Wildflowers

The mention of the Wildflower Festival in Perth brings up fond memories of
our long cool spring this year. It seems so long ago now that the real
California summer is in full force (100F highs, 70F lows).

I thought I should share the pictures I took of the great wildflowers we
had in Southern California this year. It was an unusual year after the
extreme stress wildlife has been under.

For some background - California is suffering from a drought the last 3
years or so, with 2002 the worst rainfall on record (rainfall year =July
2001 to June 2002) of just 4.42 inches for Los Angeles (normal average 15
inches).

This year California received a normal rainfall total but the pattern of
distribution was not. We had early rain in November, dry warm (hot) January
and cool wet late spring (rain as late as May). Very confusing for the
plants - some things were early, others were very late. But all this with
the recent drought history made for some spectacular wildflowers.

One of the great areas I visited is in Gorman about 1 hour north of Los
Angeles. Gorman is right off the main interstate freeway 5, at the Tejon
Pass of the Los Padres mountains. The area photographed is of hills that are
cattle grazed ranch land devoid of most chaparral. They might also have some
recent fire history that cleared the chaparral - I don't know. But these
conditions made for a special display. You could see it from the freeway and
I saw two accidents most likely from car viewing at high speed.

The day I went was late April, and the weather was cool and breezy with
clouds racing bye - lighting the flower fields in big waves. It was so good,
I went back another day which was warmer and sunny. There is a great variety
of flowers at this location but the big washes of color are from Lupines -
L. benthamii?, Bigelow Coreopsis - C. bigelovii, Globe Gilia - G. capitata,
Phacelia tanacetifolia and Poppies - Eschscholzia california.

Also, at the end of the pictures are two shots of the poppyfields from
Lancaster, CA. Lancaster is also about 1 hour north of Los Angeles in the
high desert. At the end of April, most of the poppies were finished but
still had some good displays.

This link should take you my pictures
http://community.webshots.com/user/marcalliope.

Hope this encourages you to checkout your wildflowers - they are only a
fleeting moment - grand or humble.


Marilyn Jacobsen
Altadena, CA
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