{"id":632,"date":"2020-07-07T13:15:24","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T20:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/?page_id=632"},"modified":"2020-07-09T16:27:34","modified_gmt":"2020-07-09T23:27:34","slug":"quercus-garryana","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.viu.ca\/biol223\/quercus-garryana\/","title":{"rendered":"Quercus garryana"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Family: Fagaceae<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common name: Garry oak<\/p>\n\n\n\n

E-flora BC: https:\/\/linnet.geog.ubc.ca\/Atlas\/Atlas.aspx?sciname=Quercus%20garryana<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wikipedia: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Quercus_garryana<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Garry oak is our only native oak in British Columbia. It is the keystone species of the Garry oak ecosystem<\/a>, a rare<\/a> ecosystem restricted to the southeastern part of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands. The Garry oak ecosystem has great cultural significance<\/a> in our region and was traditionally stewarded through indigenous land management practices that included periodic burning. These practices favoured an assembly of plants, e.g. the important food plant camas lily<\/a>, as well as grasses that attracted a variety of game. Hence, the Garry oak ecosystem is a cultural landscape<\/a> managed by Coast Salish peoples for millennia before the arrival of European settlers, followed by the disruption of traditional land management principles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around Nanaimo, we mostly find Garry oaks near the ocean, e.g. at Pipers Lagoon or Neck Point parks. Harewood Plains and the area around Cable Bay trail also have good-sized populations. In these areas, with shallow soils and severe summer droughts, the trees grow fairly short and crooked. There are a few large trees left on deep soils a bit inland in Nanaimo, e.g. on Fifth Street by University Village mall at the new Tim Hortons, on Northfield Road by the Eden Gardens, and at Milton and Campbell Street near downtown. Most Garry oaks in our region, and the associated ecosystem, have been destroyed due to development and loss of traditional management practices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The typical crooked outlines of Garry oaks growing on shallow soils near the ocean. Photo credit: Douglas Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Photo credit: Douglas Fraser<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n