Snow Melt on Hull Mountain; Fleeting Beauty Follows Vanishing Snow Beds. Part 1.

My first solo trip into the "wilds" of California - at least beyond the immediate Bay Area counties - was to a mountain in the North Coast Ranges named Hull Mt.  This was in 1981, and the destination had been suggested by the late Marshall Olbrich, original proprietor - with his partner Lester Hawkins, of Western Hills Nursery in Occidental in Sonoma Co.  Marshall had been there a few years prior with Nevin Smith, another now-famous name in California horticulture, who is currently an owner of Suncrest Nursery in Watsonville, Santa Cruz Co.  (Both Nevin and Marshall have way too many achievements in horticulture to go into here, but it was their trip to Hull that prompted my first adventure there.)

A view from about 6400' elevation on Boardman Ridge looking up toward the summit of Hull Mt., about 6,850'elev.  A road cuts across to the upper left where it goes over a saddle; but on this weekend of 19 June 2010, it was stilled blocked by deep snow drifts.

 Hull Mt. is located at 039degrees31'19.36"N and 122degrees 58'08.27"W.  It is named for an early settler of Sacramento in the mid 19th century, James Hull.  Hull had a hunting cabin on the mountain, but was found mauled to death, presumably by a grizzly bear.  There is a site (place name) on the topographic sheet of this area named Hull's Grave, which I located back in 1981, marked by the rotting timbers of a large cross.  Even today with our road system and macho vehicles it is a long tiring journey from Sacramento to Hull Mt.; it is hard to imagine the arduousness and perils of such a journey back in the 19th century.

Looking out to the SSW from the bluff at 6,400'; the small city of Ukiah in Mendocino Co. would be in the distant valley of the upper left section of the picture.

The view from the same bluff looking SE toward the rambling multiple summits of Snow Mt. (with snow).  On the horizon ridge to the N of Snow Mt. is the conical silhouette of St. John Mt. and N of that Sheetiron Mt.  To the S of Snow Mt. is Goat Mt.  These are all some of the S-most peaks of the North Coast Range above 6,000 feet.  The montane chaparral here is predominantly huckleberry oak, Quercus vaccinifolia and green-leaf manzanita, Arctostaphylos patula.

On the N side of the pass or saddle of Hull Mt. the snow banks were still 25' deep in some areas where winter snow drops heavily and shadows prevent melting until June or even July.  The dense conifer woodland here is mostly red and white firs (Abies magnifica shastensis and A. concolor).

Although I had returned to Hull Mt. and environs several times in the 80's, it was always with other people, usually on long road trips where we passed through quickly with only brief stops to photograph or collect seed.  Thus I had a yearning to go back and re-visit on a personal journey, maybe even re-discover some of that excitement of seeing it for the first time.  In this regard, I was not disappointed.  The road system was even more confusing than I remembered and the road was certainly in even worse state of disrepair than that first trip when I was sure I was going to ruin my car.  Even with a 4WD truck today, I had the same thoughts on this journey.  But, as usual, I made it up to near the summit before being stopped by snow, and, as usual, the best part of the trip began after getting out of the vehicle.

Although the presence of the snow meant hiking beyond my camp, it meant I was here at the perfect time to see the brief beauty of snow melt plants  in flower.  The first 'beauty" I came across was a plant I had first seen here at Hull in 1981, Fritillaria glauca, the talus fritillary.  It was as beautiful as I remembered.

Talus fritillary, Fritillaria glauca, an exquisite member of the Lily Family, growing out of deep loose talus chips. The paired silver gray glaucous foliage - thus the "glauca" in the species name - is nearly identical to some tulip (genus Tulipa) species.  If you were to turn the flower upward, the resemblance is ever more compelling.

The flower color of talus fritillary is mostly a bronzy purple-brown, or sometimes with more golden color on the inside giving an tawny-orange.  There can be pure golden yellow flowers on some, though rare here, and none were seen on this trip.

