Leopard Lily

Leopard lilies (Lilium pardalinum), are endemic to California, and grow by stream beds almost all over the state.  Though not rare per se, they're not a dime a dozen by any means, and their fist-sized blooms dangling from a 3 foot high stem are as impressive as any cultivated garden flower.  This one above was blooming among the thimbleberry and sedges on the banks of Flynn Creek, near where it feeds into the Navarro River. The other pictures are in the Albion River.

Photos taken on July 18 and 23.

Farewell to Spring

I'd been admiring the roadside patches of farewell-to-springs (Clarkia amoena) blooming along the Navarro grade lately, but it was further south along the 1 this weekend that I found a lovely patch nicely lit with a safe pullout.  

These gorgeous flowers grow in patches where the pink multitude stands out against the now-dry grass, and with their barely-visible narrow leaves, you hardly see green - just a nodding sea of pink petals.  Many have darker pink blotches on each petal that can be seen from the outside and the inside, but others either don't have the pattern or have lost it.  

The way the light was filling up these flowers like little cups was what inspired me to finally pull over to get some shots.

These photos were taken on July 17, somewhere between Manchester and Elk.

Woodland Madia

I like the name of this little yellow aster.  Anisocarpus madioides (formerly Madia madioidies) can be found in wooded places in the early summer all along the west coast.  This photo was from the same day as the mariposa lily (June 14), but I still see them blooming, so this post isn't entirely out of date.  I was lucky enough to come across a very lazy bee hanging out on this bloom.  Hardly moved an antenna as a photographed it.