Parallel Patterns
The beauty, diversity, and complexity of western North American ecosystems perpetually blows my mind. Growing up in San Diego, California, before I delved into my quest of knowing plants and their names, I learned to love the desert chaparral ecosystems of the west coast. I didn’t know the specifics, but I integrated, appreciated, and loved the feelings of these landscapes in my innermost being. As I grew into the farmer / artist / ecologist that I strive to be these days, the *Oaks* took their rightful place as the Keystone Species in my personal catalogue of awe inspiring plants, worthy of my devotion.Moving to the Pacific Northwest and starting Earth Ecology LLC in my mid-twenties, I began to acquire plant names, and I began to map them out into their native homes. I could eventually grasp how plant species relate to others in their families, and could envision the historical and evolutionary processes of species distinction, hybridization, isolation, and migration. The boundaries of “native” ecosystems have become increasingly harder to isolate across vast stretches of our neighborhood of western states. The vast majority of native plants of the Pacific Northwest are also the same native plants I encounter in Southern California. Quercus, Arctostaphylos, Baccharis, Ceanothus, Cercocarpus, Frangula ...
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