When Table Mountain plants bloom, visitors can’t avoid stepping on flowers densely covering the ground. In some areas the flowers are knee high and we wade through colorful surf; other areas have small plants and we kneel or lie on our bellies to see their details. Flowery perfume scents the air. This photo gallery features small members of Table Mountain’s natural communities.
The spectacular spring wildflower display in Cherokee California attracts people from hundreds of miles away. The name came from a group of Cherokee prospectors who arrived in 1849 for the gold rush, but the original humans were Maidu Indians. The place name, Table Mountain, refers to the topography: a basalt tabletop 1,565 feet in elevation on the edge of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The area has wet winters and dry summers. The tabletop has pastures, rocky mounds, basalt block hills, and an undulating surface with vernal pool complexes, small seeps, and rain-fed streams that dry up by summer. Most of the small plants associate with vernal pools, grow in pockets of shallow soil, or on rock outcrops because areas with deeper soil support taller plants.
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Due to it’s geology, topography, and location wedged between the higher mountains to the east and the Central Valley in the west, Table Mountain is at the transition zone where the Sierras become the Cascade Mountains. Thus, it is a botanical melange combining plants commonly not found together. Subtle ridges and crevices of the ground surface, hidden by the wildflowers in these photos, and the deeper drainages and higher hills of basalt blocks create diverse micro-environments with varied moisture, sun, and soil depth. The shallow soil above rock has prevented the area from being plowed, so impacts mostly are from cattle and introduced grasses. When managed properly, cattle benefit the wildflowers by adding nutrients (manure) and preferential grazing on grasses while not eating the wildflowers.
Eroded basalt cliffs support the top of the table with seasonal waterfalls coursing down the steep slopes (when we’ve had enough winter rains).
The flatter portions of the tabletop have vernal pools, seasonally flooded shallow basins with a diverse flora of specialized plants that grow in standing water and produce seeds that remain viable during the dry season, sometimes for many years. Pools hold specially adapted animals, too. Some spend the dry season as dormant eggs ready to hatch when the proper combination of water and temperature arrives (usually December to March). Plant species arrange with those favoring inundation in the deeper center of the pool (a few inches deep) and upland species along the margins. Green grasses grow on the highest spots.
In the two photos below, yellow flowers are mostly Johnnytuck, yellow carpet, and goldfields (shown in upper left photo). In wetter seasons, the center area now bare rock would have standing water with emergent wetland plants. The rocky strip is a depression but the difference is so subtle our eyes are fooled.
A vernal pool in late spring of a year with more rainfall. Grass covers the rocky mounds and bands of wildflowers sort out by water tolerance. The ground is soggy but standing water has evaporated or soaked in.
The two plants below are among those providing the bright yellow in the photos above.
Johnnytuck (4 to 8 inches tall) is a semi-parasitic plant that obtains some nutrients from the roots of adjacent plants.
Yellow carpet, the other common plant along vernal pools, is 3 to 6 inches tall.
Tadpole shrimp, a rare crustacean about 2 inches long, live in the vernal pools. They have a shield-like shell (carapace). Living fossils, their form hasn’t changed since the Triassic Period 252 to 201 million years ago. They lay eggs encased in a covering that protects the embryo from drying out to survive, dormant, through summer, or several years of drought, stored in the dry pool bed.
Large hills of lichen-covered basalt blocks are divided by seasonal drainages edged with colorful flowers. Streams and pools hold newts, tree frogs, and aquatic invertebrates.
This is the plant she’s inspecting with her hand lens. Kellogg’s monkeyflower grows along the edges of creeks and in wet patches and is 2 to 6 inches tall.
Volcanic onion grows on bedrock, is 2 to 3 inches tall, and smells like garlic. The bulbs are dug up and eaten by kangroo rats who also live here.
Bitterrroot (4 inches tall or less) has edible roots covered with a bitter outer coat. American Indians in the west prized this food and gave it high trading value. Note the swollen cylindrical leaves, an adaptation for surviving drylands.
Later in spring when the petals have fallen and the leaves dried up, bitterroot looks alien among lichenous rocks and dried mosses.
Goosefoot violet grows 3 to 8 inches tall amidst the grasses.
Foothill plantain, the white flower, at 2 inches tall is a true belly plant carpeting the ground. It is shown here with Kellogg’s monkey flower.
Dwarf stonecrop is a 2 to 4 inch tall succulent growing in rocky soil that dries out fast. The leaves and stem are bright red.
White meadowfoam barely makes the tiny plant cut-off. It grows 4 to 12 inches tall in wet areas.
The flowers attract pollinators, such as these butterflies.
White tipped clover, 1 to 6 inches tall, is an important nectar plant. The round seed pods with a notch in the tips (silicles in the lower left) are from shining pepperweed, a plant in the Mustard Family.
California newt is not the smallest animal on Table Mountain, but along with Pacific tree frogs they are the smallest of the reptiles here. Newts crawl across the dry pastures to pools and streams to mate in the winter and early spring. When the water dries up, the adults and the new generation crawl into upland habitat for the summer. A paralytic poison in their skin can numb the mouth of a predator, such as a snake, so it can’t swallow them.
Newts travel to seasonal pools and streams such as these.
Despite the thousands of humans visiting Table Mountain (mostly in March and April), only two humans are in photos here and they are included to provide scale. The official public use area is a CDFW Ecological Reserve covering 3,350 acres, but several thousand acres more are private land adjacent to the Reserve.
As spring ends, plants die back for the summer, The tabletop turns dry and brown with seeds, bulbs, and eggs waiting for winter rains to set the whole cycle flourishing for another season.
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