I'm terribly late with this, but I wanted to tell everyone how much fun I had on Kipp's central California bulb tour this spring. Summary: If you get a chance to go on a flower tour with Kipp, do it! The company was fun, the area is beautiful, and we saw a nice selection of flowers even though it was a poor rain year in California. Unfortunately, I arrived about half an hour late, so I missed most of the introductions at the start. But the group was a lot larger than I expected, probably about 15-20 people. I think most of them were familiar names from this list, although since I've never seen most of your faces, I wasn't sure who was who. Our first stop was a serpentine hillside that's home to Calochortus obispoensis, a plant I had never seen in person before. I was impressed by the way almost everyone in our group worked their way up a steep and very uneven trail (more like a goat path) to get to the flowers. We're not all spring chickens, but we're relentless when we want to see a flower. For some reason I had imagined that C. obispoensis was a tall plant, but actually it's quite short, and the flowers are a cute little tuft of bright yellow and maroon-brown hairs. Kind of like a firecracker in mid-explosion. I thought they were charming! Our journey then took us on a two-lane road into the hills west of Paso Robles. If you don't know the state, that's a central California town about 20 miles from the ocean as the crow flies, but a lot further by road. In this part of California there's a band of big hills (or low mountains) along the coast. The plant cover is generally intermittent oak woodland, with many clearings, and patches of other vegetation. The hills are webbed with small roads and wineries that have been tucked into the landscape all over the place. It was amazing to drive along thinking you were completely away from civilization, round the corner, and suddenly see a big area of grape vines and a tasting room. Our next few stops were along those little roads, where Calochortus flowers were growing in or near road cuts. At one stop we saw Calochortus albus, which has dangling ball-shaped flowers the size of marbles. Unlike most dangling flowers, these are not open at the bottom. The petals wrap around so the flower is fully enclosed. I always wonder why the flowers ended up that shape, and what insects crawl up into those flowers to pollinate them. In this area C. albus is generally colored in shades of white and pearly cream (there's an exception below). C. albus thrives in fairly heavy shade, so as you drive along you can spot it in the shadows along the road, as a flash of white in areas where few other flowers are in bloom. Unfortunately, poison oak also loves these conditions, so watch your step. In a couple of sunnier spots we saw a few C. venustus, probably the most extravagantly marked Calochortus species. The ones in this area are generally white with an extra petal spot on the outer edge of the flower. Each flower is subtly different, so it's always fun to look at a big stand of C. venustus. In this dry year we had only scattered flowers, alas. At another spot, in a stand of shoulder-high Manzanita, there were scattered lavender flowers of C. superbus. The color really stands out, so they were easy to spot from a distance, but they were hard to get to because they were growing at the top of a steep roadcut, and the soil was very crumbly. For me, one of the high points of the trip was a visit to a stand of Calochortus albus rubellus (from what I understand, that's not a formal name, but we need some way to refer to them). Kipp describes the color of these plants as wine red, and I think that's the best way to summarize it, but in person they vary from dusty deep pink to almost maroon. Like the white form, these plants grow in heavy shade, in a road cut. It was a lot of fun to walk along the road and see how each plant differed. I've attached a couple of photos. After that we headed over to the coast for our final stop. The landscape changes when you get close to the ocean. The oaks dwindle, and you're driving through what I believe is called coastal prairie: Grassy plains and stands of low-growing brush, usually no more than hip high. Everything here is windblown, the few trees growing almost sideways. There's often a low overcast from the ocean, but in the afternoon the clouds often lift, and you'll see dramatic vistas of mountains marching down to meet the sea. In a particular spot on the coast, we parked along the highway. The land here is a flat plain, elevated ten or twenty feet above the ocean, which is maybe a hundred yards (100m) to the west. The land ends in low cliffs that are gnawed by the ocean in storms. At first glance the plain looks like grass and very low shrubs, but if you look closer it's a very diverse garden of miniature plants. There are annuals, wind-flattened Ceanothus bushes, and scattered bulbs growing so low to the ground that the flowers barely have any stems at all. We saw many Fritillaria biflora, chocolate brown flowers with greenish-yellow markings inside. There were also some purple Brodiaea and yellow Triteleia a few inches tall, numerous Sisyrinchium bellum, a single Calochortus albus, and along the road some bright yellow Calochortus luteus, once again only a few inches above the ground. This is also a locality for Calochortus clavatus, although they were not in bloom yet. If you've never visited this part of California, I recommend it heartily in late spring after a good rain year. There can be sheets of wildflowers on the coastal plain -- big pools of yellow, orange, purple, and pink blending into each other. Plus of course the bulbs. I could have spent all afternoon crawling around on that plan marveling at the tiny landscape. But eventually the need for lunch called to us, so we drove down to a nearby parking area and picnicked by the waves. Lots of fun. It was nice to see everybody (even if I wasn't sure who was who), and well worth the drive down from San Jose. Many thanks to Kipp for setting it up! Mike San Jose, CA -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: C. abus rubellus 2.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 144656 bytes Desc: not available URL: <http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/pipermail/pbs/…> -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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