Photos, Field Guides and My First California Spring

You guessed it. I'm ensconced among a stack of field guides, a pile of photographs, and a cup of coffee. This time I'm scratching my head over the first wildflowers of my first California spring. It's "Wildflowers at 70 MPH", "Dipped In Paint" and "Treasure of the Sierra Nevada" all over again, so many Lupines did I see as I raced down the highway, not to mention species of Paintbrush, and all the other colors of the rainbow in the wide variety of blossoms.

First of all, I should point out how profoundly different it is, spring wildflowers in California. In Ohio I wandered the length of Hogback Rd., often venturing into the woods to enjoy the parade of wildflowers. In Indiana, it was a weekly hike in the woods, near a Heron rookery, for the slowly shifting tide of flowers and colors. And in North Carolina it was a weekly drive up and down the Blue Ridge Parkway, pulling over at little further from sea level each week to inspect something new.

But here, in California, where the land ranges from below sea level to more then 2 miles up, it's an opportunity to cram several weeks' progression of wildflowers into a single day. My wife and I did just that, for 4 days.

We looked for wildflowers in the high desert, at Joshua Tree National Park, and along back roads in the Central Valley and foothills, from Visalia to Auburn. And, of course, all along the highways. The parched desert provided little more than Bladder Pod (Isomeris arborea), and that at an oasis. The Central Valley and the foothills, on the other hand, were a paradise.

A member of the Caper Family (Capparaceae), Bladder Pod is so named for its tumescent seedpods. It's a perennial shrub that grows in washes, and can flower at any time of the year. Its yellow flowers are a favorite nectar source for hummingbirds and butterflies. We watched a lovely Costa's Hummingbird, violet throat glittering in the sunlight, at one these bushes.

Our drive up the state took us through a variety of elevations, which accounted for a variety of wildflowers. Sure, we saw the ubiquitous state flower, the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica), covering acres of hillsides, often with the similar Caespitose Poppy (E. caespitosa), or some form of Lupine, as well as Goldfields (Lasthenia californica) and Fiddleneck (Amsinckia intermedia). But we also drove past great meadows of Baby Blue-eyes (Nemophila menziesii), and found Live-forever (Dudleya cymosa) and a subspecies of Applegate's Paintbrush (Castilleja applegatei) growing on rocky slopes. It was impossible to not see Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) and Miner's Lettuce (Montia perfoliata) and Owl's Clover (Castilleja exserta). We saw Hill Lotus (Lotus humistratus), Tansy Phacelia (Phacelia tanacetifolia), Red Maids (Calandrinia ciliata), Gray Mule Ears (Wyethia glabra), and all the stuff I still can't identify.

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