Mentha pulegium
NEW
– Pennyroyal, native to Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East is blooming with lavender tufted flowers below Cowboy Rock. Crushed pennyroyal has a strong minty smell and is a traditional folk remedy, emmenagogue, abortifacient, and culinary herb.
Forests
Starting
– Chasmanthe, native to South Africa, has orange flame flowers
– Old Man’s Beard is a nasty invasive vine, native to the UK, that will create bowers, overcoming native trees and shrubs. We’ve pulled it off redwood trees in Three Groves. Muir Woods has a much worse infestation climbing redwoods and elsewhere in the park.
Fading
– American trailplant, Adenocaulon bicolor, is blooming with small white flowers at the top of a stalk. The bicolor in the Latin name refers to the arrow-shaped leaves that are green on top and whiter underneath. Turn one over to mark your way on the trail.
– California spikenard, one of the largest herbaceous plants in North America, grows to 3-9′ each season. Its white firework-shaped flowers are blooming now along creeks in the forests.
– Hellebore, an orchid, is native to Eurasia. The greenish pink flowers climb a 1′ stalk.
– Rosilla with its tall yellow flower and backward facing petals is blooming beside the creek that pasess the Ridgewood Rock.
– Roughleaf aster is blooming in the forest along the Eagle Trail.
– Toyon, a small tree, is blooming white in the forests.
– Silverleaf cotoneaster, native to China, a large shrub with white flowers that will become bright red berries is blooming at forest edges.
Forest Edges
Peaking
– The striking Belladonna lily, native of South Africa, has pink trumpet flowers at the end of a long stalk.
– Coastal burnweed, native to Australia and New Zealand, is blooming with long yellow tipped buds.
– Coast piperia, an orchid, is blooming on the Homestead trail, just downhill from 12, visible above the trail in among the broom and plums.
Fading
– Tansy ragwort, native to Eurasia, is blooming with its bright yellow flowers along Laverne. The plant contains alkaloids that catepillars absorb, making them distasteful to predators. As with other alkaloid containing plants like poison hemlock and euphorbia, it can be toxic to people.
Meadows
Peaking
– Coast tarweed, a tall native tarweed with the typical resinous coating is blooming yellow along Pixie Trail and in sunny meadows.
– Hairy golden aster is a low blooming shrub with yellow flowers and fuzzy leaves up on Homestead Hill.
– Kellogg yampah’s white umbels are blooming tall above the grasses in meadows. This was an important staple crop of Native Americans who ate the nut like root.
– Pincusion flower, a garden escapee, native of Eurasia, is blooming in Cowboy Rock meadow.
Fading
– California everlasting is blooming with its paper-like white blooms up on the ridge.
– California poppy is showing its orange bell flower in the meadows.
– Common Yarrow is a white flowered umbel with feathery leaves. It’s a sun lover and is blooming on the ridge now but will be out it all the meadows soon.
– Sticky monkeyflower is blooming on Cowboy Rock. This is a sun loving plant that will bloom through the summer.
– Scarlet pimpernel, native to the Mediterranean basin, is a common little orange splash in the meadow grasses.
– Wild radish, native to Asia, is blooming with purple flowers in the meadows on the ridge.
– Wild mustard, a Mediterranean native, is a tall yellow flower in meadows up on the ridge. The flowers are edible.
Key to map:
I haven’t located plants on on the map if they are very prolific. Find them by their habitat.
Flowers that are not currently blooming have been removed from the map and are greyed out in the map key.
Gallery of wildflowers and plants found in Homestead.
*Non-native
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