Natural History Wanderings

Homestead Valley has a new wildflower update. See photos and maps at August 29, 2020 NEW – Common California aster is blooming purple on tall stalks in meadows. – Coyote brush, one of the most common shrubs in the Land Trust, is blooming with different, cream flowers on male and female bushes. – Kellogg’s yampah is blooming with white umbels on tall stalks in meadows. – Rosilla with its backward facing petals, is blooming in seeps. Forests – California spikenard dies back completely each year and grows 6-7′ in a season. It is blooming now with white dandelion-shaped flowers in the creek bed on the Maverick Trail up from the Ridgewood u-bend. – Old man’s beard*, native of Europe, is an invasive vine that blooms in forests with fragrant white flowers. – Toyon is blooming with white flowers in forests. Forest edge – Spicebush is blooming with red frilly flowers by the creek in Three Groves. Meadows – California everlasting is blooming in the meadows of Homestead Hill. – California mugwort is blooming with yellow tufts in meadows. – Coast tarweed, one of the resinous madias is blooming yellow in meadows. – Roughleaf aster is blooming with pale flowers in meadows. – Sticky monkeyflower is blooming orange in meadows. *Non-native