Up at 6:00 am and out the door by about 6:45 to get to the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery for a walk with my friend and fellow naturalist Roxanne.  It was mostly sunny and relatively warm outside.  I just had to wear my light jacket.

We’d gone there to see if we could find lichen on the gravestones, fence lines and monuments, and got to see quite a few.  However, Some of the best-looking specimens of lichen were high upon the surface of the statues and the roofs of some of the mausoleums where we couldn’t reach them.

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While we were there, we actually saw more birds than I thought we might, including lots of crows, Audubon’s Warblers, and Lesser Goldfinches.  We also heard and saw a few Cooper’s Hawks. 

Our sort of totem bird, a Black Phoebe, posed for us on top of a grave marker, and we saw a juvenile male Anna’s Hummingbird.  He and some of the finches were bathing in and drinking from a fountain.

CLICK HERE for the full album of photos.

Roxanne had never been there before, and I was hoping the perennial and native plants gardens would be showing off a bit for her.  It was very disappointing then to find that the gardens had been stripped down until they were almost bare, and the plots covered with large ugly wood chips.

We did see a few scattered flowers like Bearded Irises and some Cream Narcissi and Common Daffodils.  There were also some springtime plants growing up between the plots like Giraffe’s Head Henbit, California Poppies, violets, Common Sow-Thistle and Shepherd’s-Purse. I’m hoping that in another month or so, the place will be filled with more flowers and color.

The most interesting thing we found was some red dusty-looking growth on one of the trees. I couldn’t tell if it was a fungus or a lichen, so I researched it after I got home. At first I thought it might be Christmas Lichen, but the form was wrong (even in the early stages), so I kept looking. I think what we found is a plant pathogen called Red Phanerochaete pathogen, Phanerochaete sanguinea. The color was really remarkable.

We only walked for about 2½ hours because my left hip and groin area were aching.  (I think Wilson might be coming back.) 

Species List:

1. ?? Slime mold, too far gone to spore to correctly identify to genus
2. Anna’s Hummingbird, Calypte anna
3. Audubon’s Warbler, Setophaga coronata auduboni
4. Bearded Iris, Iris x Germanica
5. Black Phoebe, Sayornis nigricans
6. Cabbage, Brassica oleracea
7. California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica
8. California Scrub Jay, Aphelocoma californica
9. Cedar Waxwing, Bombycilla cedrorum
10. Chinese Arborvitae, Platycladus orientalis [a kind of ornamental cypress]
11. Chinese Fringe Flower, Loropetalum chinense
12. Common Crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos
13. Common Daffoldil, Narcissus pseudonarcissus
14. Common Goldspeck Lichen, Candelariella vitellina
15. Common Sow-Thistle, Sonchus oleraceus
16. Common Stork’s-Bill, Erodium cicutarium
17. Cooper’s Hawk, Accipiter cooperii
18. Cream Narcissus, Narcissus tazetta
19. Cumberland Rock-Shield Lichen, Xanthoparmelia cumberlandia
20. Dark-Eyed Junco, Junco hyemalis
21. Eastern Fox Squirrel, Sciurus niger
22. Giraffe’s Head Henbit, Henbit Deadnettle, Lamium amplexicaule
23. Gold Dust Lichen, Chrysothrix candelaris
24. Hoary Cobblestone Lichen, Acaraspora strigata [light gray with dark grey apothecia on rocks]
25. House Finch, Haemorhous mexicanus
26. Hoverfly, Long-tailed Aphideater, Eupeodes fumipennis
27. Ink Lichen, Placynthium nigrum
28. Italian Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens
29. Jacaranda, Blue Jacaranda Tree, Jacaranda mimosifolia
30. Japanese Camellia, Camellia japonica
31. Lesser Goldfinch, Spinus psaltria
32. Mexican Bush Sage, Salvia leucantha [purple with white sox]
33. Nightshade, Solanum sp.
34. Northern Mockingbird, Mimus polyglottos
35. Orange, Sweet Orange, Cultivated Orange, Citrus X sinensis
36. Oregon Sunburst Lichen, Xanthomendoza oregana [on wood, yellow/orange thallus bearing granular soredia on the tips and/or underside; looks like leaves with grainy edges]
37. Ponderosa Pine, Pinus ponderosa
38. Pyracantha, Pyracantha coccinea
39. Red Cluster Bottlebrush Tree,  Callistemon sp.
40. Red Phanerochaete pathogen, Phanerochaete sanguinea [pathogen, red dusty-looking fungi on trees]
41. Redflower Buckwheat, Eriogonum grande
42. Scattered Button Lichen, Buellia dispersa [light gray on rocks with black spots]
43. Seven-Spot Ladybeetle, Coccinella septempunctata
44. Shepherd’s-Purse, Capsella bursa-pastoris
45. Sidewalk Firedot Lichen, Xanthocarpia feracissima
46. Silver Ragwort, Jacobaea maritima [silvery leaves, yellow flowers]
47. Southern Magnolia, Magnolia grandiflora
48. Stonewall Rim Lichen, Lecona muralis
49. Summer Snowflake, Leucojum aestivum  [looks like a white lily of the valley with green dots on tips]
50. Violet, Viola sp.
51. Weeping Cypress, Cupressus cashmeriana