California bulbs in Central California 3

This is my third installment about our trip to see California flowers in
April. I'm a bit slow getting this done as it all takes a bit of time and I
have been very busy. We spent one day driving a 48 miles loop in Santa
Barbara County to see the wild flowers at Figueroa Mountain. There was a
whole host of plant communities we saw that day including chaparral,
coastal sage, grassland and woodland. We stopped many times to look at
plants so it took us all day. We had fierce wind, a little rain, sunshine
and dark clouds so we experienced a little of everything weather wise.
There were masses of different kind of Lupines in bloom with assorted
companions including Gilia and California poppies. The flowers were really
quite spectacular as were the views. From the summit at 4500 feet there
were views of the ocean with large trees to frame it and underneath carpets
of flowers. I highly recommend this drive in a good flower year like this
one was.

We saw a lot of different kind of geophytes and still saw only a small
number of the ones in this area. In the beginning we were entertained by
Calochortus catalinae growing in the grass and with Dichelostemma
capitatum, Delphinium parryi, and Lupinus sp. We saw them again towards the
end of the drive so it was a nice way to start and end the day. The other
Calochortus we saw in a shady wooded area was Calochortus albus. I've added
habitat and closer pictures of Calochortus catalinae to the wiki.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

We saw Delphinium parryi mentioned just now in the beginning in the grass
(I already added pictures of it to the wiki) and in the end when I had to
climb up the side of a hill to reach it growing with shrubs in a very
different habitat. There was a report of Delphinium nuttallianum being seen
in the latter part of the drive, but we think someone got confused about
that since that species is not supposed to occur in this area. What we did
see in bloom fairly high up along the road in somewhat shady conditions was
some lush Delphinium patens. It's a species I grow and a very long blooming
one.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

There were at least three species of Alliums we saw. Early on we saw Allium
crispum again and then halfway up when we were wandering around in the
scrub discovered Allium haematochiton in bloom. I've added a couple of
pictures of it in various stages. It is one of the easiest California
Alliums for me to grow and the longest blooming one so I was surprised to
find it so much further south where rainfall must be so different. Close by
but with only one leaf we found another Allium that was white with pink
stripes. My husband found a PDF file for the Plants of the Los Padres
National Forest, South Zone, online which would have listed the
possibilities. That didn't help me a lot since there were 16 Alliums
listed! Having one leaf helped however and I narrowed it down. I think it
might have been Allium diabloense. Russell Stafford sells it so maybe he
can tell me if my pictures look like that species. By the way there were 13
taxa listed of Calochortus on that list too. Sadly we didn't see all of them.

http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

My companions were so wanting to see Fritillaria biflora. Mine had finished
blooming long before and we had already seen seed pods of it in the
Pinnacles so I didn't think we'd still find any in bloom, but we did in one
of our off the road wanders through the fields.
http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/index.php/…

In the middle of an open field of goldfields and Sisyrinchium bellum we saw
Chlorogalum leaves, but no blooms yet. There was Yucca in bloom and some of
California's nicest shrubs/perennials blooming together on the last stages
of the loop (Dendromecon, Ribes, Penstemons, Lupinus, Trichostema lanatum,
etc.) We felt very grateful that with so much of the California wild areas
covered with buildings and houses now there are still special places where
you can get a sense of what it must have been like before.

Mary Sue