Hillside walk, 29 January 2018
The California brickellbush (Brickellia californica) continues to bloom along the side of Lida Street on the horseshoe bend. Elsewhere on the hillsides this species finished blooming several weeks ago — the other places where I've found are along Lida Street in Canyon 1, and in the upper reaches of Canyon 8. So is this one location continuing to bloom? This spot on the horseshoe bend is at the bottom of a road cutting that would be around 10 meters in height. The ground at the the bottom damp. Thus we have water seeping from underground at the base of the road cutting, which probably isn't noticeable at most times of the year. The large brickelbush plant is flourishing here. The cutting faces north, so the plant is always in the shade.
A note about the California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) is in order. It's hard to decide when this plant has finished blooming. Every week I take photographs at various locations and look at the enlarged photos to decide whether the flowers are still active. On that basis, these plants finished blooming in December, even though a great mass of flowers remain on the plants, presumably in fruit. Because these continue to look so fresh, I continue to take multiple photos every week, and today one of them shows definite signs of active flowers. This was on the south hillside. It's possible that this species has continued to bloom in other places, but I just haven't detected it.
