New England Tank Coming soon!

We've just started creating our New England Tank which is made almost entirely out of plants and animals from New England. Below are some fun facts and descriptions of the organisms that will soon be part of this new exhibit. THE MAINE VIDEO IS COMING SOON! MY COMPUTER WITH THE FOOTAGE NEEDS TO GET IT'S BATTERY REPLACED AT APPLE FIRST.

The tank.

Plants

Some M. canadense specimens under an American Elm near Cape Elizabeth, MA

1. Canada mayflower or Maianthemum canadense is a shade loving monocot that ranges from Eastern North America to British Columbia. These moist loving plants are known for forming deep roots and their unique ability to spread Their bright red berries are often great food for birds though we did not come across any berries during the trip. These plants are pictured in the habitat photo above.

Specimen near Cape Elizabeth, MA

2. Sensitive fern (Onoclea sensibilis). As it's name suggests this species is highly sensitive to cold temperatures and frost. Similar to M. canadense, one rhizome can form large colonies of ferns.

   

   Cape Elizabeth MA

3. Intermediate Wood fern (Dryopteris intermedia). Native to Eastern North America, this fern resembles a west coast species, the Coastal Wood Fern (D. arguta) in nature and habitat (D. arguta grows in our Pacific Coast Redwood Habitat) but differs in frond shape and length.

Polytrichum commune near Bar Harbor, MA

4. We have various species of mosses (the majority require microscope examination to identify them to species) although above pictured is a Haircap moss Polytrichum commune which has a significantly high gametophyte with conifer-like leaves.

HOW PLANT SPECIMENS WERE COLLECTED

I used a shovel to remove 2 ferns from the road near a Costco. I know it sounds a bit unbelievable because there are practically no native plants near Costco in San Francisco, but native forests are especially abundant in New England. The ferns were big, but the leaves were chopped off in order for them to conserve their energy on the way back to SFO. They were stored in a bag with moist paper towel. The moss and Canadian mayflower were collected in a similar manner. The TSA did go through the bag a bit (initially the luggage was flagged for having metal pots) but they didn't seem to care and we got through.

ANIMALS

We didn't collect too many animals because I felt bad for taking them from the wild. I took two mantleslugs (family Philomycidae) because they are interesting East Coast natives with the mantle covering the entirety of the body. They are quite hard to identify, as many species co-habitate in one area.

Mantleslug at the CCAG after flight.

Within the dirt hanging on to the ferns, I accidentally ended up taking two Eastern Red Backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) which I didn't find out I had until arriving in the SFO terminal. I found a bunch of these when I was looking around near Costco, but I never really thought about intentionally taking herps from another state and I wanted to release them back. However, California Law prohibits releasing foreign herps into the state because of the risk of invasive species.

Eastern Red backed salamanders can come in various color varieties - the most common being normal red and lead backed (anerythristic; lacks red pigment). Visually, they are similar to our California Slender Salamanders and Western Red Backed Salamanders (P. vehiculum, though inhabits a range north of the Bay Area)

Lead Backed morph

Normal Coloration

Other herps we found were the Red Eft (Notophthalmus viridescens) and a juvenile Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) but they will discussed further in our VIDEO!

Collection of animals

Both mantleslugs were stored in small plastic containers with moss. Air holes were given for oxygen