Peculiar pattern in low lying manzanita on the south slopes of Pine Mountain. A friend noted the remarkable similarity of this pattern to that found in gypsum crystals in a desert rose. From the Mt. Baldy North Backbone Trail run/hike.
Brown seed stalks of Curly Dock (Rumex crispus) amid dried grasses and mustard on Laskey Mesa in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (formerly Ahmanson Ranch).
Curly dock is a non-native invasive weed from Eurasia. The Cal-IPC Invasive Plant Inventory describes its impact as limited.
From a run at Ahmanson on September 13, 2006.
A bracket fungus (prob. Laetiporus gilbertsonii) on a burned eucalyptus in the Simi Hills.
A Chalk Liveforever (Dudleya pulverulenta) at Sage Ranch a few weeks after the 2005 Topanga Fire burned through the area. (Photograph from November 24, 2005.)
When the hills and valleys of Southern California turn golden brown, and temperatures reach into the nineties or beyond, mixed in among the desiccated grasses, enjoying the heat and the sun, may be the delicate pink to purple of a Plummer’s Mariposa Lily (Calochortus plummerae).
Previously listed by the California Native Plant Society as being rare, threatened, or endangered, the Plummer’s Mariposa is now listed as uncommon and fairly endangered in California.
Note: Plummer’s Mariposa Lily (Calochortus plummerae) and Foothill Mariposa Lily (Calochortus weedii var. intermedius) are closely related species that have intersecting ranges and similar characteristics. C. plummerae is more frequently reported in Los Angeles County.
A snow plant and other forest floor elements highlighted by a shaft of sunlight. The photo was taken on a rambling out and back run of about 25 miles from the lower McGill trailhead to Mt. Pinos and Mt. Abel on July 24, 2005.
Here’s a Google Earth image and Google Earth KMZ file of a GPS trace of my route.
For additional snow plant photographs, see the posts Three Points – Mt. Waterman Loop and Snow Plant, and also Snow Plant on SierraPhotography.com.