2013-03-30

Two local wildflowers

Out on a hike* the other day I found two local wildflowers of note. The first one I believe is Mariposa Lily (Calochortus catalinae), shown below with a few pollinators on its leaves.  I only saw the one plant, though I did look for others along the trail.
Mariposa Lily (Calochortus catalinae)  ?

Here is a photo of the same species from the San Pedro Annex, where it bloomed just a week or so ago.  Photos that I find online have varying degrees of the purple blush at the petal ends to a full blush along the length of the petal.  You can see a fine purple tint in the photo above at the petal end.  I think that the blush grows along the petal as the flower matures.

Mariposa Lily (Calochortus catalinae)
Another plant I was happy to find is Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis, most likely), and I saw multiple instances of it.  I recently read that it is a parasitic plant that requires the roots of other nearby plants to feed from.  That just makes it more interesting to me.
Indian Paintbrush (Castilleja affinis, most likely)


*20 mile circumnavigation of the Palos Verdes Peninsula

1 comment:

  1. Yup, that is a Mariposa lily, and a very pretty one, I love the very contrasting coloring. Interesting that you didn't find others nearby; I haven't seen a lot of them, but the ones I've seen have been in colonies, often with different color variations. Beautiful wherever and however you find them!

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