Tag: wildflowers

Sydney wildlife

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harold reid

Alectura lathami

There’s an active brush turkey nest in my friends’ front yard, right below the verandah. It’s a huge mound of mulch and leaf litter, several metres wide, which the male tends daily with much scratching and shifting of the plant material as the eggs incubate deep inside.

Brush turkeys are not exactly beloved in suburban gardens, as they steal every bit of mulch they can find. Once one starts building a mound, it’s pretty much impossible to get it to stop.

If the chosen location is really inconvenient, you can try to redirect the bird’s attention to a different part of your garden by creating a compost mound. The brush turkey might be drawn to this spot and eventually adopt the compost mound as its nesting site. Good luck!

Heuchera sp.

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California native Heucheras, commonly referred to as Coral Bells or Alum Root, consist of about 15 different species and sub-species that grow naturally in a variety of habitats in elevations from less than 500 feet up to 10,000 feet. I’m not sure of the exact species growing in the King Gillette Ranch native garden, but it sure is pretty.

Cirsium occidentale

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This week in the PerpJo … We have a local, native thistle, the cobwebby thistle Cirsium occidentale. The plant is widespread and fairly common across most of California; unlike many introduced thistles, this native species is not a troublesome weed.

What a handsome plant! The leaves are a soft grey-green. The flower head is somewhat spherical, covered in large phyllaries with very long, spreading spines which are heavily laced in fibers resembling cobwebs. The ones were saw today had gathered dew drops on the thin threads — so pretty! The crown on top was a dense head of crimson florets.

Aphyllon franciscanum

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This week in the PerpJo—according to Milt McCauley (Wildflowers of the Santa Monica Mountains), two species of the Broomrape family are native to the SMM, but very rare. Clustered broomrape (Aphyllon franciscanum) is found in chaparral and coastal sage scrub. It has fleshy stems 2 to 8 inches (5 to 20 cm) high, covered with soft hairs, and bell-shaped flowers 1 to 4 inches (2.5 to 10 cm) long. Broomrape is parasitic on the roots of other plants like chamise, sagebrush and buckwheat.

Big thanks to Annette for spotting this rarity. Actually, she also spied the horned lizard this week last year. I’ll have to be sure to hike with her in week 16 next year too. Who knows what she will find for us then!

Sisyrinchium bellum

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Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) is a perennial herb in the iris family, native to Oregon, California and parts of Baja California. It’s usually found in open places where there is some moisture, particularly grassy areas. It can also be found in woodlands and at altitudes up to 2,400m. It produces its pretty blue/purple flowers in spring and summer, peaking in April.

The Ohlone used an infusion of the roots and leaves as a cure for indigestion and stomach pain, and similar uses are recorded from other Native American peoples. It’s nice to see it blooming out on the trails now.