Fritillaria glauca is restricted to Northern California and southern Oregon, though I have seen it almost exclusively in the North Coast Ranges (as opposed to the Klamath region).  It is only 4 or 6" tall and is easy to overlook, but is almost always on the N side of a ridge or peak, in what are called "snow beds", those areas where snow lingers the longest.  While some plants are solitary, most form small colonies, the largest colonies can be 12" across.

 On some flowers the petals seem to flare back more than others, although it is possible that this feature is merely an older flower, it is hard to determine being there only such a brief moment in time.  These sites tend to be extremely windy and it could simply be a flower blown open by the wind.

In the evening light the sun shines into the flowers giving them even more radiant beauty.

Another jewel of a plant is an annual in the Portulaca family (Portulacaceae) called Claytonia saxosa.  Those in some parts of the country know the genus Claytonia as spring beauty; here in the West, we mostly know them as miner's lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata)  or a variety of other short-lived annuals and perennials.  Two common annuals in our part of CA, found mostly on rock faces, talus and ledges are Claytonia exigua and C. gypsophiloides, both which have sea-anemone-like foliage and tiny white, pink or pink-stenciled flowers.  However both can occur in such numbers during late winter or early spring to be quite colorful and lovely, C. gypsophiloides being the showiest due to its larger and more numerous flowers and the brilliant satiny reflective quality of the inner petals. 

Although I love seeing our low elevation species of Claytonia, there is something unexpectedly fresh and fun about C. saxosa.  It also grows in masses on rock talus and rubble, a habitat seemingly inhospitable to a tiny annual, as the soil may be 4-8" below where the plant appears.  If one moves the rocks aside, you see that while the ball of foliage and flowers appears on tops of the loose rocks, there is a thread of root that travels through the soil-less rock pieces until it hits real soil down below.

I first came across this in the evening when the flowers were closed for the day, but just the red ball of condensed foliage, bracts and buds was gorgeous.  This plant is about 2" in diameter (5cm).  The foliage initially is a greenish gray, but with the intense sun quickly turns red or pink, making these tiny annuals stand out from the barren rock slides.

Nestled in its bed of rock fragments, the plant seems to appear almost instantaneously after snow-melt, ready to flower and set seed almost immediately - the whole life cycle probably occurring in less than 3 weeks.  Once in flower, the plant has a semi-succulence that permits it to ripen seed even if broken  off of its roots.

Once morning comes, the pink/red ball of foliage becomes a ball of flowers.  This area has been free of snow for about a week.  (The other plants are the prostrate Lupinus albifrons v. collinus on the left and a single leaf of Fritillaria glauca on the right.)

The extensive gravel "pavements" of some of these montane ridges can have thousands of these tiny plants such as here at Windy Gap just N of Hull.

The expression, "Cute as a button" comes to mind often with this species.

The next species is a widespread spring perennial of many habitats, but when it grows at snow melt, it is yet another plant, quite unlike what I see regularly at low elevation.  This species is Western buttercup, Ranunuculus occidentalis, in the Buttercup Family, Ranunculaceae.  When I was first seeing this back in 1981, the high montane forms were given a varietal name, var. ultramontanus, which is no longer recognized (as distinct from the species), but which, given its unique gestalt, is at least a good label for this expression.

Just a few days, maybe only one, since the snow departed, and the flattened vegetation sprouts relatively large showy buttercup flowers well in advance of its foliage.  The grass is Danthonia unispicata(?).

Close up of several flowers and the silky foliage just starting to expand from the ground.  Eventually this will produce a stem over 1' tall and branched, much like the typical species.  But at this stage it resembles some of the butercups that are totally restricted to snow beds, such as Ranunuculus eschscholtzii of the mountains of Western N America.

Part 2 will feature another fabulous Fritillaria.

 And goodbye to our lovely Fritillaria glauca.

