Thursday, April 9, 2009

April Flowers, The Wild Bunch

There's a pretty good display of wildflowers this year. The following photos were all taken on my property. They are all natives except where noted. I'm still learning my wildflowers, so if you see any identification mistakes on my part I would love to know! The reference that I use most for my identification is Calflora, a great reference for what is growing in California, native or not.


Buttercup (Ranunculus californicus)

Vetch of some sort (I believe it's not a native)

Clover, don't know what variety.
Don't know if it's native or not.

Owl's Clover (Castilleja exserta)
Behind this flower is a young native bunch grass, variety unknown.

Lupine (Lupinus bicolor?)
This lupine is only a few inches tall.

Wood Mint or Hedge Nettle (Stachys bullata)

Fiesta Flower (Pholistoma auritum)

Hard to see in this photo, but there's a lot of Fiesta Flower
and Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata).
Both like growing beneath the oaks around here.

Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum)

Blue Dicks at the edge of the Vegetable Garden.
I'm encouraging the wildflowers and bunch grasses
that are growing on the perimeter of the vegetable garden.

Earthstar fungi
Not flowers but pretty in their own way.

The Shooting Stars are nearly done and the Yellow Viola's are starting to go. There's a good show of Blue Eyed Grass but I didn't take any photos of those. We've had a bit of rain in the last few days which should help to prolong the wildflower show.

8 comments:

  1. Here also the wild flowers are really beautiful, and also plentiful, at this time of year. After the cold and before the heat!

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  2. Lovely! I've never seen that book, I might have to get it just for old times' sake. Those mushrooms are amazing!

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  3. Wonderful photos! If you have not seen it, Pomona at Tulips in the Woods did a fascinating post recently on Miner's Lettuce, complete with the Maidu name.

    Glad that the fungus today is the kind we expect to see, and not the advancing yellow weirdness you had a few weeks ago!

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  4. Ahhh! I love Wildflowers and learning more about them. All your photos are lovely. In fact thanks to you, I'm adding list of wildflowers to my plants database for future study.

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  5. Beautiful photos. The vetch looks like one we have in our garden which I think is Vicia dasycarpa. My Mediterranean flowers book describes it as circum-Mediterranean, but it has probably been brought to your area and naturalised.

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  6. Beautiful wildflowers. Almost nothing is blooming here but in another month a lot will be in bloom.

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  7. Jan, it's the here. We'll get to enjoy the wilflowers until about June and then everything dries up and goes dormant until the winter rains.

    Karen, I neglected to indicate that Calflora is a wonderful website full of photos and maps that show where the plants have been documented. I found a number of the flowers by searching for native plants to be found in my county.

    Daffodil Planter, I need to go visit Tulips and check that out. I've been noticing the variations in the Miner's Lettuce around here. Some of it is slightly variegated with white and some has reddish leaves. There's tiny plants and huge plants. I don't know if it's growing conditions or genetic variation.

    Chandramouli, that's so cool! How fun to have inspired you...

    Chaiselongue, I got lazy about identifying the vetch when it didn't look like any of natives that grow around here...

    Daphne, I do hope you post some photos of the wildflowers when they show up!

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  8. Earthstars are surely among the most fascinating fungi. And how cool to have clover...I have seed for the native tomcat clover (Trifolium wildenovii), but haven't tried it yet.

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