Asti Soil Site
Map SatelliteThis small site is unusual in that a natural soil boundary is shown by a very sharp demarcation in the vegetative cover. While fence line contrasts are common – with heavy grazing on one side, tall grass on the other – this site has never had a fence and the contrast is quite evident.
On one side is a serpentine-derived soil with a short and depauperate vegetation of non-natives including red-stem filaree, Erodium cicutarium, foxtail fescue, Vulpia myuros var. hirsuta, and red brome, Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens, and a few other annual grasses under a canopy of gray pines, Pinus sabiniana. On the other side are lush stands of tall non-native wild oats, Avena sp., and native perennials such as needlegrass, Nassella pulchra, and California oatgrass, Danthonia californica, with scattered blue oaks, Quercus douglasii.
Integrity: Virtually undisturbed.
Use: Private
February 1980
Inventory of California Natural Areas
Revision © 2009 Steven Louis Hartman
