Transcript ERH 5 Plant Basics - Critical Practices LLC

Plant Basics
Or
C. Henry
UW
Chapter 5 from:
Ecological Restoration Handbook
By: Chuck Henry & Elena Olsen
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EPS
Manicured park or natural
ecosystem?
• Manicured park
– Requires
continual
maintenance
• Water
• Fertilizer
• Work
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• 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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UW
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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UW
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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UW
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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UW
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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UW
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
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– 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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UW
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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UW
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
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•
•
•
Grassy meadows
Huge Garry oaks
Harsh soils
Understory species
– Idaho fescue, many wildflowers, and
bushes of manzanita, and Ceanothus
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UW