Hillside walk, 03 December 2018
On Tuesday/Wednesday we received about 2 inches of rain. The hillsides now have lots of green grass shoots. The ground is wet everywhere, but it's too early to see any impact on flowers.
The mosses, liverworts, and ferns are all green and looking enthusiastic. The one exception is coffee fern (Pellaea andromedifolia). I know of only one specimen, a large one on the steep slope of upper Canyon 3B. In the past it has always exploded with green as soon as rain arrives. This time there are healthy green pieces coming up around the edges, but the bulk of the plant is simply dead. The long, dry summer was clearly more than it was designed for. This clearly speaks to the significance of this very dry summer period, preceded by a dry winter.