Viola pedunculata, the Johnny jump-up, California golden violet, or yellow pansy, is a perennial yellow wildflower of the coast and coastal ranges in California and northwestern Baja California. The plant grows on open, grassy slopes, in chaparral habitats, and in oak woodlands. We see its cheerful yellow flowers in the Santa Monica Mountains from early to late spring.
I love finding (and illustrating) strangers’ lists. I wonder what food they bought for Colin?
UPDATE 5.6.23: I incorrectly showed the position of the female flowers. See this post.
It promises to be a great year for acorns around here! Most of the coast live oaks are currently sprouting thousands of yellow fingers, male flowers on their long catkins. Their female counterparts are hard to see, but if you look closely you can find them wedged in the angle between leaf and branch.
California’s oak woodlands sustain higher levels of biodiversity than virtually any other terrestrial ecosystem in the state. More than 300 species of birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals depend on oak woodlands for food and shelter, and that doesn’t count the many hundred species of insects, spiders, mosses, lichens and fungi.
Like so many other habitats, oak woodlands are under severe threat from development and climate change. But for this year, at least, we can look forward to a healthy acorn crop. Yay!
Pretty blue-eyed grass is actually an iris, not a grass. It’s putting on a good show around here right now. No Chumash uses were recorded for this plant, but the Ohlone used an infusion of the roots and leaves as a cure for indigestion and stomach pain.
I like to sketch my current palette on the first page of a new sketchbook (in the case, a Stillman and Birn Alpha 8 x 10). It was time to top up the pans, so I decided to make a few changes, adding in Lavender and Cobalt Turquoise Light for some fresh spring tones. My paints are nearly all Daniel Smith, with a couple of Schminckes. Some of the initials make me smile—FU (French Ultramarine), GAG (Green Apatite Genuine).
I went to a new-to-me Mexican restaurant for lunch; my meal was delicious. I wondered at the preponderance of skulls in the decor, until I looked up the meaning of the establishment’s name and it all made sense.
While in town yesterday, I made a special stop at the Japanese market to get mirin, but they wouldn’t sell it to me without photo ID, which I’d accidentally left at home. However, the visit wasn’t wasted … king oyster mushrooms (Pleurotus eryngii) were on sale.
Our local wild chia (Salvia columbariae) is closely related to commercial chia (Salvia hispanica). It was a favoured food of the Chumash and other Native American peoples, being high in both protein and fat. The seeds were gathered in large quantities, stored and traded, then roasted and ground into flour. The seeds were also used medicinally and ceremonially. It is an annual herb, and is flowering now in the Santa Monica Mountains.
Yesterday morning in the Park, some people found a newborn gopher in the middle of a wide, well-traveled trail and didn’t know what to do with it. The blind, hairless little thing was shorter than an adult thumb. It was way too young to try to rehabilitate, so we advised them to return it close to where it was found, just in case the mama came back for it.
I’ve had the same thing happen myself, with a newborn rabbit. In both cases the mystery was how the baby got to the middle of a bare trail. Was it dropped by a bird of prey? Carried there by its mother?
Sweet little table arrangement at my birthday lunch.
hashiworks 