Harvest Brodiaea isn't quite as dramatic as Ithuriel's Spear. It usually doesn't have as many flowers and isn't quite as tall, but damn, those staminodes. We saw this beauty late in June across the fireroad from the restrooms on the southeast side of the lake.
Family: Liliaceae
Scientific Name: Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans
Calflora
This is another attractive flowering shrub with small white flowers. The difference here is the maturing berries turn red in winter.
We found this plant on the road around Lake Lagunitas on the uphill side near the pump house on the west side of the lake. We found it blooming toward the end of June.
We looked for the fruiting plants at the end of November and didn't find any on the west end of lake where we photographed the plant to the left. We pushed on around the lake and found Toyon with red berries in that furtile stretch before the sedum wall on the east end of the lake. We had been away from the lake for over a month and may have missed the full display of Toyon fruit.
Family: Rosaceae
Scientific Name: Heteromeles arbutifolia
Calflora
We put this Mimulus in Summer because we always associated it with hot weather. It surely starts blooming during the Spring but continues into Summer in all it's stickiness. These plants were photographed on the west side of the Sky Oakes Road in early June about seventy-five yards from the north-eastern tip of Lake Bon Tempe (the Bon Tempe inlet that hosts the wheelchair dock.) Monkeyflower can be seen pretty much all over the mountain and Sky Oakes from steep hillsides near roadways to sunny woodland edges. It's a beautiful plant.
Family: Phrymaceae (Late of the Scrophulariaceae)
Scientific Name: Diplacus aurantiacus ssp. aurantiacus. Until recently this plant was identified as Mimulus aurantiacus. The genera Mimulus and Diplacus have been dancing with each other for a few years now; we'll see what happens with the ongoing research, and the shake-out of the Scrophs.
Calflora
This sweet Navarretia essentially replaced the Calachortus we found in late spring in the meadow past the third bridge across from the sedum wall. We found this plant during the middle of June.
Family: Polemoniaceae
Scientific Name: Navarretia viscidula
Calflora
2009 was a great year for wildflowers in Sky Oaks. This Gentian proved the point when it surprized us shortly after we climbed over the heavy metal car-bumber from the Azalea Hill parking area. It was late June. We had never seen this flower on Azalea Hill before; but then we don't get up there every week.
I'm offering the dual genera above because the taxon is in flux. I intially thought it was muehlenbergii but couldn't decide if the stigmas were reniform or fan shaped (I'm leaning toward reniform); they sure didn't look shoe-shaped and I should know. The Calflora link below highlights the changes, showing that muehlenbergii was/is/maybe considered a Centaurium species.
My head hurts.
Family: Gentianaceae
Scientific Name: Zeltnera muehlenbergii or Centaurium tenuiflorum
Calflora: Centaurium muehlenbergii
A flowering shrub that when viewed casually may get lumped with earlier blooming Ocean Spray and Buck Brush. Chamise, however, is an iconic chaparral shrub that almost wants to experience a wildfire once in awhile just to renew. This plant was blooming right at the start of summer, on Azalea Hill. The real beauty is experienced close-up.
Family: Rosaceae
Scientific Name: Adenostoma fasciculatum
Calflora
We first saw this orchid on an elevated area uphill from the lake very near where the service road that starts at the defunct Lagunitas restrooms meets the main road around the lake. We would see the orchid there for years, then it stopped. The 2009 season would be different. We saw ten orchids just past the sedum wall as well as others along the lake road where we had seem them before.
Family: Orchidaceae
Scientific Name: Piperia transversa
Calflora
This may sound strange but Rosin Weed reminds me of Milkwort. Its' flower has a weird combination of components that defies the images we usually have of flower shapes, such as bilateral or radial.
They're both kinda twisted.
We saw these on Azalea Hill late June.
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Heliantheae
Subtribe: Madiinae
Scientific Name: Calycadenia multiglandulosa
Calflora
I'm calling this plant M. purpurea because the upper surface of the leaves appear glabrous and the veins on the leaves didn't appear to go to the edge as Howell describes. The thing is, whether M. villosa ssp. villosa or M. purpurea they're both Coyote Mint to me. We found these on Azalea Hill in late June and saw more plants on the road down the hill to Fairfax.
