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Har grass-San Ynez river

E. parvulus is "dwarf" hairgrass. E. acicularis gets a foot or so tall but
has similar appearance and might cause some confusion and frustrations(
myself recently:) ). One gets about 6 inches max and the other get at least
a foot tall. E parvulus stays about 2-3 inches max in high light non shaded
areas and max's at about 6 inches in shaded low light areas. Just so when
folks buy any thing called "E. acicularis" that they may get a foot tall
grass. It looks very much like the dwarf but is taller.

I saw large amounts of E. acicularis in several regions in CA both in the
North(Alpine Lake, Marin Co), Vernal pools(Goleta, Santa Barbara Co) and in
the San Ynez river (also in Santa Barbara Co). Much of it has gone to seed
to make in through to hot dry season till the rains come in the winter(seeds
being the best way to make it through drought).

In a trip up the River I saw Veronica anagillris-aquatic growing as the
predominant plant all along several miles of the river. Pretty diminutive
pink/violet flower, about 1/8" diameter. Does very well there and looks
almost like Rotala macrandra, being somewhat reddish submersed. Echinodorus
berteroi was rather stunted and smallish but found a number of plants
flowering at about 4-5 inches high. Chara was present. Potamogeton was
represented by P. filiformis most likely. Fontinalis is present on the other
side of this dividing ridge so it's likely that it's present in this
drainage system as well. The Veronica was impressively represented though
throughout each pool and even in areas where one would not expect to find
any plants. The river is rather clear and it grows at a 4-6 ft depth even.
There's another plant out there that I have not tried to figure out what it
is but that's not going to be very long. It melts some on the older leaves
but has a nice wide leaf.

Overall, the river is a very beautiful and productive aquatic plant nursery.
There's some rare as heck Sag up in here somewhere but only a few folks know
where. It's rare mainly due to being only in one location, but there.....
it's all over. Can't beat the views either. The river is in a valley with
about 3000-4000foot ridge on one side and a 4-6500ft range on the other and
would make most any geologist very happy. The gorge gets narrow in several
places and there's some hot sulfur springs in some of the upper reaches.
Oh, and the waters nice and clean and warm(70F). Yes you can swim with your
plants and eat cake too.

There another region near here that's in Ventura Co that has a number of
Sag's and some other plants worth noting but that's another trip........
   
Regards, 
Tom Barr