Artemisia douglasiana
Baccharis pilularis
NEW
– Coyote brush, dioecious with male and female flowers on different plants, is blooming now.
– California mugwort is blooming along the trail below Amaranth. This aromatic plant is an important medicinal around the world.
Forests
Fading
– 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.
– 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.
Forest Edges
Fading
– Coast piperia, an orchid, is blooming on the Homestead trail, just downhill from 12, visible above the trail in among the broom and plums.
Meadows
Peaking
– 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.
– 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.
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.
– Hairy golden aster is a low blooming shrub with yellow flowers and fuzzy leaves up on Homestead Hill.
– Lance leaf selfheal with its purple velvet bottle brush flower is blooming on the Homestead Trail in the seep near 12.
– Pincusion flower, a garden escapee, native of Eurasia, is blooming in Cowboy Rock meadow.
– 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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