Hillside walk, 03 February 2018
Last week I wrote a paragraph about California sagebrush (Artemisia californica), and now I need to retract some of what I wrote. I had thought this species had finished blooming last December. It certainly was at a peak in November. Then in the past few weeks I've noticed a few flowers — which are so small that it's difficult to see them without looking very deliberately. Today I noticed some fresh flowers on the mid north hillside. This caused me to wonder whether the species hadn't finished flowering in December, and whether I should go back and modify my log accordingly. But no.
As today's walk proceeded, I saw more and more of these in bloom. By the time I reached the Canyon 3 area, they were in masses. Heaps of buds remain, so it's likely next week will see this quantity continuing. It's a second wave of bloom, something I've not seen previously with this plant! Maybe it's in response to the January rain.
Overall this week's observations are much as in the past few weeks, with no new observations. It's a joy to see the lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia) with so many flowers. The fuchsia-flowered gooseberry (Ribes speciosum) is now blooming in a wide range of places, not just along Lida Street. The leafy California buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatym ssp. foliolosum), one of the most widespread flowers on the hillsides, which is largely a year-long bloomer, now has many fewer flowers as the dry weather continues.
