Favoritos de lilyboy

Joe Callizo, noted Sonoma county botanist, in second photo. Near Guenoc winery, Butts Canyon Rd. USDA collection # 2356. Seed in Nat. Plant Germplasm collection - Ames, IA. Dr. Gerald Seiler, USDA-Research Botanist in first photo, identified plant Sorry no closeup of flower.

Showing the classic spire-like shape of Abies bracteata. The sapling along the trail shows browning of the current year's growth, possibly due to drought, but new buds have formed at the base of the dead shoots.

Link to Beaked Twig Gall Wasp (Burnettweldia plumbella) observation: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/144398849

Muller's Oak (Quercus cornelius-mulleri) A.k.a. Desert Scrub Oak. Native oak that grows up to 3 meters (10 feet) tall. It is a bushy, shrubby, and densely branched with tangled twigs. Leaves are evergreen, leathery and thick, oblong, ovate, or narrowly obovate with margins entire or 4--6-toothed. Leaves are adaxially (upper surface) sparsely puberulent and abaxially (underside) whitish and densely fine-tomentose. Habitat is chaparral and pinyon woodland, generally growing in granitic soils. Muller's oak was segregated from the Quercus dumosa complex in 1981 and was found to warrant species status of its own.

Jepson eFlora https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=40572

Anza-Borrego Desert Wildflowers https://borregowildflowers.org/?type=search&searchtype=S&family=&name=Quercus%20cornelius-mulleri

Shrubs and Trees of the Southern California Deserts. Jim W. Dole and Betty B. Rose, Foot-loose Press, 1996, pp, 17, 128.

Oak Tree Species I.D. and Ecology: https://oaks.cnr.berkeley.edu/oak-tree-species-id-ecology/

Oaks of California, B. Pavlik, P. Muick, S. Johnson, M. Popper, 1991

Field guide for CA Tree Oaks written, designed, and illustrated by Joshua Zupan and free to download here:
https://joshuazupan.com/portfolio/tree-oaks-of-california-a-field-guide