Natural History Wanderings

Report and Photo
by Celia Zavatsky

On the south end of Bear Valley Rd (Colusa County) the display of large showy Clarkia gracilis ssp tracyi (photo attached) was superrific. I had seen it in 2 or 3 large dense patches in previous years, but nothing like the grand show it was putting on upslope on the east side of the road — going up and up it seemed forever — and then downslope on the west side of the slope towards Bear Creek — and then countless big patches wherever there were openings in the chaparral/woodland on the opposite side of Bear Creek on the steep east facing slope. INCREDIBLE!! I think it’s the year for Clarkias there because as we began climbing Brim Rd at the north end of the valley the same Clarkias began showing big splotches of color and then gave way to Clarkia concinna (red ribbons). Even driving up the Valley if you looked westward far in the distance at the foothills of Walker Ridge you could see huge blushes of the dark pink of Clarkia on the slopes — that means millions or even billions of flowers!

On Walker Ridge itself and the short way we went on Bartlett Springs Rd Clarkias were still announcing themselves loudly — especially in the meadows or on open scree in the chaparral. I’m not sure how long the big display will last with the weather beginning to heat up out there, but you never know. . . Lots of other great color in the moist meadows on the ridge and in some pastures in the northern end of Bear Valley itself, some flowers not quite at their peak — blue, yellow, white, etc. Also still some good displays on the burn areas on the south end of Walker Ridge Rd — especially creamy colored (fading to pink) large flowered Lotus grandifloraacting like a fire-follower as ground cover amongst the charred skeletons of cypress and other chaparral shrubs — and the big sweeps of Oregon sunshine increasing — still a couple of large sweeps of the fire-follower Prickly Poppy there (many more last year) and a few individuals here and there close to the road for a good photograph. You can see why the imminent threat of construction of giant windmills on Walker Ridge is such a tragedy — click on link to Sanhedrin CNPS chapter, scroll to bottom of page, and click on “Wind Towers on Walker Ridge”: http://www.cnps-sanhedrin.org/pages_html/native_plants/main.shtml