By Tom Oberbauer
Back in January of 1978, I hiked up onto Corte Madera Mountain with a friend, Tom Scott (now with UC Berkeley and UC Riverside), who had been studying Golden Eagles in San Diego County. Bald Eagles were wintering at Corte Madera Lake. After postponing the hike due to rain, that was a good rain season, we drove out to Corte Madera Lake, which was accessible because Tom Scott had a key, and we hiked up the north side of Corte Madera Mountain on a little used trail. The trail climbed through a woodland of mostly coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia), but also Coulter pine (Pinus coulteri), as well as Jeffrey pine (Pinus jeffreyi). It was foggy going up and the view was obscured.
Recently, the new Santa Fe Valley Trail, connecting the San Dieguito River Park’s Del Dios Gorge Trail with the Lusardi Creek Preserve, was opened to the public. The beginning of the trail took us through fields of Menzies’ Goldenbush (Isocoma menziesii var. menziesii).
After yet another week of waiting for the temps to go down watching our Monarch production and limiting our walks to local parks, I was worried that I might completely miss the monsoonal “spring” in the desert. So, I went on a quick drive along S-2
By Justin Daniel, Vice President, Rare Plants Co-chair
With vaccinations allowing more contact outdoors and a workload a year behind, it's been a busy time a few of us to help some of our fantastic environmental conservancy organizations around San Diego County by assisting them in their rare plant surveys. The following are glimpses into some of the recent surveys. Come along for the ride and reach out to support our partners, too!
By Tom Oberbauer
…The next week, I drove up and hiked to the location I visited in December and sure enough, the display of Platystemon californica (above) was pretty amazing. Sheets of color extended across the slopes leading into the center of the meadow. I spent some time attempting to photograph and create video of the breeze gently shaking the small flowers. From this location, the view of the meadow ranges across its full length, extending more than three miles in the distance to the south. Laguna Lake also contained a good level of water reflecting the blue sky, apparently left over from the previous two good rainfall seasons. I attempted to capture the view of the flowers with the lake and end of the meadow in the distance. The breeze and the movement of the flowers in this manner always reminds me of when I was a child and my family visited Estes Park in Colorado and we observed alpine wildflowers…
By Fred M. Roberts, CNPS-SD Rare Plant Botanist
Oaks appear to be one of the more popular native plants in California. There seem to be plenty of San Diego CNPS members that think so just based on the number of oak t-shirts I sold at the CNPS Chapter Plant Festival last fall and the number of people who have recently asked how the second edition of my oak book is coming along.
Beacons Beach in Encinitas is located on a fairly steep sandstone bluff. Due to decades of human disturbance and natural erosion, the slope lost most of its native vegetation, and non-native weeds took over. Recently the city council decided to undertake revegetation of the slope with native species in order to stabilize the bluff, increase coastal bluff habitat, and beautify the trail leading down to the beach.
By Frank Landis, Conservation Committee Chair & Rare Plants Chair
Another year disappeared somewhere. So, what does 2022 hold?
I’m looking out my window at my neighbor’s majestic queen palm. Its fronds overhang my roof, while its trunk is wrapped in Christmas lights. It’s a festive sight, and with the rain, I don’t have to fret about it catching fire and raining embers down on my roof for a while. And people wonder why I advocate for more native plants in gardens, even though I’m supposed to be fighting CEQA battles?
This is fifth of a short series on some of our local native plants that are superb for our gardens, but that are largely overlooked.
Bush rue (Cneoridium dumosum), is one of our common small shrubs, found in San Diego from the coast into the foothills. Bush rue is found in a few locations to the north, but it is otherwise a truly local San Diego native. Even now, after our long dry summer and fall, most of the plants growing in our open spaces remain green.