Purple leafed stream orchid, another unique race of plants from The Cedars

Purple-leafed stream orchid, Epipactis gigantea, (The Cedars' purple race) is a wonderful variation on an old familiar species. At its best, it is a stunning rich rose/black/burgundy in color, the color being deepest and richest when first emerging in spring, but typically holding in intensity through flowering.

 Glistening rose burgundy color on the new growth is luscious, while additional texture is added by the venation and glistening surface cells.

This race of stream orchid is not simply one color, it is quite variable in the wild with a range from the traditional green leaf, to nearly every intermediate shade of green, greenish silver, green with burgundy venation, pale burgundy purple, deep burgundy purple, etc.  In most locations various colored forms, each forming a colony, may occur together.

They are distributed throughout the various canyons of The Cedars, each canyon having a slightly different range of intensity of colors and mixes.  For example in Mineral Spring Canyon, nearly all the plants are some shade of bronze or burgundy, many very deeply colored, with only a few largely green foliaged plants.  In the Main Canyon, nearly half of the plants found are green and intensely purple plants rather uncommon.  Thus the genetic tendency toward purple is unevenly developed depending on local conditions.

The play of light on the foliage brings out additional coloration.

The deepest colored colonies are generally the most exceptional, especially to a horticulturist's eye, as the color tends to be quite complex with  hints of blue, rose and silver often revealed in certain light.  It is typical for those with the purple coloration to gradually mature to a dark, almost blackish green by or just after flowering, certainly by the time the capsules develop.

The variability of the plant color can range from deep burgundy to bright green as seen in this picture where the two grow side by side in a seepage at The Cedars.  While the green plants are almost indistinguishable from the typical widespread species, the purple ones are remarkably distinct.
The typical species ranges from British Columbia to Mexico and Texas, but in that entire extensive range, only those at The Cedars have developed this deep coloration to the plant.  In 1995, a plant from The Cedars was botanically described by orchid expert, botanist and author, Paul Martin Brown as Epipactis gigantea forma rubrifolia, meaning red-leaf.  In botany, a "forma' is the lowest level of botanical recognition, usually based on a single character difference.

The purple-leafed forms became immediately popular in horticulture after I introduced them at the UC Botanical Garden (UCBG) in the early 80's.  Here is the most widely grown selection, 'Serpentine Night' growing in a container with Oxalis spiralis 'Aureus' in my Maybeck Cottage garden around 2000.  Only routine water is needed to keep it happy.

On my first trip into The Cedars on July 25 1981, I did not comment on the Epipactis in my collection notebook, probably due to the fact that by late July the foliage is not profoundly colored as it is when first emergent.  But by early 1982 I had already made several dark foliage coloration, one of which became the popular cultivar, 'Serpentine Night'.

Here, again in my Berkeley CA garden is a pot with both Epipactis 'Serpentine Night' and another variegated form I named 'Serpentine Candy'.  Unfortunately the variegated form proved very weak and died within 3 years. (Ceramic "snails" by Berkeley artist, Marcia Donahue.)

'Serpentine Night' growing in the old Serpentine Display Bed (7) at UCBG (Berkeley) back in the mid-80's.  Contrasting is the furry silver-white foliaged Stachys albens, an association sometimes found in the wild at The Cedars. (Note that Stachys albens, while lovely, is extremely aggressive at spreading underground, care in siting it is advised!  Great for large pond margins.)

Other than foliage color, the purple-leafed Epipactis at The Cedars is quite similar to the normal species.  The flowers are perhaps a little darker due to the strong purple in the sepals, but typical green Epipactis also has some bronzy coloration in the floral parts.  The persistent dark leaf color though gives an overall deeper color quality to the flowering plant.

The lovely glaucous and ferny foliage of serpentine columbine, Aquilegia eximia, creates a memorable composition.  This form maintains deep color even into flowering.

