Mass blooming Calochortus

Rodger Whitlock totototo@telus.net
Tue, 22 May 2012 10:18:44 PDT
On 21 May 2012, at 14:45, Diana Chapman wrote:

> ...it has been postulated that mass blooming of bulbs after fire could be
> due to smoke penetrating the ground, or to nutrients from the ash, but there
> were neither, just the removal of dense shrubby vegetation, so maybe it 
> isn't anything mysterious at all, just the removal of competition...

Some twenty years ago, a long neglected area behind Government House here in 
Victoria BC, the official resident of the Lieutenant Governor, was cleared of 
invasive species by a band of volunteers, as part of restoring the gardens 
there. The invasive species included the usual culprits: Scotch broom, ivy, 
Daphne laureola, etc.  

The next spring, Erythronium oregonum and camas flowered profusely all down the 
rocky slope in spite of not having been seen there in living memory. Exactly 
the same phenomenon Diana has observed.


Restoration of Government House gardens: 

http://www.ltgov.bc.ca/gardens/history.htm


View of "The Woodlands" (Government House in background) from south east:

http://maps.google.com/?ll=48.416328,-
123.332605&spn=0.01051,0.033088&t=m&z=15&layer=c&cbll=48.416329,-
123.340818&panoid=DGy1fgpSVRO0DKPF1b41Bg&cbp=13,336.28,,0,0.14


-- 
Rodger Whitlock
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Z. 7-8, cool Mediterranean climate



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