Natural History Wanderings

Marin County CNPS Facebook Page has g two new reports and photos

Old Mine-Dipsea-Steep Ravine. Gorgeous hike with lots of flowers today on Mt Tam. My favorite time of year: blooming plants and singing. Birds!  Plants in bloom included Shooting Stars, Fairy Bells, Footsteps-of-Spring, Trillium, Douglas Iris, Death Camus, Hound’s Tongue, Milkmaids, False Solomon’s Seal, Chocolate Lily, California Poppy and others.

a small area on the edge of Chaparral and Mixed Evergreen Forest that burned in Summer of 2014… Above Liberty Springs, I parked at the meadow just past Liberty Springs, East of Dutchman’s Rock. I didn’t find too many herbaceous plants in the burn zone. Lots of Eastwood Manzanita stump sprouting. Polygala californica looks more abundant than usual. Bush Monkeyflower is spreading rapidly. Most interesting to me was the abundance of young Ceanothus thyrsiflorus plants, in an area that may not have had nearly that many before the fire. Also Douglas Iris and Chocolate Lily.

Where to photograph in California – Yahoo Groups has a report that the following plants are in bloom in Tennessee Valley:

Capsella bursa-pastoris    Shepherd’s purse, Cardamine californica    Bitter cress,Cerastium arvense    Meadow chickweed, Equisetum telmateia ssp. braunii    Giant horsetail, Geranium solanderi    Solander’s geranium, Hirschfeldia incana    Mustard, Lomatium dasycarpum    Lace parsnip, Lomatium dasycarpum ssp. dasycarpum    Woolly fruited lomatium, Marah oregana    Coast man-root, Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria    Baby blue eyes, Oxalis pes-caprae    Bermuda buttercup, Primula hendersonii    Mosquito bill, Ranunculus muricatus    Buttercup, Rubus armeniacus    Himalayan blackberry, Rubus ursinus    California blackberry, Rumex acetosella    Sheep sorrel, Sanicula arctopoides    Yellow mats, Sidalcea malviflora    Wild hollyhock, Taraxia ovata    Sun cup, Toxicoscordion fremontii    Fremont’s star lily, Vicia gigantea    Giant vetch, Zantedeschia aethiopica    Callalily, and California Poppy