Hillside walk, 20 August 2018
The latter part of summer has arrived with its new flowers. This week we have ample blooms of saw toothed goldenbush (Hazardia squarrosa) on both the north and west hillsides, and the first flowers of California brickellbush (Brickellia californica) in Canyon 8. Unfortunately that does little to mitigate the intense dryness everywhere on the hillsides.
Some of the changes in the past week may be the result of cooler weather, which in turn may arise from the advancing season, with fewer hours of daily sunlight than we had a couple of months ago. Along Lida street today was a single bloom of southern honeysuckle (Lonicera subspicata var. denudata). The dodder (Cuscuta sp.) in numerous places has the bulk of its foliage dead, but the flowers are blooming prolifically. On the upper north hillside a very small number of deerweed blooms (Acmispon glaber var. glaber) remain. Today I even saw a couple of filaree flowers (Erodium sp.)
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Clustered tarweed |
Dodder |
Sawtoothed goldenbush |
Rattlesnake weed |
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Narrow-leaf milkweed |
Western ragweed |