I’ll start with some good news. As I semi-predicted last month, the developers behind Adara (nee Otay Village 14) filed a lastminute “Objection” to stop the ruling being finalized and them being ordered to cover the plaintiff’s costs. They made some interesting claims about why it was critical that the EIR not be decertified, that the ruling was wrong (of course) and that, because they didn’t lose on every single issue brought up in the suit, they won and shouldn’t have to pay up.
This is fourth of a short series on some of our local native plants that are superb for our gardens, but that are largely overlooked.
Snowdrops caught me by surprise on a spring hike up the Iron Mountain trail, where they graced both sides of the trail. When I saw their showy blooms, their graceful stems, and their shiny round leaves, I immediately fell in love with them.
As residents throughout the county consider removing their turf with the help of rebates offered by our Southern California water utilities (more information at https://socalwatersmart.com/en/residential/rebates/available-rebates/turf-replacement-program/), it’s a good time to remember that there are native grasses that have many benefits, from low water use to high habitat value.
Summer holly is an uncommon San Diego shrub that is a member of the Ericaceae (Heath family) along with manzanitas and blueberries. As are many of our native heaths, it is also an uncommonly beautiful plant. It is evergreen, with displays of white flowers in the spring and bright red berries in the summer and fall. They are an unusual source of garden color this time of year.
Time to haul out some math, to make a pitch for saving big trees, although at first this advice seems charmingly quaint, maybe even crazy. The problems du jour are Gold Spotted Oak Borer (Agrillus auroguttatus) and climate change, but this also applies to shothole borers.
Plants from the genus Dudleya are unlike many garden succulents in that they insist on a dormant period. The plant can be a show stopper during the cooler months, but when the heat comes, they are ready for a rest. Overwatering and trying to force them to stay vibrant invites root rot.
Over the years, as I have learned about native plants, helped others use native plants in their garden, and taught classes, I have slowly built up a philosophy on how to approach a home garden. When I first started gardening (non-native), I was always beset by the desire to “put something pink in that corner”—my theories reached only to aesthetic considerations.
Over the years, I’ve heard a fair amount of confusion about just how CNPS as an organization is structured. In some cases, this has led to some angst. What follows is a brief overview of the way our organization works. CNPS as a whole is a binational, non-profit organization, very much an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization). Our membership covers California and Baja California Norte. CNPS is a non-profit organization run by a volunteer Board of Directors, who employ an executive director and a staff to perform various functions.
By Tom Oberbauer
In a relatively obscure area of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is a mountain range called the Pinyon Mountains. It is far from any habitations and except for one dirt 4-wheel drive road, it is pristine. It has not been affected by human impacts other than the typical non-native species that inhabit all Southern California deserts and it has not had records of fires, fire suppression, or vegetation management of any kind. It is difficult to get to this area.
Cliff spurge, a member of the spurge family (Euphorbiaceae), is a 1.0 to 1.5 meter (3-4.5 feet) tall shrub that has rubbery, soft stems, and a tangled rounded or somewhat sprawling form. The branches are naked in the dry season but have leaves with a rounded to oval outline in the spring, that are folded upward and mostly less than 1.5 cm long.
CNPS is getting serious about the Locally Rare Plant (LRP) rank. If you haven’t seen it, CNPS now has a web page devoted to Locally Rare Plants (check it out by going to cnps.org, go to “our work” and then “rare plant science” and then “locally rare plants”). The web page includes a general discussion about the subject focusing on three topics: What are locally rare species, Peripheral populations as refugia, and Legal protection. Additionally, the web page includes a link to several papers, provides example Local Rare Plant lists for four counties (Alameda, Contra Costa (as “Rare, unusual, and significant Plants – you can only access their description page at this point, to see the actual list requires registration), Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties), and a white paper.
Native plants have had a special place in my heart and my garden for years. If you are reading this, I’m guessing the same is true for you. Just like you, I’ve used our plant sales and driven extra miles to those specialty nurseries that carry native plants. The California Native Plant Society (CNPS) is working to make native plants more accessible to you and me, as well as to the mainstream gardener who may not know much about native plants.
