Sierra Azul Wildflower Survey April 2008

Wildflower identification in Sierra Azul with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. Many photos blurry, sorry, not checking shutter speed and it was too slow too often. Photos are copyright Ellen Finch. You may use on your personal web site or for nonprofit if you give me credit and link back here. All others contact me.

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elf1 > The weather just called for a hike in the wilderness! Well--not too wild. The path we followed for the first half of the hike was along an old, overgrown road. But this part of Sierra Azul (Rancho de Guadalupe?) is not yet open to the public, so we were alone in the quiet greenery.

elf1 > Small purple flower #1. (Unidentified flowers I have numbered sequentially. Assistance welcome.) We had several pages of lovely color photos--and still encountered flowers at every turn that we either couldn't figure out whether they were a match or couldn't find anything similar at all. (Suggested: Probably nonnative geranium, maybe "Dove's Foot".)

elf1 > Small yellow #2. (Suggested: maybe Prickleseed Buttercup.)

elf1 > California buttercup. We saw millions of them. And all I managed was one blurry shot? Yeesh. Back to remedial photography 1A.

elf1 > Pacific Sanicle, flowers not all the way open.

elf1 > The old trail road sometimes looked like a grassy arbor, sometimes like a forest glen.

elf1 > The trail road had some mildly interesting unmaintained spots, like these downed trees that we had to navigate. And poison oak everywhere, just tried not to get too much of it on ourselves as we maneuvered.

elf1 > Bedstraw (a Galium species). It seemed to be mostly the tiny flowers that we had trouble identifying quickly. The bigger ones were usually easier.

The weather just called for a hike in the wilderness! Well--not too wild. The path we followed for the first half of the hike was along an old, overgrown road. But this part of Sierra Azul (Rancho de Guadalupe?) is not yet open to the public, so we were alone in the quiet greenery.