Photo essay project

Valley Grassland

California Ground Squirrel

The California Ground Squirrel is most common on plains and open foothills. They are a brownish gray color with a long bushy tail. They are 15 to 18 inches long and weigh 1 to 1.5 lbs.

Needle Grass

Needle Grass is common and native to the valley grasslands. Close up the color is green but it looks gray from far away.

Western Meadowlark

The Western Meadowlark is a colorful bird. It is brown and black on top, it has a short tail with stripes of white, and a beautiful bright yellow breast with a black crescent. It is 9.5 inches long and has a wing span of 14.5 inches.

Shadscale Scrub

Mountain Bush Sunflower

The Mountain Bush Sunflower is a perennial shrub that grows 4 feet tall with yellow daisy flowers.

Bakersfield Cactus

The Bakersfield Cactus covers large areas of the Southern San Joaquin Valley. It has beautiful pink flowers that grow on it.

Gall Wasp Seeds

Seed like galls that are .08 inches in diameter. They are produced on valley and foothill oaks and once they are fully grown they drop to the ground.

Saltbush

The saltbush is a large evergreen shrub that grows up to 8 ft. tall. It is very alkali tolerant and can survive on 5 to 10 inches of rainfall in full sun and poor soil. Also, the entire plant is edible.

Alkali Sink

Saltgrass

This type of grass looks almost like bermuda grass. It can handle regular water or alkaline water.

Western Fenced Lizard

This lizard grows to be 6 to 8.5 inches long. It has scales on top of its body and a smooth surface underneath. The color ranges from black to dark gray to brown.

Spiny Rush

This plant is a large perennial with rounded, stiff, ridged spines. It is native in the alkaline, wet places in the interior and coastal salt marshes.

Riparian Woodlands

Purple Nightshade

The stems on this flower grow to 1.5 to 3 ft. tall. The leaves are oval and are .8 to 1.6 in. The petals are wide and are a bluish purple color and the anthers grow together in the shape of a cylinder and are a bright yellow.

California Sycamore

This tree can grow from 40 to 90 ft. tall and 1 to 3 ft. in diameter. The branches are long and irregular, the bark is smooth with green, yellow, and white areas being exposed. The leaves are 4 to 12 inches long, are very broad, and are a light yellowish green color.

Mallard

A mallard can grow from 20 to 25 inches long and have a wing span as long as 35 inches. Their legs and feet are red orange and a male has a glossy green head and neck with a white ring, the breast is chestnut, the back and belly are gray, and the bill is greenish yellow.

Foothill Woodlands

Dark Rock Moss

This moss is dark green to black when dry. It usually grows on rocks or trees.

Holly-Leaf Redberry

The holly-leaf redberry is a stout shrub or treelike that grows 4 to 12 ft. The leaves are round and are .75 to 1.5 in. by .5 to 1 in. The fruit grows .33 in. long are oval and bright red.

Gray Pine

The Gray Pine grow 40 to 90 ft. tall is 1 to 4 inches in diameter and has a trunk that is often slanted and divided at 10 to 15 ft. above the ground. The bark grows 2 in. thick and is a gray brown color. Needles grow in 3’s, 7-12 in. long are sparse and a gray, green, to blue color. The cones are heavy and armored in a globular shape.

Red Fir

Giant Sequoia

Mountain Meadows