Natural History Wanderings

Homestead Valley Land Trust reports on June 23

NEW
– Coast tarweed, a tall native tarweed with the typical resinous coating is blooming yellow along Pixie Trail and in sunny meadows.
– Kellogg yampah’s white umbels are blooming tall above the grasses in meadows. This was an important staple crop of Native Americans who ate the nut like root.
– Roughleaf aster is blooming in the forest along the Eagle Trail.

Forests
Starting
– Rosilla with its tall yellow flower and backward facing petals is blooming beside the creek that pasess the Ridgewood Rock.
– Toyon, a small tree, is blooming white in the forests.
Peaking
– California spikenard, one of the largest herbaceous plants in North America, grows to 3-9′ each season. Its white firework-shaped flowers are blooming now along creeks in the forests.
– Silverleaf cotoneaster, native to China, a large shrub with white flowers that will become bright red berries is blooming at forest edges.

Fading
– American trailplant, Adenocaulon bicolor, is blooming with small white flowers at the top of a stalk. The bicolor in the Latin name refers to the arrow-shaped leaves that are green on top and whiter underneath. Turn one over to mark your way on the trail.
– Hellebore, an orchid, is native to Eurasia. The greenish pink flowers climb a 1′ stalk.
– White hawksweed has white feathery flowers and soft leaves. It’s blooming up on the Eagle Trail.

Forest Edges
Peaking
– Tansy ragwort, native to Eurasia, is blooming with its bright yellow flowers along Laverne. The plant contains alkaloids that catepillars absorb, making them distasteful to predators. As with other alkaloid containing plants like poison hemlock and euphorbia, it can be toxic to people.

Meadows
Peaking
– Bluff lettuce, a red-tipped succulent’s yellow flowers are blooming on the Ridgewood Rock.
– California everlasting is blooming with its paper-like white blooms up on the ridge.
– Chamise, a staple of the chaparral shrubland plant community is blooming on a wooded hill in Homestead.
– Coyote mint with its bright purple head is blooming in meadows up on the ridge.
– Pincusion flower, a garden escapee, native of Eurasia, is blooming in Cowboy Rock meadow.
Fading
– California poppy is showing its orange bell flower in the meadows.
– Common vetch, a native of the Mediterranean, is the purple pea blooming in the meadows
– Common Yarrow is a white flowered umbel with feathery leaves. It’s a sun lover and is blooming on the ridge now but will be out it all the meadows soon.
– Euphorbia, native of Eurasia, is blooming in Pixie and Cowboy Rock meadows.
– Naked buckwheat is blooming up in ridge meadows now.
– Poison hemlock, native to Europe, has white umbel flowers. Its stalk is mottled red hinting at the toxicity of this plant.
– Purple western morning glory is blooming in meadows up on the ridge and on Kerouac Hill.
– Skunkweed, with purple flowers surrounded by spikes is blooming on the trail to 4-corners.
– Sticky monkeyflower is blooming on Cowboy Rock. This is a sun loving plant that will bloom through the summer.
– Scarlet pimpernel, native to the Mediterranean basin, is a common little orange splash in the meadow grasses.
– Wild radish, native to Asia, is blooming with purple flowers in the meadows on the ridge.
– Wild mustard, a Mediterranean native, is a tall yellow flower in meadows up on the ridge. The flowers are edible.

See map and photos at Homestead Valley Land Trust