The monkeyflower was Orange Bush Monkeyflower (Mimulus aurantiacus), something I became all too familiar with throughout much of this year as it is a very common species, with some variation in the flowers as well as having two or three subspecies. But that was my first encounter with it, last year, and I found it exciting. I guess it would be like getting worked up over your first dandelions, only to discover just how ubiquitous they are.
The paintbrush was another matter. Growing on a hillside high above the ocean, its "flowers" (remember, paintbrush's flowers are actually insignificant little things secreted away among all those garish red bracts) were incandescent brush fires of bright red. Closer inspection revealed them to be unlike most of the paintbrushes I've become familiar with.
Where the bracts are usually narrow and often pointed, these were very broad and barely three-lobed. The leaves were likewise very broad and barely three-lobed. What I had here was Monterey Paintbrush (Castilleja latifolia), which grows in sandy soil along the central California coast. It blooms from mid-winter in to the fall and, for me, was an unexpected November surprise.
On the same drive along PCH I found another variety of lupine; this one Seashore Lupine (Lupinus littoralis). (You can imagine my glee.)
Seashore Lupine, which can be found from British Columbia south into California, grows in a variety of habitats, from sandy bluffs to open dunes. But it's never far from the shore. It has a long, thick taproot that has burrowed its way so well into the ground, it holds fast even as sand is blown away, leaving the plant in a low mound.
Sometimes it grows like a sprawling shrub, up to 2' high. Or the stems are prostrate, sprawling across the ground. And, like the Monterey Paintbrush, was an unexpected surprise.
But ya know, as I think about it, I recall finding another paintbrush far away from the coast, in those southern Sierra Nevada Mts. I was calling home. I think it was Martin's Paintbrush (C. martinii).
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