Homestead Valley has a new wildflower update. See photos and maps at
February 22 2020
NEW
– Barberry’s leaves are pointy like a holly; its flowers are blooming bright yellow with fragrant flowers in the meadow below Amaranth.
– California poppy’s bright orange flowers are blooming in meadows.
– Canyon gooseberry with its little Chinese lantern red and white flowers is blooming in the forest near 16.
– Coast live oak is blooming with pale yellow tassels.
Forests
– Bay trees’ yellow clusters of flowers are filling the air with their sweet vanilla scent.
– Fairy bells, low and branching with white bell flowers hanging under the leaves is blooming in forests.
– False lily of the valley with its ladder of pointed leaves and white star flowers is blooming in forests.
– Fetid adder’s tongue, a small lily with distinctive red mottled leaves, is blooming at several locations in the forest along the Homestead Trail.
– Hazel, a common deciduous shrub in the forest is waking up and the female flowers are very small tassels of bright red.
– Indian warrior’s burgundy plumes are spreading down the hill below 15 on the Homestead Trail.
– Manroot, a vine in the gourd family with large leaves and white flowers is blooming in forests.
– Milkmaids with their white flowers is starting to bloom in the forests.
– Oso berry is blooming with arching white, fragrant flowers on the Ridgewood Rock. Also called Indian plum, this shrub was an important source of food and medicine for native Americans.
– Trilium is blooming under bay trees in the forest near the water tank at 6d.
Forest edge
– Arroyo willow is blooming in the gully at Laverne and Reed.
– Pacific hounds tongue with its bright blue flowers on tall stalks with large arrow leaves is blooming at forest edges.
– Woodland strawberry, a common ground cover at forest edges is starting to bloom white.
Meadows
– Checker lily has started blooming with chocolate bells and yellow spots in the meadows below Amaranth.
– Footsteps of spring is blooming in the middle of the trail at 7j below the Homestead Hill.
– Fremont’s deathcamas’s cluster of white star flowers is blooming in the meadow below Amaranth.
– Scotch broom*, one of the most aggressive invasive shrubs in Homestead is starting to bloom with bright yellow pea flowers in meadows.
– Wooly lomatium, in the carrot family, with lacy foliage and white wooly umbels is blooming in meadows up on the Homestead Hill
Natural History Wanderings 