When exposed by the year's lowest tides, sand dollars lie flat, covered by sand. Otherwise, these elegant creatures cluster together like dominoes, standing on edge in the sand, using their tube feet to pass food-encrusted particles of sand into their mouths. Younger, smaller sand dollars trap and store iron oxide sand in their gut, perhaps using the weight to anchor themselves in place. Newport Bay, San Diego Bay, and Elkhorn Slough host fine beds of sand dollars. In summer, males and females release sperm and eggs into the sea, relying on the whims of ocean currents to unite them in fertilization.
Private cone picking crews in California follow the seed-ripening sequence of the state's big trees.
Southern stands of Douglas fir near Sonora ripen first, around mid-August, followed by ponderosa pine, then incense cedar, sugar and Jeffrey pine. Red and white fir and western white pine mature last, in September and October. State and private nurseries buy cones by the bushel and stock seeds for reforestation following fires or harvest. Shiny-leaved California huckleberry bushes grow in thickets at the fringes of the state's coastal forests from Santa Barbara to the Oregon border. Their sweet and musky purple-black berries begin to ripen in August but can be plucked from bushes as late as December.