Category Archives: Native

May 31, 2012 · 9:17 am

Plant of the day: wild hyacinth

A flash of white against the frog-colored palette of a wet meadow. A loose cluster of white flowers atop a long, smooth stem. Each flower is an open bowl with the petals fused at the base, then tapering into six delicate points. This is wild hyacinth, or Triteleia hyacinthina. It grows in wetlands and along creeksides, as well as in grasslands and forests throughout much of the state.

The six stamens alternate in height, and flatten out so their bases nearly meet, making what looks like a crown set inside the bowl of petals. Green ribs run up the middle of each fleshy white petal.

There is another pale-colored Triteleia in the area (marsh triteleia, which can be whitish but is purple tinged – at least at the midrib if not elsewhere). You can tell the two apart because the wild hyacinth is bowl-shaped when seen from the side, while the marsh triteleia is narrower, shaped more like a funnel or a horn and the stamens are harder to see, hidden deep inside this vessel.

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May 28, 2012 · 2:54 pm

Plant of the day: buckeye

It’s buckeye season – one of my favorite stages of spring. These spreading trees with their tall, pinkish-white spires of flowers can be seen along roadsides, streamsides, in mixed woodlands and even at the edge of pebbly beaches on Tomales Bay. I’ve seen Aesculus californica growing so close to the water that the lower branches were draped with streamers of dried eelgrass.

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This lovely tree is unique to California, and can be found across much of the state. It has loads of character, with knobby, gnarled trunks and wide palmately compound leaves. It leafs out during the winter, offering cool shade on hot days into the early summer, and then it goes dormant. In the fall it drops beautiful shiny chestnut-colored nuts (ok, actually they are “capsules” since the hard exterior contains several seeds). I like to gather them and use them for decoration. But don’t eat any! They are toxic, known to depress the nervous system, cause abortions in cattle and be toxic to bees. Native Americans would use extract of the seed topically (for hermerrhoids?!). In tough times the seeds were sometimes eaten (after careful preparation to leach the poison out). Buckeye also provided food in a different way: pouring a ground-up powder of the seed into a stream would stupify fish for easier catching!

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May 27, 2012 · 5:54 pm

Plant of the day: fairy lantern

This is one of the most beautiful flowers of the Bay Area. It’s aptly named, with its complex blossom looking like a delicately wrought lantern nodding on a slender stem. The three upper sepals curve upward like a pagoda roof, while the fringed petals below curl inwards as if to protect a flame. It’s not hard to imagine them as fixtures in a tiny magical kingdom. Keep your eye out for these little plants, and when you find one, look close!

The fairy lantern (Calochortus amabalis) is endemic to northern California, and is pretty much restricted to the coast range north of San Francisco bay. As such, Marin County is toward the southern-most end of the species’ range, and it is a rare sight here. These photos were taken in Sonoma county, where it is much more common.

Because all the parts are in threes, you can tell it is in the lily family, like the irises and blue-eyed grass.

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May 26, 2012 · 8:32 am

Plant of the day: rough hedge nettle

Rough hedge nettle is widespread in the area, and hedge nettles in general are easy to recognize. Though they don’t have the typical smell, hedge nettles are in the mint family! Mints are often hairy and smelly (like some rugged botanist-types that I know?!) and they have a tubular flower that usually is distinctly two-lipped. For the hedge nettles this is certainly the case. But the real giveaway for this family is that they have a square stem. Just roll it between your fingers to see what this means – all mint stems are distinctly four-sided (see the stem close-up below). There are other families that have square stems, but the many local species in the mint family (Lamiaceae) are by far the most common.

Stachys rigida is usually found in dry places—woods, shrublands, or grasslands. There are other hedge nettles (such as S. chamissonis, with its showy purple flowers) that prefer wetlands but our S. rigida is almost always on slopes, in gravel, clay or rocky soil. And, if you want to get technical, you should know that the Marin Flora lists Stachys rigida var. quercitorum as the local variety.

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May 25, 2012 · 8:28 am

Plant of the day: silverweed cinquefoil

Silver weed cinquefoil

Potentilla anserina

This is sunny little flower almost always grows in wetlands or creeksides, though it can be found elsewhere. The photo shown here was taken on a seemingly-dry trailside, but because it was on a hill I wouldn’t be surprised if it is wetter than it appeared. Potentilla anserina is the most common cinquefoil in the area. In general, cinquefoils have a very distinctive “look,” with five spreading petals and surrounding a central mound of many stamens. The leaves are composed of crinkly, jagged-edged leaflets. Often the leaflets are arranged in many pairs along the stem (as with this silverweed here), but sometimes they are in threes or in a fan shape. Once you’ve seen a few different species the similarities start to jump out at you!

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May 23, 2012 · 10:23 am

Plant of the day: secund jewelflower

Like a handful of precious jewels scattered on a rocky slope, this flower is easily missed but well worth a closer look. With single flowers spread out on a long, leafless stalk they can blend into the background. Each blossom is gathered at the base into a balloon that reminds me of the bell-shaped skirts at an old-fashioned ball. At the mouth, the four petals crinkle and flare outwards from a purple-tinged mouth. This is Streptanthus glandulosus ssp. Secundus. The ssp means “subspecies” – a lot of times this designation refers to very subtle differences within a species that a casual botanist isn’t interested in. But in this case, it means this flower is white while the others are dark purple. There are several different jewelflowers in the area, distinguished by their distinctive pouchlike shape, but this is the only white one listed in the Marin Flora.

