Desert Plant Wrapup - 2011

I’ve spent most of April talking about plants that thrive in very dry environments, including both Mediterranean and subtropical desert environments. Field trips and explorations like this can heighten your awareness of individual plants, and plants in their natural environment.

My folks and I enjoyed seeing the desert flowers in bloom. There is such variety and such beauty, in an otherwise harsh environment. When the winter rains come, the desert bursts forth in color. We enjoyed viewing, photographing, and studying these vibrant blooms. Here is a photo album of some of our favorites.

Chuparosa	Ocotillo
Indigo Bush	Desert Lavender
Brittlebush	Dune Primrose
Datura	Yucca
Desert Lupine	Desert Monkeyflower

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It is also useful to see plants in situ – in their natural environments. You can learn a lot by what you see. Plants in rocky soil probably don’t need rich, loamy soil. Plants that thrive on a slope probably need good drainage. Plants in a river bed probably need access to lots of water, at least part of the time.

Yucca in its natural environment. The soil is rocky and sandy,
close to a river bed and in full sun.

Brittlebush on a sloping, sunny hillside.

This kind of knowledge may help inform your plant choices for your own garden, and develop an awareness of the natural environment in your garden. Most every garden has some variation of a poorly drained area, a shady spot, a rocky zone. Instead of seeing these areas as “trouble spots”, you can start seeing them as unique environments that require specific plants that meet their specifications. I look forward to getting back to my San Francisco Bay Area garden, with fresh eyes and new ideas.

Special thanks to Quackit for use of the HTML table generator: Quackit Webmaster Tutorials

Whitewater Preserve

One of our desert adventures was visiting the Whitewater Preserve. The Preserve was originally a commercial trout farm and enjoyed by locals for several decades. The site is now used as a visitor center and picnic area, with access to several trails. The fish farm still exists, but is used for educational purposes. The visitor center is a half mile hike to the Pacific Crest Trail, which extends from Mexico to Canada.

Trail leading from the visitor center to several trail heads.
Keep going to meet  up with the Pacific Coast Tail.
You can see the snow capped mountains in the distance.

Veer to the left from the trial to access the Whitewater River bed.
The cliff is on the other side of the river.

The trails enable you to explore the Whitewater River bed and surrounding areas. The river is fed by snow melt from the distant mountains, and changes course regularly. Small bridges are provided in some sections of the river bed, but may no longer be useful or available because of the changes. The hills surrounding the area provide a cross section of geology, and the river bed itself is home to interesting plants, including willow, palms, tulle reeds, and yucca.

Whitewater River in April. The snow capped mountains in the distance are
the water source. In places, the water is deep and swift.
Water loving willows grow near the river.

Looking the other direction, toward the visitor center. You can
see multiple river courses, and one of the bridges
near the center of the photo.

The Preserve has become part of the Wildlands Conservancy, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and preserving wild land in California. The Whitewater Preserve is part of an effort to acquire contiguous parcels of land to provide a wildlife corridor between the San Gorgonio and San Bernardino mountains. The Conservancy is also instrumental in preserving land in Northern California, including the Jenner Headlands.

To learn more about the Conservancy: https://wildlandsconservancy.org/preserves/whitewater

To get to the Preserve:
Take the Whitewater Canyon Road exit off Interstate 10, between the Palm Springs and Twentynine Palms Hwy exits, and follow Whitewater Canyon Road to the visitor center.


View 9160 Whitewater Canyon Rd in a larger map

Easter Lily

I thought the Easter Lily would be the perfect plant to end this short series on plants of Easter week. Easter lilies start to appear in hardware, drug, and flower shops several weeks before Easter. Who can resist the pure simplicity of their white trumpet flowers, long stalks, and dark green leaves? Easter lilies are symbolic of purity, hope, innocence, peace, and rebirth.

I didn’t realize that the Easter lilies that adorn our homes and churches originate from Japan and Taiwan, not the Mediterranean. The most common lily grown is Lilium longiflorum, which is in the Liliaceae family. Bulbs were brought to the United States and cultivated after World War I. They are grown predominately on the West Coast in Oregon and California. The bulbs must be forced to bloom close to Easter, and growers have developed many practices to ensure this timing. Over 11 million lilies are sold annually in the Easter season.

Easter lilies sold at a local drugstore.

Lilies are associated with the Easter story by tradition. Legend has it that Easter lilies sprang from Jesus’ tears in the Garden of Gethsemane. A line in the Song of Songs compares the lover with a lily of the valley, and Jesus refers to lilies of the field in his parable in Matthew 6 and Luke 12. But these references were most likely general references to beautiful flowers, not a specific flower type. This knowledge does not diminish my enjoyment of these beautiful flowers. Easter lilies are still a fine tradition for celebrating the Easter season.

Learn more:

Easter lilies: http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/archives/parsons/publications/lily/lily.html

Neot Kedumim, The Biblical Landscape Reserve in Israel (plant list): http://www.n-k.org.il/public/english/what/trails/plantlist.htm

Old Dominion University (plant list): http://www.odu.edu/~lmusselm/plant/bible/allbibleplantslist.php