Dear Jim, I am glad you liked the pictures, but was really puzzled about which ones looked liked they were mulched. The pictures I added of the wild plants were of plants growing in rocks or in grass or road verges with native plants and non native weeds. The new Brodiaea pictures, on the other hand, which I didn't add to the Mendocino-Sonoma Coast page were growing in my garden in an area that I am growing a number of bulbs and one that the hose doesn't reach and I'm keeping dry in summer. I started out letting native lotus grow there which worked really well as it dies down late summer-fall and does not reappear until spring when many of the bulbs I am growing there are done so covers up the dying foliage a bit. I like the leaves and the flowers some which are pink and some yellow. But last year I let my enthusiasm for Clarkia rubicunda get the best of me and left too many of the ones that seeded themselves there and soon the bed was a mass of pink and the lotus had some real competition. I want to encourage it again so there are fewer Clarkias this year, but perhaps still too many. Last year in the fall I added the large woody parts of my compost pile that didn't make it through the screen as a mulch to that bed when everything was dormant. I think perhaps you can see it in the Brodiaea picture. Is that what you are referring to? If so, the answer to your question of who mulched California, "I did." Probably many of us do who garden here since we rarely have any rain at all between May and sometimes October. And water is not always in good supply. My soil is very deficient in nutrients and many of the California bulbs grow in clay in their native habitat. It can be like a brick in summer, but while they are growing probably provides more nutrients than my decomposed and not decomposed sandstone does. So I add mulch that hopefully will break down over time and help out. Some of the soil around here is so depleted that it is almost white in color. You mix in compost one year and the next year if you look, it seems white again. I learned from experience when the area where I used to shred suddenly was growing weeds, bulbs, and flowers that I hadn't planted there that just the little bits that fell on the ground from the shredder in a year or two made a difference. In fact a friend who specializes in soils advised me when I was planting a new bed to add half bark and half compost so there would be an immediate boost and a slower boost later when the bark eventually broke down. Mary Sue