Jewelflowers are in the same family (Brassicaceae) as the common wild mustards and radish weeds that grow all over, but their signature blossoms are different from most members of this group, which have simple four-petalled flowers. Milkmaids are a good example of a classic brassica.

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May 22, 2012 · 8:56 am

Plant of the day: mule ears

Like stubby sunflowers, these cheerful yellow blossoms have large, open faces. They can be seen ornamenting grassy hillsides as well as woods and brushy areas. Mule ears (Wyethia glabra) is a California endemic that is widespread throughout much of the western part of the state. Each yellow flower head is backed by a large collection of leaves that can be seen peeking out from behind the inflorescence. Narrow-leaved mule ears (Wyethia angustifolia, not endemic) are also common in Marin, but are easy to tell from regular mule ears because they lack these backing “broad and foliacious” bracts.

This is the first member of the Ateraceae family – also known as a “composite” – to appear on this blog, so a note on this type of plant. What looks like a single flower is actually hundreds of smaller flowers grouped together. This amalgamation is easier to mistake for a single bloom than other headlike arrangements because often the outer flowers look like petals, while the inner flowers are smaller and less showy and can look a lot like pistils or stamens. The outer, petal-like flowers are the “ray” flowers and the inner ones are the “disc” flowers. Each is truly an independent flower in and  of itself, each with its own petals and reproductive parts. The entire arrangement is called a “pseudanthia.”

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May 21, 2012 · 8:57 am

Plant of the day: milk maids

Milk maids are a ubiquitous sight in the spring, with their flowers of four simple white petals alternating sparsely up a stalk. They are one of the first of the year to start blooming, and they can last through May. Wikipedia says the name derives from a hat often worn by milkmaids, but that seems like a stretch since there is nothing bonnet-like about these blooms. Cardamine californica has flowers that are about half an inch across, and grow in most habitat types in the county except the driest. The four petals mark it as a brassica, the same family that houses wild mustard and radish. Many cultivated edibles, like broccoli and kale, are also in the Brassicaceae. Because of the “cross shaped” petals, this family once was called the cruciferae.

This pretty little flower is one of the earliest to bloom, and all parts of the plant (leaves, flowers, and roots) are edible, with a peppery radishlike flavor–they are tastiest before the flowers bloom, according to Judith Larner Lowry’s wonderful book, California Foraging (I admit I haven’t done a careful comparison myself).

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May 20, 2012 · 9:17 am

Plant of the day: Douglas iris

The wild irises of California are a spring delight. You can see them in forest clearings and meadows, sometimes in great green and purple masses. Other times one plant will appear singly, a burst of color against the browns of an understory. With their many variations in color and decoration they are a never-ending visual treat ranging from dark purple to pale yellow.

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The three largest, lower petals can look like a cross between a watercolor and a stained-glass window, with dark veins blocking out yellows, whites and purples – but with the color fading gently towards the edge of the petal. Above it is what appears to be a paler, less gaudy petal (it’s actually part of the pistil). Sandwiched between the two is the dark purple tongue of the stamen, dusted underneath with pollen, and invisible unless you pry the flower open or look very close. Often you’ll see bees rummaging around and coming out with their legs laden with pollen.

Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana) is the most common wild iris species, but coast iris (Iris longipetala) and ground iris (Iris macrosiphon) are also somewhat common. And keying them is a trick!! Every book or expert gives different suggestions about how to distinguish one from another. The Marin Flora says you can identify a Douglas iris if the pollen is yellow and the surface of the leaf is shinier than the underside and the long purple tube below the flower (the perianth tube) is about 2 centimeters long. But the Flora of Sonoma County suggests two ways to ID the Douglas. First  is if the leaf bases (but not the entire plant!) is reddish. Second is if the perianth tube is less than 3 centimeters long. So take your pick! Once I get a confident ID on another species I’ll post about those as well.

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May 19, 2012 · 8:38 am

Plant of the day: yerba santa

Beside a rocky trail, a tall spike of leathery green leaves topped by a cluster of white flowers peeks up through the chaparral. This is yerba santa, or Eriodictyon californicum. It is known as a medicinal plant (tea now available at Amazon as well as in the great outdoors), though personally I haven’t been attracted by the descriptions of a bitter, menthol-like taste. Traditionally, the tea was used for colds and other respiratory troubles, though it also has been used to treat maladies as diverse as stomach aches, headaches, bruises, eye troubles, and gonnorhea.

The leaves are often dusted with an unappealing black mold, but without this yerba santa is a handsome plant. The white flowers cluster loosely at the top of the spike of leaves. Each blossom is tubular and flared at the mouth, with petals that taper off into points. If you look close, you’ll see that each flower has two styles (and no, that isn’t sweats and slacks. The style is the shaft of the female reproductive parts).

You commonly find yerba santa on rocky slopes or in chaparral, among the dense scrub of manzanita or ceanothus. It can reproduce by seed, but only does so after a fire or other disturbance of the soil surface. Since fires aren’t common in today’s era of fire suppression, it usually reproduced vegetatively. They can grow a rhizome (rootlike structure) up to eight feet long in a single summer! That rhizome will put up new plants every 8 to 10 inches — an effective way to raise a family indeed.

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