Blue Oaks Shine New Light on California’s Past Climate

[knocker]

Great image Blueoak350.

 

Everyone knows about the giant sequoia, California’s best-known endemic species—one that occurs nowhere outside the state. Not so many know about the blue oak (Quercus douglasii), but you see it whenever you leave the Central Valley in any direction. Blue oaks populate the dry hills all around the valley’s edge, starting as scattered specimens in the savanna and thickening with altitude into a proper forest. Higher up, they tend to give way to conifer forests. Their name comes from the bluish green of their leaves.

 

http://blogs.kqed.org/science/2013/09/12/blue-oaks-shine-new-light-on-californias-past-climate/

Edited September 14, 2013 by knocker