Normally, only springtime tours proceed to the vernal pools, but because of this year's late rains, they are still teeming with life, so we head there. We drive about a mile and hike up a hill and down into a valley. As we walk, Reynolds describes how to tell oaks apart. Valley oaks have the classic, huge canopies and big trunks, have lobed leaves, deeply furrowed bark and, not surprisingly, they grow in valleys. Blue oak leaves don't have lobes but instead have a waxy coating that give them a blue cast.
Blue oaks grow on hillslopes with shallow soils and have striated bark.
It's evergreen, unlike the valley and the blue. The leaves are dark forest green and pointy. You know them when you step on them barefoot. The live oak can grow in wet areas, hillslopes. They have relatively smooth bark.