Natural History Wanderings

Some of the highlights and updates not recently mentioned at Natural History Wanderings that they report are:

• Franklin Canyon Park:  blue and white flowering ceanothus species (Ceanothus spp.) and fuchsia flowered gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) scattered sticky leaf monkey flower (Mimulus aurantiacus), bush sunflower (Encelia californica), purple nightshade (Solanum sp.), and canyon sunflower (Venegasia carpesioides).
• Burbank’s Verdugo Mountain Range, park at the Stough Canyon Nature Center along Stough Canyon & Wildwood Canyon Roads for colorful displays of western wallflower (Erysimum capitatum), bush sunflower (Encelia californica), golden currant (Ribes aureum) and the ubiquitous and fragrant black sage (Salvia mellifera)
• Pinnacles National Monument  dry with few flower; lupines (Lupinus sp.), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja spp.), milk maids (Calindrinia californica), shooting stars (Dodecatheon sp.) along some of the trails
• Death Valley and surrounding mountains little in bloom
• Whitewater Canyon Preserve several species blooming on the Canyon View Loop Trail, and PCT north to Red Dome. Devil’s lettuce or fiddleneck (Amsinckia tesselata), notch-leaf phacelia (Phacelia crenulata), lace- leaf phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia) along with the virgin’s bower (Clematis sp.) are in flower along the Canyon View Loop Trail, Wallace’s woolly daisy (Eriophyllum wallacei).

Read full report at: http://www.theodorepayne.org/hotline/2012/March16.pdf