Wildflowers in the Gold Country

Recently my husband and I visited the South fork of the Yuba River, just northwest of Grass Valley, California. It is only 500’ elevation, but features a whole different assemblage of flowers from where we live at ~ 300’ above sea level. I’d been waiting for the weather to warm up and it did – overnight – it was sunny and a bit hot.

Yuba River

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  globe lilies

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There is a wonderful flower trail that follows the river. These white globe lilies or fairy lanterns were everywhere: Calochortus albus (click above to view more).

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I don’t see this one often: Elegant Clarkia, C. unguiculata (which is hard to tell from C. rhomboidea, but I think I have id-ed correctly)

Elegant clarkia

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Another prolific flower in the area was this spider lupin, so named for the leggy form of the leaves. Lupinus benthamii occurs between the  Coast Ranges and the Sierra Nevada foothills , and is not seen in the lower elevations. 

Spider lupin

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Surprisingly ubiquitous was the endemic snakelily, also called twinning brodiaea (Dichelostemma volubile.) Note how the stems intertwine, almost like a vine.

Twinning Brodiaea

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The aptly named Pretty Face or Golden brodiaea (Triteleia ixioides) is not uncommon in these foothills of the Gold Country. I find the dark brown marks on the buds appealing.

Pretty Face

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The next day we ventured farther south down a dirt road to the north fork American River.  We discovered the bridge was closed to vehicular traffic but not to pedestrians.

N. fork American River

Pacific Asters – Symphyotrichum chilense – even though they are not found in Chile. A favorite of butterflies.

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  Pacific Asters

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The temperature was at least 10 degree warmer here. Walking down to the river to dip our toes in the cold water, we came upon a lone prospector. Yes, they still pan for gold, mostly unsuccessfully, but this man was digging the coarse sand of the riverbank.  He had lugged down various tools and claimed he’d had modest success over a 30 yr. period.

These are one of my favorites, maybe because they are not found in profusion. Silene californica or Indian pink.

Indian Pink

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The yellow mariposa lily, Calochortus luteus, is another species endemic to California. Like many Mariposa Lilies it has “hairy” petals and grows from a bulb. Actual size of the flowers is less than 1-inch across

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  yellow mariposa lily

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Milkweeds get their name from the sticky white sap that oozes from the leaves when they are damaged. Never judge a plant by its name: this North American wildflower isn’t really a weed at all and isn’t the color glorious? It is the main host plant for the struggling monarch butterfly. I encourage you to plant this easy care native if you live in Monarch country (realize they are winter dormant however).  Asclepias cordifolia . Notice the wild garden in the background in the first photo below – very often, when a couple of wildflowers catch your eye, there are different species to see when you get closer.

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  Milkweed

Enjoy the spring weather and flowers!

There’s Gold in them Hills: Wildflower Season

It’s wildflower season again and after years of drought the blooms are making up for lost time.  I choose the Gold Country (California foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mts.) this year as a hot spot.  We started near Yosemite and made our way north on HW 49 – and various floriferous side roads. 

California poppies (Eschscholzia californica)  and gold fields (Lasthenia californica)

The discovery of gold in 1848 sparked the largest mass migration in U.S. history.  Prospectors moved from one strike to the next along rivers and streams .  Today there are remnants of diggings, rusting machinery, stamp mills and old camps. There are historic towns and wonderful plant diversity.  The California golden poppy has replaced the “gold in dem der hills.”

Gold fields a common sight in spring.

The small flowers above,aptly named “gold fields,”  are in the daisy family.

Shooting stars- Dodecatheon hendersonii

I found a field of shooting stars too.

Numerous creeks flow out of the foothills of the Sierras and into rivers that eventually join the San Joaquin River, one of California’s largest. 

Below is the Stanislaus River.

Old bridge over the Stanislaus. A sign says it was covered to make it last longer.  In the foreground are the remains of an old stamp mill, which crushed rock for extraction of gold ore.

Many wildflowers have evolved to root in serpentine soil and gravels – which are toxic to most other plant life.  This is Bitter root – Lewisia rediviva (named after explorer M. Lewis of Lewis and Clarke fame).

I was hunting for one particular wildflower I’d never seen: a fawn lily,  Erythronium tuolumnensii – and was excited to find it….  The thrill of the chase.

Fawn lily –  Erythronium tuolumnensii

 

Below: wait for it – it’s a brief  slide show ( or click if feeling impatient 😉 )

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Lupins and goldfields in front of snickering horse.

Is that horse sticking his tongue out at me?

    

Yeah pretty funny trying to ruin my shot. (I did not photo-shop this horse – he really was mocking me.  So disrespectful!)

The one(s) that got away 😉 :  I had some fabulous photos of a place famous (with botanists anyway) for wildflowers near Yosemite Park.  That night I downloaded over one hundred photos to my laptop and was going through them, deleting those that were out of focus etc. and taking pleasure in the ones that were sharp.  Long story short, my laptop died and I’d deleted the photos in the camera card to make room for the next day’s findings.  I paid a computer guy to retrieve them and he found everything else – that I had already backed up, except those photos I had driven many hours to take.  Ah well another year, and excuse for another trip!