Before contact in 1769, the indigenous populations planted, pruned, harvested, and used fire regimes that made California a "hot spot" for biodiversity. "The Santa Cruz County population once numbered 10,000 or more with many villages." They were associated with the Awaswas-speaking language group.
—San Lorenzo Valley Museum

The Sayanta population (adjacent to the current Felton/Zayante area) was small compared to the Cotoni, Quiroste and Uypi tribal bands. All took advantage of seasonal sources of food, and used plants for medicinal purposes, clothing, tools, shelter, and food. Below are some examples of the plants that still thrive in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Bonny Doon Manzanita (Arctostaphylos silvicola) is also called silverleaf manzanita. It is endemic to the Santa Cruz Sandhills. Manzanitas have deep reddish bark, and sometimes have burls at the base of the trunk. The red berries were ground up to eat, and also made into cider. Leaves and berries were sometimes used like the modern day "Technu" to wash after poison oak contact.

Brittle-leaved Manzanita (Arctostaphylos crustacea) has fuzzy stems. The leave splits if you try to fold it.

The Yerba Santa plant is found in sandhill chaparral and mixed forest habitats. The leaves are used as a tea or syrup for treatment of respiratory illnesses, coughs and fevers.  Yerba Santa is Spanish for “holy weed” or “holy herb.” 

The leaves can be used externally as first aid to ease pain and stopping bleeding and stimulating clotting. "The plant has compounds that are anti-inflammatory. The leaves and roots were chewed for tooth and gum aches, and a piece of leaf could be rolled and inserted into the cavity of a painful tooth to bring relief." ​UCSC Arboretum: Native American Uses of California Plants: Ethnobotany

Wild ginger leaves were used as a poultice to bring boils to a head (and relieve toothaches). 
Indigenous peoples used wild ginger as a sedative for nervousness and insomnia.
"The stems were placed in a baby’s bed to promote calming and to relieve illness." UCSC
iNaturalist (c) Dawn Hanna (CC BY-NC)

A few budding naturalists recently addressed the question, “What do you find interesting in nature this time of year?” The consensus was the arrival of spring flowers. Just like all inquiries, the observation led to another question. Why does it seem like yellow flowers bloom first?  
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According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, author of the popular book, Braiding Sweetgrass, and distinguished professor of environmental biology—there is some science behind the colors we view as beautiful…and the same for bees! Both love purple and yellow.

Spring flowers give us a warm fuzzy feeling. From a biological perspective, are we anatomically attracted to purple and yellow first? In a roundabout way, yes! Humans have a thin layer of cells in the back of each eye called a retina. Cones are the part of the eye that lets us see colors. 

Colors like yellow and purple activate three types of cones at once. Light from the leaves and trees is activating your green cones. Light from the sky is activating your blue cones. And light from the pollen in the center of the flower is activating your red and green cones at the same time. That makes it look yellow.

Bee eyes perceive many flowers differently than humans, and have the ability to see color much faster than us. The most likely colors to attract bees, according to scientists, are purple, violet and blue. 

According to Robin Wall Kimmerer, “It turns out, goldenrod (a yellow flower) and asters (a purple flower) appear similarly to bee eyes and human eyes. Even more intriguing is that yellow and purple plants growing together receive more visits from pollinators, therefore leading to better plant success.” Doesn’t it seem fitting that yellow and purple are also called complementary colors on the color scale?

Currently, in Big Basin State Park, the reservation-only parking lot is covered with a substance that looks like an oily sheen, and has a "sulfur-like" smell in some areas.

Visitors have shared their thoughts about the smell, and many think it's a human-made event (like leakage from an old septic tank, etc.).
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What is it? What are its characteristics? What does it remind us of?  Staff are currently gathering observations. Uncovering a mystery is always exciting, and challenges one's assumptions, and patience.
 

Here's what we know:

1. Water bubbles out from underground at the interface of crushed rock/soil and the edge of the parking lot asphalt. The entire portion of this lot is covered with "slime."  Video of parking lot
2. It has been observed during the rainy season, and dries up in early summer into early fall.
3. It breaks apart like glass if you poke it with a stick. (Oil doesn't do this.) 
4. In sunshine, it displays a rainbow-like sheen.
5. Many areas appear to have an orange-rusty appearance. (Iron?)
6. Some areas have a sulfur-like smell. (Bacteria-eating iron?)
7. We're not sure this occurred before the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex Fire.  All structures in this vicinity were burned, and the parking lot is new.

According to Justine Dees, a PhD in microbiology, bacteria living in water or sediments can change the form of metals like iron, manganese, and copper. 1 Some bacteria can change iron from a solid to dissolved, and back to solid again. Crazy, right?! Some bacteria ferment while growing…thus the stink!" "Microbial diversity also responds to changes in environmental variables, such as sun, temperature, and location." 2

The image below shows the shiny rainbow colors. If this is biofilm, it meets the characteristics of floating on top and ‘shattering' like glass when disturbed.  Stay tuned. The mystery of the post-fire, redwood forest, with a slimy parking lot, has yet to be uncovered!