous bladders. Wish me luck!

While I'm at it, these tiny Twinflowers, Linnaea borealis, were blooming on the trail into the pond.

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En la laguna de los castores, donde revoloteaban los caballitos del diablo del post de ayer, encontré dos plantas que nunca antes había visto.

1. Utricularia, probablemente U. intermedia, una planta carnívora.

Estaba junto a la orilla de la laguna, en agua de poca profundidad, algo lodosa, rodeada de Spiraea douglasii y de lirios acuáticos

Todas las especies de Utricularia son carnívoras y capturan organismos pequeños con sus trampas en forma de vejiga. ... Las especies acuáticas ... pueden alimentarse de presas más sustanciales, tales como pulgas acuáticas (Daphnia), nematodos y aun peces juveniles, las larvas de mosquitos y renacuajos nuevos. A pesar de su tamaño reducido, las trampas son extremadamente complejas. El las trampas activas de las especies acuáticas, la presa hace contacto con vellos disparadores ligados a la puerta de la trampa. La vejiga, cuando está armada,  está bajo presión negativa respeto a su medio ambiente, tal que cuando la puerta se abre, la presa, con el agua que le rodea, se introduce dentro de la vejiga. Una vez que esté llena de agua la vejiga, la puerta vuelve a cerrarse; el proceso entero toma solamente de diez a quince milisegundos. (Wikipedia)

2. Y cuando regresé a la laguna para sacar fotos más claras (con poca suerte) encontré  estas flores. Otra planta nunca antes vista. Sparganium natans.

Esta es una planta pequeña, y tiene hojas largas y angostas, flotantes. No vi estas hojas en el agua entre todas las partes de otras plantas.

De E-Flora:  Inflorescencia sencilla, con de 1 a 3 flores hembras abajo, arriba,  below and 1 flor macho; las inflorescencias tienen forma de globo.

Y tendré que regresar de nuevo esta semana, mientras todavía siguen en flor las plantas, para observar las hojas subacuáticas y tratar de encontrar alguna de esas vejigas carnívoras.

3. Ya que estaba en el rumbo, saqué esta foto de las pequeñitas flores gemelas, Linnaea borealis, que crecían al lado del camino.

At the bottom of the summit

The highways and roads crossing the north end of Vancouver Island wind along the bottom of deep valleys, dodging and zig-zagging around steep mountains, searching always for the lowest possible passage, the least likely to be covered in ice for half of the year. Water shows the way. The road follows twisty streams down in the V between hills. Driving, we get our shoulder exercise, left, right, left, left, right ... There are no straight stretches.

As the crow flies, from Campbell River to Tahsis, it's 100 km; by road, it's over 150.

I was surprised, driving back towards Gold River, by a summit sign, down there in the valley.

Bull Lake Summit, Elevation 586 m., 1922 feet.

And the hills loom far above the "summit". The mountains nearby, the Tlupana group, run around 1500 to 1600 metres, a good 1000 above this little lake.

I looked it up: this is the highest point on the road from Tahsis to Gold River. It's high enough to get snow in May.

We parked and climbed down to the shore, pushing through salmonberry canes and dodging mud patches. And the lake shore rewarded us:

Water lilies.

Buckbean, Menyanthes trifoliata, in the shallows. We were too late to see the beautiful, feathery flowers.

Another water-lover: gentian, probably King gentian, Gentiana sceptrum. 

These were growing right at the edge of the water, with their roots in soggy mud.

Another of the ex-mystery mushrooms, Turbinellus floccosus.

Floppy edged mushroom, with pretty fly. (On the left.) And, I think, a slime mold; the reddish ball on the right.

White gilled mushroom with assorted bugs.

Just a plain white mushroom, but I liked the face on the fly.

There was more to be seen; twinflowers, blue huckleberries, probably more mushrooms, but we had to hurry on. Suppertime, and we had forgotten to eat lunch. Gold River, 16 km away, called to us. But next time I'm by, I'll plan on getting my feet muddy. And even my knees.

Where we were this time.