March 18, 2016

As the number of blooming flowers increases, I have broken them out into different habitat zones to make the list more manageable. Some plants, like Iris, are in a few zones. Most are only in one. The greatest variety can be found in the Forest Edge Zone. It is for this reason and the fact that this is broom’s zone, that the focus of most of our habitat restoration has been here.

I have also added a distinction to each flower: coming, starting, peaking, fading or finished

NEW
– California poppies are blooming in the full sun. On Kerouac Hill and on the ridge above 4-Corners.
– Coralroot, the red orchid, is blooming in the leaf litter at the large Indian warrior patch.
– Cowparsnip is blooming in the woods below Amaranth.
– Fringe cups are blooming near the creek below Amaranth.
– Thimbleberry is showing its first blooms on the Homestead Trail.
– Wood rose is blooming in the woods below the Ridgewood Rock.
– Wooly lomatium is blooming on the Ridgewood Rock.

Forest Edges
– Douglas Iris, Ground Iris – peaking – with white and various shades of purple blooms are popping up all over.
– False Solomon Seal – peaking – is blooming all along the edge of the bay forest along the Homestead Trail. They are exploding with their little white flowers.
– French and Scotch Broom – peaking – are bright with their yellow flowers. These are some of the most aggressive invasives here. Pull it if you can, cut off the flowers so it can’t go to seed. Do whatever you can to combat its advance.
– Manroots or Wild Cucumber – peaking – is a native vine with white flowers that is blooming all over.
– Oakland Star Tulip – peaking – is blooming near the Indian Warrior patch, above the Ridgewood bench and near Amaranth.
– Spring Gold – peaking – I have only found blooming on the Ridgewood rock.
– Woodland star – peaking – is blooming on the Ridgewood Rock. This rock, the location of our next broom clearing effort, is the only place I have seen this flower.
– Purple sanicle – starting – is blooming below Amaranth and is coming elsewhere along the Homestead Trail.
– Woodland strawberry – starting – is blooming at the edge of the forest.
– Barberry – fading – is blooming below Amaranth and on the steep trail above the Indian Warrior.
– Checker Lily – fading. There was a hillside of it blooming below Amaranth between 4a and 9b on the map.
– Chickweed – fading. This non-native plant is from Europe and has a long history in folk medicine.
– Death Camas – fading – is blooming on the 4a to 9b hillside below Amaranth and along the overgrown trail down from 4-Corners. The entire plant is poisonous, hence the name.
– Indian Warrior – fading – is blooming in a large patch on the Homestead Trail at 9j (we cleared this hill of broom last October so the flowers will be on display as never before this spring).
– Milkmaids – fading. This is a member of the mustard/radish family (edible).
– Pacific Hound’s Tongue – fading.
– Shooting Stars – fading – can be found blooming on the same 4a to 9b hillside as the Checker Lily below Amaranth and on the Ridgewood rock.
– Fetid Adder’s Tongue – finished – but still has the distinctive adder’s tongue-like seed pod. The plants are very distinctive with their opposing wing leaves mottled with red blotches.
– Saxifrage – finished – only found on the Ridgewood Rock, is finished.

Meadows
– California Blackberry – starting – is blooming all over the Land Trust in sunny places.
– Mule’s Ears – starting – on Kerouac hill.
– Blue Dicks – peaking – is blooming in big patches above Lattie Ln on the ridge trail and on the 4-Corners side of Homestead Hill, near the Ridgewood bench and on the Ridgewood Rock.
– Buttercups – peaking – are blooming yellow in the meadows.
– Checkerbloom – peaking – is up on the ridge.
– Douglas Iris, Ground Iris – peaking – with white and various shades of purple blooms are popping up all over.
– Footsteps of spring – peaking – is blooming along the trail up on the ridge.
– Sun cups – peaking – are blooming on the ridge and in sunny meadows.

Wet Places
– Calla lily’s – starting – large white blooms are in the wet places.
– Horsetail’s asparagus-like spears – starting – are emerging creeksides.
– Three cornered leek – starting, the invsive onion, is flowering in boggy places.
– Miner’s lettuce – peaking – with its little white flowers are blooming where it is wet.

Mixed Bay / Oak Forests
– Fairy Bells – starting – will bloom for months. Flower bells hang under the leaves and are usually impossible to see from our vantage, so turn over the leaves and peak underneath.
– Hazelnut bushes – starting – are budding out with new growth.
– Mountain Sweet Cicely – starting – can be found blooming in the woods with small white flowers and long seeds. The fresh seed pods are sweet.
– Swordfern – starting, that has been looking all brown with its thrips infestation is coming green again with new growth.
– Bay Laurel trees – fading – are blooming. These trees are everywhere around here. The blooms have a lovely vanilla scent.
– Trilium – fading. There are still a few blooms in shaded places..

Key to map:
I haven’t located Bay, Chickweed, California Blackberry, Manroots, Swordfern, French or Scotch Broom on the map as they are so prolific. Trillium, Pacific Hound’s Tongue, Milkmaids and Iris are also blooming in many more locations than are noted on the map.

a – Footsteps of spring (Sanicula arctopoides)
b – Barberry (Berberis pinnata)
c – Checker Lily (Fritillaria affinis)
d – Iris (Iris)
e – Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum)
f – Fetid Adder’s Tongue (Scoliopus bigelovii)
g – Saxifrage (Micranthes californica)
h – Shooting Stars (Dodecatheon hendersonii)
i – Indian Warrior (Pedicularis densiflora)
j – Checkerbloom (Sidalcea)
k – Mountain Sweet Cicely (Osmorhiza berteroi)
l – Spring Gold (Lomatium utriculatum)
m – Milkmaids (Cardamine californica)
n – Manroots (Marah)
o – Sun Cups (Taraxia ovata)
p – Pacific Hound’s Tongue (Cynoglossum grande)
q – Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)
r – California Blackberry (Rubus ursinus)
s – Fairy Bells (Prosartes hookeri)
t – Trillium (Trillium ovatum)
u – Oakland Star Tulip (Calochortus umbellatus)
v – Buttercups (Ranunculus californicus)
w – Purple sanicle (Sanicula bipinnatifida)
x – Mule’s ears (Wyethia mollis)
y – Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca)
z – Death Camas (Toxicoscordion fremontii)
A – Horsetail (Equisetum arvense)
B – Woodland star (Lithophragma affine)
C – California poppy (Eschscholzia californica)
D – Thimbleberry (Rubus parviflorus)
E – Wooly lomatium (Lomatium dasycarpum)
F – Coralroot (Corallorhiza)
G – False Solomon’s seal (Maianthemum racemosum)
H – Wild Rose (Rosa californica)
J – Cowparsnip (Heracleum maximum)
K – Fringe cups (Tellima grandiflora)

Gallery of wildflowers and plants found in Homestead.

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