Wild & Crazy Flowers
The last couple years have had pretty much uneventful springs. This year however, the State Poppy Reserve in the Antelope Valley has really come into its own.
The Reserve features the California poppy, Escholtzia californica, although there are many other wildflowers that can be observed in abundance. I made two trips out there this month and plan one more in about a week. While I was there poppies were prolific, but I also spotted; Owl’s clover (Castilleja exserta) , fiddleneck (Amsinckia tessellata), and the annoying, but still rather pretty, red stem filaree (Erodium cicutarium). I’ve long ago lost the battle with city code enforcement as to whether filaree are weeds or wildflowers. So I cut ‘em down with the rest of the weeds in my neglected, but “wild”, yard.
The appropriately named “goldfields” (Lasthenia californica), pour out of the washes at the bottoms of the canyons and spread into the valleys and plains beyond. Interspersed among them are the orange poppies. It takes a bit of study to pick out one species from another in the wildly-colored array.
There’s no way you can see it all in one visit. Aside from pygmy-leaved lupine (Lupinus bicolor) blossoming at the higher elevations, the goldfields below and poppies interspersed throughout, the flowers start at different times, during different conditions. For example, the lacy phacelia (Phacelia cryptantha), I was somewhat disappointed to find out, started blooming the next day after my trip- Apparently like never, ever before.
Click the following for more information on the Poppy Reserve:
http://digital-desert.com/poppy-reserve/