Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

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OAK WOODLAND

Inland from San Francisco Bay, the fog-free hills between 300 and 3500 feet host a generally open woodland, sometimes called a savanna. Species here include various oaks, California buckeye, gray pine, California bay, buckbrush, toyon, coffeeberry, snowberry, and poison oak. Examples of this community can be found in Sugarloaf Ridge State Park, Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve, and Henry W. Coe State Park.

RIPARIAN WOODLAND

Found beside creeks and rivers, these trees and shrubs provide the Bay Area’s best hope for an autumn display of color. Common riparian species include bigleaf maple, white alder, red alder, California bay, various willows, California rose, poison oak, California wild grape, elk clover, and giant chain fern. Point Reyes National Seashore and Monte Bello Open Space Preserve give you opportunities to enjoy this community.

REDWOOD FOREST

At one time, coast redwoods blanketed the Pacific coast from central California to southern Oregon. These giants are the world’s tallest trees and are among the fastest-growing. Commercially valuable, they were heavily logged, especially in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The remaining old-growth coast redwoods in the Bay Area are confined a few areas, most notably Muir Woods National Monument in Marin County and Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve in Sonoma County. Associated with redwoods are a number of plant species, including tanbark oak, California bay, hazelnut, evergreen huckleberry, wood rose, redwood sorrel, western sword fern, and evergreen violet. You can visit second-growth redwood forests and see a few old-growth giants at Muir Woods National Monument, Redwood Regional Park, and Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve.