Natural History Wanderings

Where to photograph in California – Yahoo Groups  (Calphoto) has a report covering a good portion of Southern California

I took a spin from Los Angeles as far north as Lake Isabella, and found
more than I expected.

Lake Hughes Road alongside Castaic Lake had some denser than usual blooms
of prickly phlox, but not much else. As I continued north, I encountered
some blooming almond bushes that had established themselves in the wild,
some mule fat, some cryptantha (utahensis?), and some coastal lotus.

The hills above Elizabeth Lake Road across from Elizabeth Lake were filled
with tickseed, California poppy, and what looked from a distance like
globe gilia. Around the corner on Munz Ranch Road, the explosion
continued, with loads of fiddlenecks (douglasiana and tesselata),
tickseed, poppies, and a few white tidy tips, desert pincushion, baby blue
eyes, chia, sun cups, tumble mustard, and blue witch.

Out in the Antelope Valley, there were only a few poppies so far. I found
some broad-flowered gilia. No goldfields yet.

A couple of the high hills in Gorman had some color, tickseed and globe
gilia I believe, but nothing near the road, not even the usual bladderpod.
The upper slopes of Grapevine Canyon were painted with California poppies.

The hills above Arvin along 223 were even more intense than they were two
weeks ago. Tons of fiddlenecks (douglasiana and menziesii, I believe),
popcorn flowers (dunno the species), miniature lupine spreading up into
the hills, and of course poppies, but now accompanied by Phacelia distans,
Jacumba milkvetch, blue dicks, California plantain, and of course filaree.

As I headed out into the valley on the old route 58 (Bena Road), there
were spots where the fiddlenecks were so dense you couldn’t see any green
at all, let alone the ground. That’s where the bladderpod blooms started,
along with a fair amount of lacy phacelia.

I drove up 178 into the lower Kern Canyon, and it was a little more
prolific than two weeks ago. Still loads of white fiesta flower, but now
even more poppies on the high slopes. Lots of Bermuda buttercups. I took
Kern River Canyon Road (the old 178), but saw little at those elevations
except fiddlenecks, and a handful of baby blue eyes.

I drove Caliente Bodfish Road, and took the loop through Twin Oaks and
Loraine, but there wasn’t much to look at until I reached Caliente, which
had some nice poppy patches. I drove the old Woodford Tehachapi Road up
into Tehachapi, but it hasn’t started blooming yet.

So, in short, Munz Ranch Road in western Lancaster, and route 223 above
Arvin are the best places.

At this time of year, most of what you find are common-as-dirt flowers,
not unusual species, but after a half-year of no flowers, even these are
good to see.