Hillside walk, 15 September 2014
At times I wonder where the old season ends and the new season begins! Today was the first of the mulefat flowers (Baccharis salicifolia) for the new season. At least I think of this as heralding the new season because mulefat will now bloom all the way through May. On the other hand, autumn hasn't begun, and a couple of prominent end-of-season flowers have yet to make their appearance, California sage (Artemisia californica) and California brickellbush (Brickellia californica). These really are end-of-season flowers because they appear before wintry temperatures arrive, and they don't wait for winter rain. Mulefat, on the other hand, seems to span both the end of the old season and the beginning of the new season.
Apart from the mulefat, this week's observations are similar to last week's, with another couple of “remnant” summer flowers disappearing.
