Summer’s Beauty Fading? Not So Fast….

Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Among the many benefits of living on the northern California coast, the allure of the extended wildflower season is not to be underestimated. A couple of recent jaunts corroborated my observations that the variable phenology (the timing of plant reproductive or growth phases such as flower and fruit production, bud break, or leaf senescence) of coastal California’s native plants provides a wealth of blossom-watching to be treasured year-round. Late summer is no time to rest on one’s laurels – a little exploration can be as good as gold.

Thanks to my friend Angelica, who alerted me to a population of Abronia umbellata ssp. breviflora in the Ten Mile Dunes, I spent a day there traipsing sandy slopes, hollows, and marsh in mid-August. Not only did I find in bloom the pink sand-verbena, a rare species that typically grows in the coastal strand plant community, but also its yellow-flowering cohort, A. latifolia, a more common species of strand and coastal dunes, both sharing sand with the delicately flaring pink trumpets of coast morning-glory (Calystegia soldanella). Nearby, another seldom-seen plant, Wolf’s evening-primrose (Oenothera wolfii), whispered in soft yellow from amidst a riparian thicket of Hooker willow (Salix hookeriana), weedy non-natives such as yellow glandweed (Parentucellia viscosa) and bird’s-foot trefoil (Lotus corniculatus), the native lavender-flowering mint Mentha arvensis, the pink willow-herb Epilobium ciliatum, and violet marsh speedwell, Veronica scutellata, a kaleidoscope of colors against the bleaching gray of an errant stack of timber clogging the outlet of Fen Creek.

A few days later, I sought a more familiar population of the pink sand-verbena near the outlet of Virgin Creek – alas, I’ve not seen any plants there now for 3 years. Nevertheless, I intended to make the most of my short walk, so I caroused the low dunes and spring outlets along the coastal bluffs in search of solace. Much resounding joy! Sand, stones, and seeps were abundant with color and texture: Bolander’s goldenaster (Heterotheca sessiliflora ssp. bolanderi) vying for gaudiest golden composite with gumplant (Grindelia stricta ssp. platyphylla), while their more demure cousin Erigeron glaucus appealed with its pink persistence. Nearby, coast buckwheat (Eriogonum latifolia) sprawled luxuriantly atop dunes and bluffs, perhaps luring me in to meet its steadfast sibling, dune knotweed (Polygonum paronychia), the foundation of the local dune scrub plant community. The sight of water (albeit a trickle) soon set my heart racing, as I’ve long been attracted to the small coastal seeps that form verdant oases amidst the otherwise parched landscape. I was not to be disappointed, as I soon spied a few of the most boisterously blooming common monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus) plants alive. Not to be outdone, a couple of Angelica hendersonii sirens just about fell off the bluff beckoning to me with sweet, lilac-tinted domes of white towering sturdily above ruffles of leathery green. Back in the soggy, sandy, stony seep, the coastal bluff- and prairie-wetland stalwart cow clover (Trifolium wormskioldii) sat astraddle perfect pincushions of the diminutive bulrush Isolepis cernua (= Scirpus cernuus), punctuating a mat of lemon-yellow flowering silverweed cinquefoil, Potentilla anserina.

“Wow, lots of gold on these thar hills,” I mused, almost startled as at yet two more shimmering dune graces smiled up at me from their sandy digs: beach evening-primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia) and the gleaming gold-orange north-coastal California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). Wending my way across the brown prairie, past native lavendar-rayed daisies with little to care about what humans call them (Symphyotrichum chilense = Aster chilensis, and Corethrogyne filaginifolia = Lessingia filaginifolia ssp. californica = Corethrogyne californica = yikes!! Taxonomists be gone!!), I spied yet one more gladdening glimmer in the grassland, coast goldenrod (Solidago spathulata ssp. spatulata). How fitting a finale was this for my summer stroll -- yet one more gift of gold, reflecting late summer sunlight along the California coast.

Posted on March 7, 2011 12:56 AM by pjwbotany