Family: Lamiaceae
Scientific Name: Monardella purpurea
Calflora
We believe that this is the Foothill Yellow-legged frog: Rany boylii. We aren't sure, so we'll seek to verify the genus and species. So for now it's a great little Lagunitas Frog that we came across on the little trail from Bambi's Bench to the perimeter road. It was in the general area where we would find Pennyroyal about 3 or 4 meters from the road.
A weed is a weed is a weed. If there is an iconic weed it would be the dandelion. There may be a few asters that could share that lawn-weedy moniker, but this is the dandelion of Sky Oakes.
Family: Asteraceae
Scientific Name: Agoseris grandiflora
Calflora
Jeanne and I walk around Lake Lagunitas mostly for the quiet beauty. We are, however, also looking for new flowers. We were lucky to notice this Bellflower on the lake side just off the perimenter road where it crests before the second bridge. We'll try to get better photos in coming seasons. These plants were low to the ground and we saw them in mid-July.
Family: Campanulaceae
Scientific Name: Asyneuma (Campanula) prenanthoides
Calflora
Rules are rules. So what happened to i before e except after c. I'm sure there is some european influence in the mullein's spelling, but this site is going to stick to the important issue and ask: Do you like small fuzzy flowers? We saw the mullein along the road in Lagunitas meadows toward the end of August. I have an unreasonable affection for this Spurge.
Family: Euphorbiaceae
Scientific Name: Croton setigerus
Calflora
Howell and the gang of three didn't offer a common name for this Cyperus so we refer here to the name described by Beidleman and Kozloff in their Plants of the San Francisco Bay Region, a reference I often check.
We found these sedges between Bambi's Bench on the Lagunitas East end and the lake road. It was closer to the road near stands of pennyroyal. Late August.
Family: Cyperaceae
Scientific Name: Cyperus eragrostis
Calflora
According to Marin Flora this Smartweed is common and, among many other locations, can be found around Phoenix Lake. Well it's also up at Lake Lagunitas. Look for it just off the perimeter road about 50 yards west of the defunct restrooms. This Smartweed is near the Pennyroyal, Tall Cyperus and Coyote Bush found at the end of the short trail to the road from Bambi's Bench. We find it at the end of summer sometimes into fall.
Family: Polygonaceae
Scientific Name: Polygonum punctatum (Persicaria punctata)
Calflora
These are the Pennyroyal that the Tall Cyperus above were among during late August. The whole area is wet and seepy during spring.
Family: Lamiaceae
Scientific Name: Mentha pulegium
Calflora
Thistles, damn, what are you going to do. Some Cynareae (Thistle Tribe) around Lagunitas aren't native, but in a spikey, flashy kinda way they are the Oakland Raider weed of the Sky Oakes. This plant was photograghed at the end of August at Lagunitas but had been blooming for awhile. The seeds wouldn't be gathering around the thistle to the right so much had there been any breeze.
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Cynareae
Scientific Name: Carduus pycnocephalus ssp. pycnocephalus
Calflora
I'm a neophyte taxonomist and to my discredit I sometimes find myself keying out plants by photo after the fact. I'm going to do better, but for now I'll call this Bull Thistle because of the shape of the individual inflorescence which is more dome shaped and very different from what I identified as the Italian Thistle. The leaves of this thistle also appear more spiny than the Italian above. I'll figure it out next season.
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Cynareae
Scientific Name: Cirsium vulgare
Calflora
I photographed this shrub in early October. I'm sticking it in Summer as a last hurrah, because I don't have enough species yet to justify a Summer into Fall.
Coyote Brush is dioecious so you have your male plants and your female plants. We found both the female to the left and the male to the right between Bambi's Bench and the perimeter road, it was on the uphill side of the narrow trail, in the area we earlier found pennyroyal.
Family: Asteraceae
Tribe: Astereae
Scientific Name: Baccharis pilularis ssp. consanquinea
Calflora