White Globe LilyOur rainy season this year has been ideal for producing a bumper crop of wildflowers. The total rainfall this year is slightly less than the total for last year in this location, but the delivery has been entirely different. Last season there were a couple of large storms in mid season that dumped a large amount of rain in a short period of time. Then the rains stopped and we had one of the driest springs on record. This season has been a better spaced series of, not really storms but systems, that produced nice gentle rains that had a chance to soak in and that came at frequent enough intervals to keep things growing. We got some more rain in the past few days to freshen things up and extend the show a bit longer. Just in time because the hillsides are already starting to turn brown.
Sticky Monkey FlowerSaturday turned out to be cloudy but warm and unusually humid. My husband and I headed to the park to take a hike. There were a few different wildflowers that had come into bloom since my last hike with camera in hand.
Lupine, don't know what species.
Triteleia speciesI don't know what the white flower shown below is, but it is scattered in an open grassy area along with a purple vetch and the yellow Triteleia and clover (not all visible in this shot).
The waterfall isn't exactly gushing right now but there was a steady drip coming down off the rocks.
Nearby there is an outcrop that looks like a neck and bottom half of a face jutting out of the cliff. It reminds of an ancient Egyptian sculpture. Last weekend there was a Great Horned Owl perched nearby dozing in the sun, and wouldn't you know it, I didn't take my camera on that hike.
Some plants have finished blooming but are still pretty, like the Trillium shown below.
And the flowering currant is now sporting fuzzy fruit.
A huge old oak that died a few years ago is supporting a new variety of plants at its base.
The view up the Maple Canyon trail.
And a meadow glowing blue with lupine.
And one more lupine that I can't identify more precisely.
Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI love the pictures you have for us to view today as we are getting hit rather hard by a rainstorm. I have been keeping watch on the wild lupines around us. They are close to blooming and are one of my favorite wildflowers. Love the oak tree pic! It is wicked looking!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got out, an even gladder you took your camera! Yes, it's been a very good wildflower season.
ReplyDeleteThe White Globe Flowers and the Lupines are gorgeous! You're right, that rock face looks like an Egyptian ruin -- I immediately thought of a Sphinx. Thanks for sharing your wonderful pictures!
ReplyDeleteLovely photos. We did some hiking while in Mendocino a few weeks ago and saw lots of trillium, which was a pleasure, as we usually go on drier, sunnier hikes when closer to home. I have to admit, other than lupine, monkey flower and a few others, I can't necessarily identify a lot of what I see.
ReplyDeleteI want to do this hike. A waterfall, even! Are the white flowers Linanthus?
ReplyDeleteLovely Michelle, what a treat!
ReplyDeleteTyra
Sheila, mother nature does great work, doesn't she!
ReplyDeleteCynthia, I love the lupines too, they don't put on such a great show every year though. That speck in the sky with the oak tree is a Turkey vulture...
Town Mouse, I've been enjoying your wildflower pics too!
Sweet Bay, that's it - the Sphinx! I couldn't quite place it. The lily is one of my favorite wildflowers - another name for it is Fairy Lantern.
Susan, one reason I like to take photos of the wildflowers is that I can come home and figure out what most of them are. Calflora is one of my favorite websites for looking up wildflowers - you can do it by county.
Chuck, Monterey is not all that far from SF! But if you want to see the waterfall with some water falling, better to come in the winter just after a storm. I'm going to have to go back to that patch of white flowers for a closer look - I can't tell what they are from my photo.
Tyra, thanks!
Nice photos. The globe lily is great. The first lupine looks like it might be arroyo lupine, succulentus. Can't say for sure, there's so many lupines.
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