California Sunflower

Coast Sunflower by Cliff Hutson

Encelia californica: California Sunflower, also known as Coastal Sunflower and California Encelia.  I have seen it referred to as Brittlebush, but that would be Encelia farinosa to me.

California Sunflower grows in the Coastal Sage Scrub habitat of Southern California.

Coastal sage scrub species have adapted to an ecosystem that rarely freezes in the winter and only occasionally experience temperatures over 90-degrees F during the dry California summer.

Coast Cholla

Coast Cholla (Cylindropuntia prolifera) is another one of those species which has undergone a name change since I first encountered it. Frankly, it never made sense to me that chollas were included with the beavertail and prickly-pear cactus in the genus Opuntia, as they did not seem to resemble each other in any discernible to the average onlooker. But, science has caught up with the layperson, as it were, and chollas now have their own genus. The name Cylindropuntia comes from the Greek kylindros, "a cylinder" plus the name of the old genus Opuntia. The species name prolifera is a nod to the plant's proliferation by means of off-shoots.

Cylindropuntia prolifera is native to Southern California where it grows in coastal sage scrub, chaparral, beach, and bluff habitat. It crops up from Santa Barbara County south. Close to home, this cactus may be found along the coast of the Santa Monica Mountains, but it is kind of rare. It seems to be more abundant on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It then comes into its own in San Diego County and Baja California.

Like most members of the family Cactaceae (Cactus) it has spines. Spines are highly modified leaves. This cholla has two types. The larger spines are quite noticeable and merit some caution. But, around the base of the clusters of those spines are little tiny spines which are called glochids. Glochids have a barbed tip and may be even more treacherous than the actual spines. They can easily burrow into flesh and are very difficult to remove. 

Coast Cholla

Aside from the potential for great bodily harm, the plant is very attractive. The grey to green cylindrical joints make for stems that are four to six feet in height and may be thought of as treelike. Reddish purple flowers, with rounded blossoms about an inch in diameter, will normally bloom from April through June.

A First!

The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden chose my Tidy Tips photo for the cover of their magazine.

Wildflowering LA

It illustrates the article "Wildflowering LA". I have to say I think that is pretty cool. 

The kicker is that there is also an article on Julius Shulman. This is an added plus for me. He was a photographer whose work I have admired for decades. Little could I have dreamed when I was in my teens that something I shot would ever appear in such close proximity to his photographs. (Not that I am in his league.)

Even so, here is my latest attempt at architectural photography:

A Bar at Walter's

Fairy Duster

As a naturalist, I like to have a theme in mind when I lead an interpretive walk. I see this as a means of engaging the audience’s interest, as opposed to just wandering around identifying plants until their eyes start to glaze over. One of the themes I use is “does the common name of this plant make sense”.  A favorite plant for this discussion is the Fairy Duster, Calliandra eriophylla. It takes little imagination to see that the fluffy pink blossoms do resemble feather dusters scaled down to fairy size, assuming we are thinking of Tinker Bell instead of Titania.

The flowers appear between late winter and late spring. They have dense clusters of pale to deep pink stamens and are about two inches wide. I think that they are quite attractive; and, in fact, Calliandra is derived from the Greek kallos, "beautiful," and andra, "stamen”. The leaves are also interesting being twice pinnately compound with each division bearing five to ten pairs of leaflets.

The plant, also known as False Mesquite, is a densely branched shrub, about two feet tall and twice as wide, native to western North America. A member of the Pea Family (Fabaceae), it belongs to a group of primarily tropical plants that include Acacias and Mimosas. However, Fairy Duster grows in sandy washes and on slopes in the arid desert and grasslands of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas; and Mexico.

But, to say it occurs in California is a bit misleading as it is found only in the Creosote Brush Scrub community and then seemingly limited to Imperial and San Diego Counties. Due to this geographic circumscription , it is included in the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants on list 2.3 (rare, threatened, or endangered in California; common elsewhere). In the interest of full disclosure, I would like to point out that one specimen was collected by Dr. Robert F. Thorne (of RSABG) on April 12, 1964, in Riverside County and that there is also a questionable 1881 accession from Kern County. I, myself, first encountered Fairy Duster while hiking in Riverside County. It was on land that was starting to be developed somewhere outside of Palm Springs, so it may not have been a natural occurrence.

Wherever we find it, I think it offers people an opportunity to ask people to look more carefully at nature and by observing this one flower they might go to focus on other aspects of nature rather than passively walk though it.

