RICHARD G. MILLER 



Yosemite Nature Notes 



THE MONTHLY PUBLICATION OF 

 THE YOSEMITE NATURALIST DEPARTMENT 

 AND THE YOSEMITE NATURAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION * " 



VOL XXVI JANUARY, 1947 NO. 1 



Broadleaved Trees of Yosemite 

 National Park 



By C. FRANK BROCKMAN 



INTRODUCTION 



This booklet, designed as a com- otherwise sombre nature of our coni- 



panion to "Cone-bearing Trees of ferous forests. Furthermore, it will be 



Yosemite," will aid Park visitors in obvious even to a casual observer 



the completion of a study of the trees that there is a considerable concen- 



of this area. Although the forests of tration of broadleaved trees in Yose- 



Yosemite National Pork are primarily mite Valley which, although but a 



coniferous (1), one will find a number small part of Yosemite National Park, 



of broadleaved species which em- is the section most frequented by the 



body specific interest due to the majority of visitors. Thus, to a large 



character of their spring floral dis- number of people, the broadleaved 



play, their form, the odor of their trees attract attention out of propor- 



foliage, the color of their foliage in tion to their relative abundance in 



the fall, the nature or color of seeds Yosemite forests. 



and the manner of seed dispersal, The California black oak, which 



their habitat, and similar factors, occurs in abundance in the Valley, 



These things render them conspicu- is of significant importance in this 



ous, thus serving to highlight the regard, particularly in the fall when 



(1) Thirty-five species of trees grow naturally in Yosemite National Park. Eighteen, the 

 greater part of this number, are broadleaved. However, while this group is in the majority 

 insofar as number of species is concerned, Yosemite forests are essentially coniferous in type, 

 being dominated by the sixteen species of cone-bearing trees which are found here in much 

 greater abundance. In addition the California torreya (Torreya californica), which possesses 

 needle-like, evergreen foliage but which is not a cone-bearing tree, is native to Yosemite National 

 Park. Because of the similarity of its foliage to that of many conifers a description of that species 

 will be found in the booklet on cone-bearing trees. 



Attention should also be called to those trees which are not native to the Pork but which 

 were introduced into the area during the pioneer period. Included in this category are the 

 American elm, black locust, sugar maple, and a number of varieties of fruit trees — largely apple. 

 The latter are found principally in three orchards on the Valley floor which were planted during 

 the 60's by James C. Lamon and James M. Hutchings, early settlers in this greg, (See page 30). 



