The Bird Whisperer: Sedona: Long Canyon Trail

On July 31, 2011, Theresa and I went on a hike on the Long Canyon Trail in Sedona. We only went a few miles up the trail, taking our time looking at mosses, other plants, and wildlife. It was a good trail to hike on a hot day, since many portions of the trail had groves of fairly tall Arizona cypresses. The rest of the habitat was chaparral and pinyon-juniper woodland. Below are various photos of the scenery and biodiversity along the trail, including the mosses and lichens that Theresa taught me:

Before showing photos of mosses, here is a little bit of info. about their basic biology. Mosses are among the most primitive of land plants, having thin cells and cuticles on the leaves that allow quick absorption of water. They lack true roots and do not have the vascular tissue of higher land plants (e.g. ferns, conifers, flowering plants, etc.) that conduct water and nutrients throughout those plants. Because of this, mosses are restricted in their growth to being very flattened and close to the substrate they are growing on. Mosses have two main growth forms/life stages: 1) a gametophyte stage, consisting of leaf-covered stems and sexual reproductive structures that produce sperm and eggs, and 2) a sporophyte stage, which is a bare stalk baring a spore-producing capsule (the sporophyte is formed after the fusion of the sex cells on the gametophyte structure). Two of the main types of mosses are acrocarpous (vertically aligned clumps of single stems) and pleurocarpous (spreading, branching stems).

Syntrichia species of moss, which has white hairs coming off the stalks. It grows mostly on soil or bark. Notice in this first photo the way this moss looks when it's dried up:

Then, the same moss greening up seconds after spraying water on it:

Theresa examining moss with small hand lens:

Another similar moss with white hairs on the stems is Grimmia alpestris, which grows instead on rocks:

Pseudoleskeella tectorum, a pleurocarpous (spreading, multiple stems) moss that grows on rocks:

Ceratodon purpureus:

Brachythecium collinum:

Gemmabryum caespiticeum:

Bryum argenteum, a white-colored moss (the green, photosynthetic parts are reduced in size on lower parts):

Didymodon vinealis:

While looking around, we found some cool looking insects all over a prickly pear cactus, which as it turns out are aptly called cactus bugs (Chelinidea vittiger). The brown-ish, circular patches on the prickly pear pad are left after the bugs feed on the plant, and apparently the white mess on top of the pad is their excrement:

Plateau striped whiptail (Aspidoscelis velox):

Plateau fence lizard (Sceloporous tristichus):

Immature Cooper's Hawk:

We also saw lots of lichens growing next to mosses, which are mutualisms between fungi and algae (or fungi and cyanobacteria). The cup/bowl like structures on the lichen are called apothecia, which are the sexual reproductive forms of the fungi (the ascocarps):

Puffball/earthstar mushroom:

buckwheat species (Eriogonum sp., Family Polygonaceae):

Bugs getting it on on top of a buckwheat:

Arizona cypress (Cupressus arizonica, Family Cupressaceae):

Immature ovulate (female) cones on a Utah juniper (Juniperus osteosperma, Family Cupressaceae):

deerbrush (Ceanothus integerrimus, Family Rhamnaceae):

Silktassel (Garrya flavescens, Family Garryaceae), which has more broad leaves and pubescent (hairy) leaves, often with a more gray-blue color than the related Wright's silktassel: