Walked around our property a few days ago, searching for any species newly in bloom, and very nearly walked right past this beauty.
I believe it's a Sierra gooseberry,
Ribes roezlii (http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=7137). Just learned from my beloved Calflora that it's a California endemic! Nice.
A gorgeous, dramatic bloom, and a flush of them, but this is why I almost passed it: they're cleverly hanging below the branches, so the shrub, even in it's full glory, looks like this.
Not exactly a show stopper.
And to redress an earlier oversight, here's the steadily blooming white leaf manzanita (Arctostaphylos viscida).
You can pretty much hear when they are in bloom.
The background sound on our property changes from nothing to the steady hum of many, many bees when this plant blooms. The first time I stepped outside and heard it I was quite confused. There's such a profusion of blooms on just one tree, and we have dozens, that en masse they change the soundscape entirely.
(I am presently being chortled at by an early morning robin, singing to greet the sunrise.)
Mystery plant that I must try to figure out. Small guy. Blooms smaller than fingernail.
Here's a better shot of a different mystery plant, the tiny, tiny bloom I blogged about earlier.
(I'm starting to think this robin has a head mic like Madonna--this is a loud song!)
Body of tiny bloom. Cute little rounded spade-shaped leaves.
Our local Dodecatheon representative. Looks like they've just started blooming at our house. I'd say, based on the leaves, it's Henderson's shooting star, Dodecatheon hendersonii.
Here's a hint of things to come, along those lines...
A veritable profusion of Dodecatheon plants... this site should be awash in blooms before too long. I love their sweet, simple leaves.
And lastly, a mystery grass species...
It's near the very edge of our property. I'll have to figure out whether it's friend or foe, and to what degree, before I decide what to do with it. Once you are professionally trained to rid the native landscape of exotics, it's hard to stop...
NOT that I've been terribly conscientious about that on our property, outside of yellow starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis) patrol. Maybe this blog will inspire me to address the non-native issues we have in a more methodical way.
As if I used to get paid to do this. =)
the biobabbler
P.S. Anyone know what any of these mystery plants are, by all means, enlighten me. Guesses are welcome. =)
