Into The Bramble

Into the bramble I trod today, just to find fall color.

I emerged scratching my head after visiting Mormon Island Wetlands SP in Folsom. There were the usual and expected culprits: Frémont cottonwood, California grape, blue oak and valley oak, even a California toyon, all at peak. But I also found a few  plants I couldn’t identify, even after returning to pore over reference books.

A needled vine (seen above) was the most dramatic. It spread in low mounds throughout the area (below left) and its leaves resembled those of the Virginia creeper. My first impression was that it was California blackberry (Rosaceae) though I knew that blackberry have 3-lobed leaves, ordinarily. Then I reviewed Eva Begley’s Plants of Northern California to confirm that some California blackberry occasionally have five lobes or leaves.

California blackberry is a nettlesome thing with a bed of needles beneath each leaf that is surely meant to discourage deer from dining on them. They also have the distinction of bearing both male and female flowers, often on different plants. Berries would have settled the question, though they fell, were eaten or picked long ago.