June 19

Yesterday was so packed with adventures and picture taking that I got back around 6 and today I'm incredibly sore.  I spent half the day today just identifying all the plants I took pictures of and I have nearly 100 plants that I was able to identify (pllus a few I had no idea what they were).  

The hiking was amazing and I love that on Ulleungdo you can get around by hiking in the woods or along the water instead of having to use roads.  I took the trail up to Songinbong (the highest point on Ulleungdo), which was absolutely beautiful, especially when it was foggy in the higher elevations.  When I actually got to the very peak of Songinbong however, it was very lackluster with flies everywhere and trees obscuring the view.  Oh well.

After that, I took another trail down and ended up at Bongnae Falls and Jeodong-ri where I met a nice man who spoke passable English. It was definitely nice to understand someone and have them understand me.  I took the coastal trail from Jeodong back to Dodong and collapsed once I got back.

Cute chipmunk I saw attack and eat a beetle

Rubus takesimensis (endemic)

This plant was actually everywhere so I decided to try a berry (Rubus species are edible) and it had kind of a cool flavor

Dioscorea batatas (aka yams)

Ligustrum foliosum (endemic)

Pyrola renifolia

Oplismenus undulatifolium

Chimaphila japonica (aka wintergreen)

Really cool spider

Valeriana officianlis dageletiana (endemic)

The caterpillars and butterflies are all different 

Adiantum pedantum 

Asplenium incisum

Pleurosoriopsis makinoi

Acer takesimensis (endemic)

Astilbe koreana 

Osmunda sp.

Veronica insularis (endemic)

Rubus takesimensis (endemic) again

Looking through a canopy of Prunus takesimensis (endemic)

Acer okamotoanum (endemic)

Arisaema takesimense (endemic)

Hepatica maxima (endemic)

Tilia insularis (endemic) I love this picture

Lilium hansonii (endemic)

Houttuynia cordata 

Schizophragma hydrangeoides

Rubus pheonicolasius 

It's so pretty!

Japanese Wood Pigeon! I kept seeing them everywhere in the woods but I could never get a good picture of one because the only time you knew they were there was when they were flying away.

I got some really good recordings though.

Cyrtomium falcatum

Calystegia soldanella

Phytolacca insularis (endemic)

Corydalis pallida

Humulus scandens (hops)

Pinus densiflora

Lonicera insularis (hey look, another endemic) I was so confused about this plant because the berries kind of looked like either Vaccinium or Solanaceae but this plant had opposite leaves and I saw Lonicera insularis in my guide and checked what the berries looked like and sure enough...

Elaeagnus macrophyllum - cool leaves, all glossy green on top but silvery on the bottom

Sedum takesimense (endemic)

Agropyron tsukushiense - I told myself I wasn't doing grasses but this one was too easy

Impatiens noli-tangere - great, I can dye my fingernails this summer

All in all it was a fantastic and exhausting day.  I saw so many plants, including 14 endemic species, it made my head hurt.  And the endemic plants weren't hard to find either; they were everywhere.