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IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain

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.

IN THE FIELD: Corte Madera Mountain
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In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail

By Jürgen Schrenk

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).

In The Field: The New Santa Fe Valley Trail
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The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains

By Jürgen Schrenk

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

The Desert a Month after Monsoonal Rains
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CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys

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!

CNPS-SD Helps With Rare Plant Surveys
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The Mount Laguna Surprise

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…

The Mount Laguna Surprise

Photo Album

To see wildflowers in bloom at this time of the year...

…the desert is the place to visit!

Photos and narrative by Jürgen Schrenk

Chihuahua Valley

Narration and photos by Jürgen Schrenk

Chihuahua Valley offers lots of trails. We revisited one where we expected a good wildflower display.

Wilderness Gardens County Preserve

Last weekend we happened to drive by a nature preserve we had not visited for at least 15 years, and decided to check it out: Wilderness Gardens on SR-76 just east of Pala.

Narration and photos by Jürgen Schrenk

Wildflower Show at Jacumba

Photos and Description by Craig Denson, Moderator CNPS-San Diego Discussion Group

Recently, I took a morning walk in the high desert near Jacumba, where only bored maskless U.S. border patrol agents were around. It was a great day, one day before the temperatures started skyrocketing. I was looking for Hoover's Buckwheat (Eriogonum clavatum), which I didn't find, but I did find many other interesting species, and many first sightings of plant species for me.

Craig at Sierra Nevada.jpg

Bio: I was born in San Diego, growing up on Crown Point when there were still horny toads crawling around on vacant lots, and then in Encinitas where I spent many days crawling around in coastal sage scrub. Those experiences led me later in life to a better appreciation of our local flora, so, just before I retired from embedded software development, I took Mike Simpson's Field Botany class. I've also gotten involved with the rangers at Tecolote Canyon in propagating locally source plants for their restoration efforts. I like photographing and entering plant observations on iNaturalist, although I'm still a rookie at that, too.


After a week of record rains...

…and being cooped up due to COVID-19, we made use of a sunny day to visit one of our favorite wildflower areas. 

Last spring everybody was talking about the “super-bloom”; how about this year?

…enjoy it while it lasts.

Narration and photos by Jürgen Schrenk

Spring Has Arrived in the Desert

Spring has arrived in the desert, in fact, in some places it is already past its prime. One of these is Fish Creek Canyon which we visited last Thursday.

Before that there should be enough time for another field trip or two, though.

 Jürgen Schrenk

All photos by the author

Superbloom 2019

Text and photos by Juergen Schrenk

This year's "superbloom" continued through the end of June in our local mountains. We have never seen the Lagunas this floriferous in late June. The chaparral along Sunrise Highway was in full bloom, dominated by Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) and California Buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum var. polifolium), interspersed with quite a few Weed’s Mariposa Lilies (Calochortus weedii var. weedii), and Shiny-leaf Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon trichocalyx var. trichocalyx) by the roadside. The short Kwaaymii Trail had plenty of the usually less common Golden Bowl Mariposa Lilies (Calochortus concolor), with Mojave Prickly Pear (Opuntia phaeacantha) competing for attention. One of my favorites, Summer Snow (Leptosiphon floribundus ssp. glaber), was at its prime, while Western Choke Cherry (Prunus virginiana var. demissa) was already beyond. The equally short Kwaaymii Point Trail was outright lush, and even the slopes towards the desert were still green. Further up the road, along Lake Cuyamaca, the numbers of Cuyamaca Larkspur (Delphinium hesperium ssp. cuyamacae) were stunning in many places; its blue rivaled by that of Dwarf Brodiaea (Brodiaea terrestris ssp.kernensis). For the way back down to I-8 we chose Viejas Grade with a spectacular display of Cleveland Sage (Salvia clevelandii), lots of Weed Mariposa lilies, and pink added by Canchalagua (Zeltnera venusta) accompanied by Fringed Spineflower (Chorizanthe fimbriata var. fimbriata).

Photo Gallery: CNPS-San Diego Garden Tour 2019

Photographer: Edmond Piffard

Photographer: Ged Bulat

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Edmond Piffard

Photographer: Judie Lincer

Photographer: Ged Bulat

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Ged Bulat

Photographer: Cindy Hazuka

Photographer: Cindy Hazuka

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Cindy Hazuka

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Gjon Hazard

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

Photographer: Cindy Hazuka

Photographer: Judie Lincer

Photographer: Ged Bulat

Photographer: Gjon Hazard

Photographer: Cindy Hazuka

Photographer: Vincent Bellino

South Poway Photo Album

Lee Gordon and Steve Miller documented the wildflower and perennial blooms on Saturday morning walks during February and March in this area. Here is a selection of their photos.

Banner photo: Phacelias, Poppies, and a few Collared Lupines, Lee Gordon