LAKEPORT, Calif. – Kate Marianchild, author of the newly published “Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals among California’s Oaks” (Heyday, 2014) will be giving two talks and holding book signings in Lakeport on Tuesday, Nov. 18.
At noon, the Clear Lake Trowel and Trellis Club will host her presentation, “The Amazing Manzanita,” at the Scotts Valley Women's Club house, 2298 Hendricks Road, Lakeport.
They will learn about “buzz pollination in middle C,” manzanitas' adaptations to drought and the advantages and disadvantages of its ultra-thin skin.
If time permits, Marianchild also will discuss the manzanita's relationships with other species, such as silk moths, bushtits, pileated woodpeckers and mycorrhizal fungi.
The first 3,000 copies of Marianchild's book sold out within 60 days, and the second printing has just become available. She will have books with her to sell and sign.
From 3 to 5 p.m., Watershed Books, 305 N Main St. in Lakeport, will host Marianchild's slide show presentation, “Poison oak, lace lichen, and mistletoe: friends or foes?" There also will be a book signing.
Marianchild will present a slide show about three species long suspected by humans of misdemeanors if not serious crimes: oak mistletoe, poison oak and lace lichen.
Marianchild will mount a spirited and humorous defense of these species that would hold up in any court of ecological law. Following the slide presentation Marianchild will sign copies of her book.
Come hear about Marianchild's x-rated relationship with poison oak as well as poison oak's relationships with other organisms.
Discover the roles played by lace lichen – the light green stuff that hangs from trees – and the dark green clumps of oak mistletoe often seen high in hardwood trees, and learn which of your favorite species depend on them.
Discover or rediscover the concepts “keystone species” and “coevolution” and learn about the survival of great purple hairstreak butterflies, western bluebirds, wrentits, black-tailed deer, and more.
Secrets of the Oak Woodlands: Plants and Animals among California’s Oaks offers intimate profiles into the lives of 22 species that live among the oaks of northern and southern California. It is the first book to focus not on oaks themselves but their companion plants, insects, amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, and fungi.
Vividly illustrated with original watercolors by Ann Meyer Maglinte, the book is the result of years of research and observations.
Marianchild studied Chinese language and literature at UC Berkeley and New Asia College in Hong Kong, graduating Phi Beta Kappa from Berkeley with a degree in comparative literature.
Following years of grassroots political activism, she moved to Mendocino County in 1980 and supported herself as a carpenter while founding and running Rising Tide Sea Vegetables, a company that is still thriving today under new ownership.
When she migrated to the oak woodlands outside of Ukiah in 2001, she promptly fell in love with an ecosystem.
After writing for Peregrine Audubon, Grace Hudson Museum and other local nonprofits for several years, she began the research that grew into her book.
