Here are some pictures taken at O’Neill Regional Park on March 30th to give you an idea of what’s blooming this Spring. Some of the pictures are blurry, but I had to keep up with my family who knows I’d spend far too long taking pictures if they waited for me 🙂
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| California buttercup (Ranunculus californicus) The petals appear almost plastic the way they reflect the light |
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| Blue Dicks / Wild Hyacinth (Dichelostemma capitatum ) |
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| Single track trail overlooking Prickly Pear with Wild Cucumber crawling over it |
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| Prickly Pear just beginning to bloom |
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| Behr’s Metalmark (Apodemia virgulti) |
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| Spring Vetch (Vicia sativa) |
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| Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) |
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| Black Mustard with Modjeska (named after Shakespearean Actress Helena Modjeska) and Santiago Peaks behind |
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| Silver Puffs (Uropappus lindleyi) |
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| Black Sage (Salvia mellifera) |
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| Catalina Mariposa Lily (Calochortus catalinae) |
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| Owl’s Clover (Castilleja exserta) |
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| Our Lord’s Candle (Hesperoyucca whipplei) |
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| Dry Vernal Pool – not enough rain to fill the vernal pool this year. I believe the frogs here estivate until the pool fills with water. I wonder if they can survive two years? |
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| Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) |
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| Lupine with Vernal Pool behind |
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| My daughter walking in the vernal pool |
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| Cocklebur around the rim of the Vernal Pool |
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| Lady bugs on the vegetation growing in the vernal pool |
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| The dark compact soil of the vernal pool |
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| Picturesque field of Lupine in the foreground of the Saddleback Mountains |
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| Pure joy having a moment to paint outdoors! Felt inspired by Lilias Trotter’s “Blossom in the Desert” which just arrived last week 🙂 |
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| More Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja) |
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| Wild Morning Glory / Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis) See the spider? |
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| The trail back |
What’s blooming by you?
Just made a list last weekend of the wildflowers along the roadsides in our city: poppies, bermuda sorrel, winter vetch, mustard (field? I have trouble differentiating among black mustard, field mustard, western wallflowers, etc.), wild radish, and lots and lots of dandelions!
Lovely! Makes me long for a trip west to see some of these myself… thanks for sharing.
Thanks for sharing what is happening in your neck of the woods! It's nice to have a small area's common flora identified- love it. A different feeling than the fragmented field guide 🙂 Thanks for both names as well.