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Welcome to the 20th anniversary season of the Wildflower Hotline!The Hotline brings you weekly updates on flowers from more than 40 sites across Southern California. Our goal is to help you come to know and appreciate the beautiful diversity of California's native plants. |
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Hotline Update 4-11-02 |
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We begin with the bad news. The western Antelope Valley is all but devoid of wildflowers this year, thanks to low rainfall, drying winds, and high temperatures during the winter. The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is closing this year on April 21st, nearly a month early. If a miracle occurs, the Reserve’s information line at (661) 724-1180 will update you on it. In the Mojave National Preserve things are sparse as well, with just some brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) and a few other stragglers along the roads and freeways, where they have benefited from the occasional backsplash. In Anza-Borrego Desert State Park the situation is similar, with only a few indestructible shrubs such as ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) daring to put on any kind of show. For a taste of the desert, your best bet is the Living Desert gardens in Palm Desert, which has a variety of colorful desert perennials and shrubs including brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), palo verde (Cercidium sp.), chuparosa (Justicia californica), and Parry’s penstemon (Penstemon parryi). Reach the Living Desert at (760) 346-5694. In the San Gabriel Mountains, flowers are just now getting going, and we can hope that May will bring more color. The best chance for flowers is in protected canyons in the front ranges, such as Eaton Canyon, Fish Canyon, and Bailey Canyon. San Dimas canyon makes a lovely hike, although Sierra Club hike leader John DePoy tells us that the only annuals going there right now are milkmaids (Cardamine californica). Ranger Gerry Reponen notes that the monkey flowers (Mimulus aurantiacus) are finally starting to burst out along Angeles Crest Highway, Angeles Forest Highway, and Big Tujunga Canyon Road, while the often-overlooked mulefat (Baccharis glutinosa) is going stronger than anything else. The situation is a bit better in the Santa Monica Mountains, with above-average spots in the moister canyons, such as Solstice Canyon, Corral Canyon, Newton Canyon, and Zuma Canyon. In Franklin Canyon you’ll have a chance to see how beautiful the chaparral can be even in a drought. Here are the species to look for:
In Long Beach at the El Dorado Nature Center, you’ll find a wide cross-section of native blooms large and small, including shrubs and herbaceous wildflowers. Look for:
You can reach the nature center at (562) 570-8530. Continuing our survey of lesser-known native plant collections, the California Nativescapes Botanical Garden at the San Diego Wild Animal Park , an accredited botanic garden as well as a zoo, is a beautiful groupings of plants representing a variety of California ecosystems, including low and high desert, montane, chaparral, coastal sage scrub, riparian, and Baja peninsula. Although there is nothing spectacular in bloom this dry year, the sages are blossoming, along with chaparral yucca (Yucca whipplei), Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera), Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana), brittlebush (Encelia farinosa), and California bush sunflower (Encelia californica). Some annuals in the montane section of the area, including some clarkia, have escaped hungry deer. The Lake Hodges Native Plant Club, which maintains the garden, is offering a guided tour this Saturday, April 13th, at 10am. Allow 20 minutes to walk to the garden from the park entrance. The Park charges an admission fee of $26.50 for adults and $19.50 for children. The phone number is (760) 747-8702. The Park is in Escondido east of Highway 15. At nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, 40 miles east of San Diego, blooming manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.) is being joined by johnny jump-ups (Viola pedunculata), red maids (Calandrina ciliata), southern lewisia (Lewisia brachycalyx), and baby blue eyes (Nemophiila menziesii), along with Douglas’ wallflower (Erysimum douglasii) in rocky and brushy areas. At the north end of the lake, desert ceanothus (Ceanothus greggii) is getting started, as is the endangered Cuyamaca meadowfoam (Limnanthes gracilis var. parishii) at the north end of the park. All flowers are sparse this year, however, due to lack of water. Redbuds (Cercis occidentalis) are also in flower along Sunrise Highway, three miles south of Highway 79. The Park’s phone number is (760) 765-3020. Bloom is sparse in the Cleveland National forest, too, but rangers tell us that some of the drainages along Tenaja and Wildomar Roads have some pretty flowers including goldfields (Lasthenia sp.), while Sunrise Highway in the Descanso Ranger district has both white and purple California lilac in bloom. At the nearby Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve, Tom Chester tells us that there are about 50 species with at least one bloom open right now—but you have to cover six miles to see them all. For example, you’ll have to hunt for the single blooming Chinese house (more like a one-room flat this year), and a single blooming prickly pear (Opuntia sp.). Thankfully, however, rusty-haired popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus), allium lookalike muilla (Muilla maritima), California buttercup (Ranunculus californicus), and blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) are making decent displays along the Vernal Pool Trail. In the Big Bear area of the San Bernardino Mountains, California lilac (Ceanothus leucodermis and C. crassifolius) is still blooming along Highway 330 at 5,000-foot level, joined now by bush poppy (Dendromecon rigida), eastwood manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa). Lower on Highway 330, carpets of brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) are warming up the hillsides, with an occasional prickly poppy (Leptodactylon californicum) adding a highlighter-pink accent. The poison oak is in fine form, too, although you probably don’t want to get too close. You can contact the Big Bear Ranger Station at (909) 866-3437. Moving into Kern county in our search for wildflowers, our local tipster tells us that Highway 223 close to Arvin is lined with the brilliant crimson of owl’s clover and the creamy white of chick lupine (Lupinus microcarpus). West of here in Santa Barbara county, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden’s meadow is in prime form, with California poppies and other wildflowers. You can continue your flower viewing in the area by taking Highway 154 north from Santa Barbara toward Lake Cachuma, where you will find a collection of interesting flowers including yellow composites, gilia, and vining lotus. Going up the coast, the meadows at Ford Ord in Monterey County are full of wildflowers, with standouts being buttercups (Ranunculus californicus), sky lupine (Lupinus nanus), checkerbloom (Sidalcea malvaeflora), and suncups (Camissonia sp). Fort Ord lands are managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM)’s Hollister office. Their number is (831) 630-5000. Moving further into northern California, where wildflowers are profuse, Bureau of Land Management botanist Al Franklin tells us that the Red Hills Management Area, a 7,000-acre area of serpentine soil in the Sierra foothills in Tuolumne county, is now home to a large collection of beautiful spring flowers, including Cascade onion and Mexicali onion (Allium cratericola and A. peninsulare), goldfields (Lasthenia californica), golden sunburst (Pseudobahia heermanii), blue dicks and manyflower brodiaea (Dichelostemma capitatum and D. multiflorum), two-lobed clarkia (Clarkia biloba ssp. biloba), and Stillman’s tickseed (Coreopsis stillmanii). At least six rare species are found in this area, including Red Hills endemic California verbena (Verbena californica). Look for the pastel pink California verbena and the bright yellow Hoover’s butterweed (Senecio clevelandii var. heterophyllus) in riparian areas, and check north-facing slopes and ridges for Red Hills soaproot (Chlorogalum grandiflorum) and Congdon’s lomatium (Lomatium congdonii). Colonies of the lovely pale pink Rawhide Hill onion (Allium tuolumnense) are scattered throughout the area, particularly on south-facing slopes. The Red Hills are located south of Sonora. Travel south on Highway 49 for 10 miles from Sonora to Chinese Camp, then about 2 miles further south on Red Hills Road. Another wildflower spot worth a visit in northern California is Stevens Trail on the North Fork American River in Placer county, northeast of Sacramento. This four-mile trail offers spectacular canyon views and collections of wildflowers, including baby blue eyes (Nemophila mensiezii), California poppies (Eschscholzia californica), globe lilies (Calochortus sp.), blue dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum), dudleyas, lupines (Lupinus sp.), and the especially beautiful fuchsia-colored Kellogg’s monkey flower (Mimulus kelloggii). The trail winds through live oak woodland, chaparral, and grassland. Reach the Stevens Trail by taking Highway 80 north/east from Sacramento, exiting at Colfax. Turn right onto the frontage road (North Canyon Way), passing Colfax cemetery to arrive at the trailhead parking area. For more information on wildflower viewing in Gold Rush country, check out Wildflower Walks and Roads of the Sierra Gold Country, by Toni Fauver, which lists many of the best flower areas in this area of the Sierra foothills. Closer to the coast, at the Cache Creek Management Area in Lake county, the bloom is exuberant. Flower displays change rapidly, but at last count there were blue and yellow lupines, poppies, goldfields, shooting stars (Dodecatheon sp.), houndstongue (Cynoglossum sp.), Indian paintbrush (Castilleja sp.), and Indian warrior (Pedicularis densiflora). This Saturday, April 13th, a guided wildflower hike will be led along one of the best trails, the Redbud Trail, by a knowledgeable volunteer docent. Meet at the trailhead at 10:00 AM. Hikes will also be held on April 20th and 17th and on May 4th. From Interstate 5 at Williams, northwest of Sacramento, take Highway 20 west about 29 miles to the North Fork Cache Creek/Redbud Trailhead. Hikes take three to four hours and cover up to four miles round-trip; you are also welcome to explore on your own. For additional information, contact the BLM’s Ukiah Field Office at (707) 468-4000. Last but not least, here at the Theodore Payne Foundation in Sun Valley, our grounds and nursery are in peak form, with all kinds of lovely native plants including California poppies, lilac verbena (Verbena lilacina), showy penstemons (Penstemon spectabilis x), and bush lupine (Lupinus excubitus). We are open Wednesday through Saturday 8:30 to 4:30 and Sunday 11:00 to 4:30. Come explore our grounds, nursery, and bookstore on Saturday, April 13th, for our annual Poppy Day open house and plant sale. There will be demonstrations and workshops, a plant sale, and garden tours. Call us at (818) 768-1802 for more. We’ll see you there! |
