UWC. Henry

Plant Basics

Or

EPSC. Henry

Ecological Restoration HandbookBy: Chuck Henry & Elena Olsen

Chapter 5 from:

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Manicured park or natural ecosystem?

• Manicured park– Requires

continual maintenance• Water• Fertilizer• Work

• Native ecosystem– Self sustaining

• There because they are supposed to be there

• Adapted to the soil and climate

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Value of native plants

• We are losing natural ecosystems• Associated loss of special plant species• Benefits:

– Requires very little long-term maintenance if they are properly planted and established

– Provides habitat for wildlife– Protects water quality by controlling soil

erosion – Is an important genetic bank

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Why plants grow in different areas

• Every plant community evolves to best fit its natural environment– Climate– soil moisture– plant nutrients– ground surface

• A change in the environment will mean a change in the plant community

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Effect of water and nitrogen

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Ecosystems change

• As soils develop– Organic matter is added

• As woody plants decompose, the soil is not usually as nitrogen rich as when herbaceous plants decompose

– New plants grow that prefer the different soils

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Ecosystems in western Washington

• Described by their overstory– The main and tallest type

of tree growing in an environment• Deciduous (lose their leaves)• Coniferous (remain green)

• Then by their understory– The plants that grow under

the trees

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General position of some common trees in the

landscape

PW = Pacific willow, BC = black cottonwood, SS = Sitka spruce, RA = red alder, WRC = western red cedar, WH = western hemlock, DF = Douglas fir, PSF = Pacific silver fir, MH = mountain hemlock, ES = Englemann spruce, PP = ponderosa pine.

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Succession

• An ecosystem changes as it matures– Pioneering species

• Species that come in after a disturbance• Hardwoods (like red alder)

– Climax forests• final stage of natural forest succession• Conifers (like Douglas fir, western red

cedar, western hemlock)

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Douglas fir ecosystems

• All types of soil• Low to mid elevation• Understory on a dry site

– include salal, Oregon grape, snowberry, trailing blackberry and bracken fern

• Understory on a moist site– sword fern, ocean spray, Rhododendron,

red elderberry, huckleberry, salmon berry, and fireweed

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Red alder

• Low elevation riparian and wetlands

• Disturbed sites– Nitrogen fixer

• Understory species– sword fern, devil's club, black-cap

raspberry, thimbleberry, salmonberry, and stinging nettle

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Western red cedar

• Moist to wet soils, such as those that occur in riparian zones, around wetlands and bogs

• Understory species– sword fern, salmonberry, black-cap

raspberry, thimbleberry, and stinging nettle

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Ponderosa pine

• Dry climate, but some soil moisture

• East of the Cascades• Sparse understory species

– manzanita, Ceanothus, snowberry, Oregon grape, and fescue

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Prairie

• Grassy meadows• Huge Garry oaks• Harsh soils• Understory species

– Idaho fescue, many wildflowers, and bushes of manzanita, and Ceanothus