Apache Plume

I write a column called "Plant of the Month" for Oaks Notes the newsletter for the volunteers at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. One of the pleasures I derive from writing these articles is that my research deepens my knowledge of the plants I pick for the column. Recently I was almost too ashamed to admit that I found out that what, for decades, I have taken to be the flower of Apache Plume is actually its fruit.

Apache Plume (Fallugia paradoxa) belongs to ROSACEAE, the rose family. It is native to the arid habitats of the mountains of east San Bernardino County. It is also found in the desert woodlands and scrub of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Texas, and northern Mexico. It is the only member of its genus. Which is to say it is monotypic. 

The flower of the shrub is roselike, or to some a little like an apple blossom, with rounded white petals and a center filled with many thready stamens and pistils. The flowers are small, but not inconspicuous if one really looks at the bush when preparing to write about it.

However, the persistent fruits have distinctive feathery plumes that look a lot like pompoms. They are formed when the ovary of the flower remains after the petals fall away, leaving the styles, each 3 to 5 centimeters long. Each style is attached to a fruit, which is a small achene. The plant is covered with these clusters. They are greenish at first, turning pink or reddish tinged later on.

Eventually the plumes turn white and when backlit are quite spectacular. The fruit finally disperses when wind catches the styles and blows them away.

The plant grows three to eight feet tall, with straw-colored branches and spreads six to eight feet. The small leaves are green on top and rusty underneath. Apache Plume can look a little scruffy, but still be attractive in a drought tolerant garden.

Hoary-leaved Ceanothus

hoary |ˈhôrē|

adjective ( hoarier , hoariest )

1 grayish-white : hoary cobwebs.

• (of a person) having gray or white hair; aged : a hoary old fellow with a face of white stubble.

• [ attrib. ] used in names of animals and plants covered with whitish fur or short hairs, e.g., hoary bat, hoary cress.

There are at least 52 species of ceanothus in the world. California is home to 43 species, sometimes known as California lilac, and 13 of these are native to the chaparral of Southern California. The dominant species in our local, lower-elevation, Santa Monica Mountains is Bigpod Ceanothus, Ceanothus megacarpus. However, at higher elevations it is replaced  Ceanothus crassifolius, Hoary-leaved Ceanothus. 

Plants in the genus Ceanothus are divided in to two groups - the subgenus Ceanothus and the subgenus Cerastes. The later is actually the larger group. But, I think that most of us, thanks to its showy displays, are more familiar with the former which is characterized by thin leaves that have three main veins, arrayed alternately on the stems. The leaves of Cerastes are leathery with a single main vein, and generally opposite in arrangement. 

A member of the Buckthorn family (Rhamnaceae) it is a large, evergreen shrub which may grow to twelve feet in height.  The leathery olive green leaves have white fuzzy undersides, which makes them hoary. The field guides I use describe the leaves as being “small”, which seemed a bit vague.  An internet gardening catalog stated they they are 1/4­ to 1/2" long. However, I took some measurements on a specimen at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden and found them to be closer to 1-1 1/2”. Which reminds me of the old taunt - “Who are going to believe, the facts or your lying eyes?” The small (truly about a quarter of an inch), rounded flowers are white with the inflorescences borne on short stalks.

Hoary-leaved Ceanothus is distributed through the Outer South Coast Range, Transverse Range, Peninsular Range, and Northern Baja on dry ridges or slopes below 3700'. Which is to say locally we can find it in the Verdugo, San Gabriel, Santa Monica and San Bernardino Mountains.

There are plenty of chances to see it, let’s go look.

Laurel Sumac - Malosma laurina

One of my fondest memories as a teenager is running through the interior of Los Angeles’ Griffith Park right after a rain or on a cool foggy morning and smelling the fragrances of the plants of the the chaparral and scrub-covered hills. One of the main contributors to that aroma was Laurel Sumac, then classified as Rhus laurina, but now known as Malosma laurina.

This 10 to 20 foot tall shrub is the only species in the genus Malosma. It native only to Southern California and the Baja California Peninsula; and found in both the Chaparral and Coastal Sage Scrub communities from sea level up to 3300 feet in elevation. The shiny red-green leaves are four to ten inches long and have a somewhat taco shell fold. When flattened, they have the shape of laurel leaves which gives us the common name Laurel, with Sumac in recognition that it is in the Sumac Family—Anacardiaceae. (Just in passing, this family also includes cashews, mangos, and poison oak!)

