California Dreams

I took Master C. to the Oak Canyon Nature Center last week and was surprised to find it closed. The gates to the parking lot were locked but there is a pedestrian entrance which we took. A sign was posted at the Interpretive Center saying that the center would only be open on Saturdays. My daughter emailed and called to find out what was going on and was told:

Due to budget reductions the Oak Canyon Nature Center is now a passive site. This means it will continue to be open to the public for use including self-guided hikes but the interpretive center will be open only on Saturdays for visitations.

Oak Canyon is a real treasure which I have blogged about before here, here, and here, mostly talking about the native plants. I wrote a special piece from Master C.'s point of view here. But we have enjoyed going there many more times than I have written about and I am very saddened to hear that California's fiscal problems are causing the city of Anaheim to close the Interpretive Center and end the programs that have been so successful.

Besides an office, the center housed an exhibit room full of fun things including live and stuffed animals, books, puzzles and games, and much more to teach children about science, the canyon, and nature. During the winter hundreds of school children have been bussed into the canyon to go on hikes, do projects, and listen to stories. A lucky few got to pet the snakes or an opossum. I took Master C. to a series of classes for 2 to 4-year-olds this spring where we learned about butterflies, lizards, flowers, and the sun. The books will remain and I suppose the stuffed exhibits, but the live animals will be moved to new homes. And there will be no more classes during the week.

I feel so sad about this that I just wanted to post some photos from past trips to the center to show people some of the things that will be lost.

More Native Plants at OCNC

Blue-eyed Grass, Sisyrinchium bellum

Since I have been babysitting for Master C. quite a bit the last few weeks, it has given me plenty of opportunity to go down to the Oak Canyon Nature Center and see the spring blooms. The scene has been changing almost daily from the wet, lush, green vegetation of late February and the beginnings of the appearance of wildflowers, to the profusion of blossoms in March, to the sudden hot dry conditions we are having now which dries out the tender spring plants but brings on the summer flowers exemplified by the Cobweb Thistle at the bottom of this post. I have found and identified many new plants for myself which has been a lot of fun. A new book recommended by Yvetta called, Flora of the Santa Ana River and Environs by Oscar F. Clarke, has been very helpful (order it from Canada while the supply lasts), but as always, there is plenty of room for argument on some of the identifications.

Since I have been commenting about the difference between Sugar Bush and Lemonadeberry (Rhus ovata and Rhus integrifolia), here is a photo of a beautiful branch of Sugar Bush blooms.

Sugar Bush, Rhus ovata

One of the identifications I have really had trouble with is this phacelia below. In March, I found one lone plant and now there are hundreds along the trail called Road Runner Ridge. They have posted a sign at the beginning of the trail showing photos of the wildflowers in bloom along the trail and they identify this phacelia as Sticky Phacelia, Phacelia viscida. But after much research on the web and in my books, I am sticking with my identification of Parry's Phacelia, Phacelia parryi. The color (rich, deep purple), the five white spots in the center and lack of a well-defined white area, and the fact that the leaves and stems are not "sticky" (the leaves felt more like velvet to me) are my reasons for making this identification. BTW, touching this plant may cause dermatitis, which I didn't know at the time, but I suffered no ill effects.

Parry's Phacelia, Phacelia Parryi

I found two more lupines (yay!), one of them so tiny I almost missed it, Miniature Lupine or Lupinus bicolor. The other one, by contrast, is quite large and covered with lots of hairs giving it the name Nettle Lupine, Lupinus hirsutissimus. Hirsutissimus was growing right on the side of the path amidst all the weeds, so it got whacked with a weed-whacker when they widened the path, poor thing. Since I took close-up photos of both these lupines, you really can't appreciate the difference in size, but you can see the narrow leaves of the miniature lupine and the wide, flat leaves of the nettle and its hairy stem.

Miniature Lupine, Lupinus bicolor

Nettle Lupine, Lupinus hirsutissimus

Below are some of the other plants that were either new to me or that I found very interesting. Deer Weed is the favorite plant of the Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly. Its flowers turn orange with age. I love the dark red flowers of the California Figwort. It's a very striking plant. The photo of Caterpillar Phacelia shows how it got its name. There is a yellow pincushion flower besides this white one (Chaenactis artemisiaefolia) and both are represented at OCNC although the white one is more abundant. I didn't know that California had its own Wild Morning Glory. There is a similar, non-native morning glory called bindweed that is an annoying pest, so I find calling the native plant a "false bindweed" rather humorous. You can tell them apart by the position of the bracts at the base of the flower which look like tiny leaves. In the native plant, the bracts are right under the flower, in the bindweed they are further down the stem. And finally is the Cobweb Thistle, Circium occidentale, which gets its name from the cottony hairs that cover the plant.

Deer Weed, Lotus scoparius

California Figwort, Scrophularia californica

White Chaenactis, Chaenactis artemisiaefolia

Caterpillar Phacelia, Phacelia cicutaria

Wild Morning Glory, Calystegia macrostegia

Cobweb Thistle, Cirsium occidentale

Master C. Has a New Baby Sister!

Master C.'s new baby sister arrived early Wednesday morning and Master C. is very excited and eager to help out. When Baby M. woke up crying to be fed, he ran downstairs to get a baby spoon out of the drawer to feed her. A minute later he was back for a bowl and some cereal. When we told him that she is too young to eat cereal ("She has no teeth yet,") he decided he would have the cereal himself.

Everything went well, but all of us adults are exhausted.

Spring Canyon

It's spring here in the southland. New growth, buds and blooms are everywhere. I have been taking lots of photos but haven't had time to post them. It's time to get a little caught up.

Master C. and I have been on two canyon walks together at Oak Canyon where I became acquainted with some new native California plants. Master C. is becoming quite the hiker, taking off on any trail that piques his curiosity and commanding me to follow him. On our first hike, I took a wrong turn at one point and instead of coming back down into the canyon, we ended up going along the rim and it took forever to get back. By this time, Master C. had grown tired and I ended up carrying him most of the way down back into the canyon. Next time, I will bring along a map!

Before I get into the plants, however, I just have to post this photo of a male Wood Duck. Isn't he handsome? A large group of ducks have spent the winter in the canyon and hadn't left yet when this photo was taken on March 6th. Wood Ducks are my favorite ducks because the male is so colorful and because they are fun to watch. The reason that they like this canyon so much is because they like to build their nests on low branches that overhang water and with all the spreading oak trees along the year-round running stream, the canyon offers them plenty of choices. After the eggs hatch, the little ones just drop or plop down into the water and off they go.

Now for the plants. Because the canyon has both Sugar Bush and Lemonadeberry, and they are both blooming now (or about to bloom), I was able to finally fix in my head the differences between the two. These two photos will illustrate. The first one is Sugar Bush, Rhus ovata, and the second is the Lemonadeberry, Rhus integrifolia. Generally, Sugar Bush is not found close to the ocean but notice also the red stems, the smoother leaf edges, and the darker, shinier leaves that curl inward like a taco. The Lemonadeberry leaf has teeth, although this is not always true. When the Sugar Bush blooms open up, I will be able to compare the flowers in detail.

Sugar Bush, Rhus ovata

Lemonadeberry, Rhus integrifolia

And now, in no special order, here are some of the new native plants I found.

Fuschia-flowered Gooseberry, Ribes speciosum

Baby Blue Eyes, Nemophila menziesii

Miner's Lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata

Blue Dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum

Parry's Phacelia, Phacelia parryi

This last link shows some fabulous photos of Parry's Phacelia mixed with California Poppies and lupine. The phacelia is the dark purple flower in my photo.