From a small seed a mighty trunk may grow....

...and grow, and grow, and grow.  I'm sure it was cute when it was smaller.  As a gangly pre-teen, it's not even reached close to its final height. At least it's not planted beneath power lines. 

Don't do this.

Visit to Oak Canyon Nature Center

Oak Canyon Nature Center is surrounded by 58 acres of park in Anaheim Hills. Park grounds and trails are open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week

The John J. Collier Interpretive Center is open Saturdays and Sundays, 10:00am-4:00pm
Parking lot gates and restrooms locked at 5:00pm

This looked like Stachys

More of the Stachys look-alike.

A Juli.

Marah or Chaparral cucumber was all over.

This guy was on a mustard plant. Half-hearted online searching says it will grow into a white-lined Spinx Moth.

BLUE DICKS! (Dichelostemma capitatum)

LOTS!

AND LOTS!

Cool and science pioneerish, again!

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On the LLP web site there there are 59 H. glacialis (Glacial Lady Beetle) reported but only a few with the extensa epithet, so I suspect they are somewhat rare.  Nonetheless, I found one the other day.  Googling around, I thought it was interesting that someone named Mulsant named this subspecies in 1850. 

Bloom time!

Salvia spathacea (Hummingbird Sage).  I think it's just the species.  As I noted in a previous post, gardeners will identify subspecies or selections willy-nilly.  "Powerline" is one such named selection.

Stachys ajudgoides (Hedge Nettle).  No minty smell.  No nettlely stingers.  Just a low growing green filler.

 Ribes aureum gracillimum (Golden Currant).  I eat the currants if the birds don't get them first.

 Cercis occidentalis (Western Redbud).  One of three in my yard.  It's the only one that has the characteristic red buds right now.  I kinda think the others won't get any this year.  My previous experience says that it takes a few years to get these blooms and the older the tree the more of them there are.  This is the first year for this tree.

Eschscholzia californica maritima

The maritima subspecies of California poppy is not even really recognized by many official publications. Apparently it's had its ins and outs with the botanists. The argument goes that at some point you have to make a choice to be inclusive at higher levels of nomenclature and not open yourself up finer and finer levels of distinction within subspecies that one could spend several lifetimes untangling.

Gardeners on the other hand, can afford to have those levels of distinction.

Rain 0.59"; season total 8.25"

We had another 0.29" yesterday and then more overnight for a total of 0.59".  The overnight rain was torrential at times and woke me up at its loudest.

3/3/2015 0.59"


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0.29" rain; season total 7.66"

We had a storm come through that looked like was going to leave us with just trace rain.  Then during the day on the 1st we picked up nearly a tenth of an inch, followed overnight by another two tenths.  More rain is supposed to be on the way today.

3/1/2015    28-Feb    0.09    7.46
3/2/2015    1-Mar    0.2    7.66