Locally, Laurel Sumac occurs naturally in the hills fronting Thompson Creek in Claremont. This is fitting for its historic geographical and economic context for our region. Malosma is not tolerant of hard frost. Something is has in common with two important commercial crops in California. Anywhere it grows naturally turns out to be ideal for avocado and citrus as well. Growers became aware of this and began to use it as a “sentinel plant” when looking for land for their ranches.

While I am fond of the fragrance I would be hard pressed to describe it. I am not alone in this. The Jepson Manual says Malosma is Latin: “from odor which resembles that of an apple.” However, Nuttall's description says the aromatic odor is “something like that of the Bitter Almond." I suggest you check it out for yourself. 

Toloache or Jimsonweed

Toloache or Jimsonweed
Originally uploaded by The Marmot

Datura wrightii

Datura, the name I first learned, is a member of the Nightshade family (Solanaceae) and is not uncommon from Central California to northern Mexico and east across the Southwest to Texas. There is certainly plenty of it around Thompson Creek. (This plant is near the intersection of Mills and Mt. Baldy Road. You can also see near the Girl Scout camp.) So you can imagine my surprise when two of my new field guides: Introduction to California Chaparral and Introduction to the Plant Life of Southern California: Coast to Foothills fail to mention it.

Perhaps this is due to the plant’s seedy reputation. Easily recognized by its trumpet-shaped flowers , it has been used for hundreds of years for its hallucinogenic properties. However, it is as toxic as it is narcotic and has been responsible for the deaths of some seeking to use it for its traditional religious purposes; or more likely, recreation.

Like many Americans of my generation, I first learned of the properties of Datura, also called Jimsonweed, through reading Carlos Castaneda’s The Teachings of Don Juan. His purported experiences led many to go out and try it for themselves. Surprisingly, I never did.

I say surprisingly as I have gone through what I called a Euell Gibbons phase and have an abiding interest in ethnobotany, as evidenced by my work at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. These pursuits have led me to consume more than a few native plants of California. But, I have a healthy respect for for things that might kill me if I do not know what I am doing and figure to give Datura a permanent pass.

The book California Indians and Their Environment: An Introduction by Kent G. Lightfoot and Otis Parish has a few interesting entries on what they call Toloache. They describe religious uses, such as gaining the ability to transcend reality, and medicinal purposes. Some groups prepared it in a drink as a painkiller and a treatment for a variety of ailments.

Speaking of names, the National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers refers to the plant as Southwestern Thorn Apple. It says that the common name Jimsonweed is a corruption of Jamestown Weed. The story goes that it got the name when many soldiers sent to quell Bacon’s rebellion in 1676 were poisoned by it.

By the way, the typically white flower may be some times tinged with violet.

Green Waves of Grass

Well, the wind sings its own song

Moving patiently along

• Thomas George Russell

“Santa Ana Wind”

An odd wind rose up seemingly from nowhere the other day as Holly and I were out walking along Thompson Creek. It was not a Santa Ana, nor did it seem to be ill-intentioned like the wind in the Tom Russell song. However, it did have its own tune and I marveled at the way it made the grass on the far hillside move.

I was, at first, somewhat dismayed that I had no way to capture the moment, then I realized that I had my new iPod nano in my pocket and was able to create the accompanying little video. I think it came out well considering the limitations of the technology of putting a video camera in such a tiny device. I did eliminate the audio track as the rush of the wind just turned out as a dull roar. Not a song after all.

It is fairly certain that this is a non-native grass. Introduced grasses in this area include the bromegrasses (Bromus spp.), wild oats (Avena spp.), and ryegrasses (Lolium spp.). If they were sentient, they would be ill-intentioned as introduced grasses have effectively replaced our native grasses in this disturbed area. Between the wear and tear of encroaching human activity and the big fire of October 2003 most native plants are in a struggle for existence.

There are two non-native shrubs that are plentiful along the creek. They are rock-rose (Cistus spp.) (see photo) and rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis). Most of these appear to be planted. However, their occurrence is not uncommon in the chaparral throughout California as they are Mediterranean plants that have naturalized and do quite well on their own in our environment.

I think that I have also spotted Scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius) although I can not get close enough to verify it. It is another invasive species that grows so well in the Santa Monic Mountains (my home range) that I thought it was a native until I learned better. I feel that its ability to take root (pun intended) can be paralleled to the earliest human settlement of California, in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene, and the subsequent waves of migration. Unlike some communities, where if you are not a member of the founding families you will always be an outsider regardless of how many generations your own family has lived there, moving here practically makes you a native overnight if you want to be one. However, we do draw a line for vegetation.