In the wild the plant is most commonly found in creek margins growing out of rocks and crevices where it survives the scouring of high water and debris in winter.   The many seepages - both normal pH and ultrabasic (pH >11) - also provide ample habitat for these unusual forms.  I estimate that there are probably about 1,500 plants of Epipactis growing at The Cedars throughout the nearly 6,000 acres of ultramafic (serpentine) rock.  Oddly, although the coloration is genetic and not dependent on the serpentine, few plants have been found downstream off of the serpentine, even though The Cedars is the headwaters of several major creeks.

Another excellent color form, very deep burgundy with a hint of rose-purple, here growing in habitat.  Hoary coffeeberry, Rhamnus tomentella on the right.

I often get asked where the selection 'Serpentine Night' came from within The Cedars, but unfortunately I don't know for sure.  In those early years of exploration, I didn't know the various canyons as well as today, so no specific notation was made of exactly where I collected it.  Plus I collected at least half a dozen selections in the early years, and a number of populations are very similar in color to 'Serpentine Night'.

The two stems in the middle are an unusual blackish burgundy; while those on either side show predominantly green.  Even those plants with green foliage show bronze tones in the stem, especially near the base and underground.

 Living up to its common name as stream orchid, here is a predominantly green leafed form growing in 4" of water at The Cedars.  Even though the foliage is mostly green note the purple coloration of the stems.  In the greenest plants found at The Cedars, purple is always found in the lower stems and underground bracts.

 

Stream orchids are perhaps the easiest native orchid to grow, whether the typical green leafed forms or the purple.  Because they spread by rhizomes underground, I've even heard some gardeners complain that they are "weedy" - though I've never felt this way myself.  Basically they like loose soil and routine water.  Because they emerge from dormancy later than many winter/spring perennials in our climate here in the Bay Area of California, it might be wise to mark where they occur to avoid planting something new on top of them.

A sweet little flower with classic orchid features and complex coloration.

 There are a number of facts that make the purple leafed orchids of The Cedars fascinating. 

• This variant is only found in California.
• This variant is only found in Sonoma Co.
• This variant is only found at The Cedars and is restricted to serpentine rock and soils.
• The color is genetic and not a result of growing on serpentine; seedlings from purple plants will produce variously shaded purple offspring.  Plants in cultivation have retained the coloration for nearly 30 years!
• It is one of seven endemic plants found only at The Cedars.
• Several of the other endemic plants are characterized by extreme purple or reddish coloration in some vegetative or floral part, as well as many other plants at The Cedars (that are more widespread species.)
• The selection 'Serpentine Night' has won awards from horticultural societies here and abroad.

While much of the purple coloration becomes muted or not apparent in late summer, by fall the golden amber fall color reveals the purple suffusion once again.  Foliage of serpentine columbine, Aquilegia eximia, again provides a lovely contrast.

While much botanical investigation has been done at The Cedars, the mystery remains why so many plants there have developed enhanced anthocyanin coloration, often in species that are not closely related.  (Note: for another example of this phenominon, see my blog, "Cardamine Uncertainty.)  This would make a great research project for some interdisciplinary study; involving botany, geology, climatology, evolutionary biology, etc.

So this essay is for those who want to know more about our native stream orchid, especially its most unusual variant, The Cedars endemic purple-leafed race.  The plant world would be poorer without it!

On The Rocks Part 2; Flowers walled and jeweled.

Must-have mustards:

One of the plants I chose to try on my rock outcrop was Western wallflower, Erysimum capitatum (v. capitatum), a lovely biennial species frequently seen on rocky banks, ledges, road cuts, openings in woodland and chaparral, etc.  Often, after fires or other disturbances that open up and expose rock or soil, this plant can appear prolifically, sometimes by the hundreds.

Western wallflower just starting to flower in February.  Eventually the primary spike elongates, often to 3'.  In most situations the side branches will also elongate and flower, though in stressful sites usually only the primary spike flowers.

I had been wanting to try this native wildflower for several years, but I also wanted to grow the race that naturally occurs in the Garnett Creek drainage, this is the creek that drains through our property here in Calistoga CA.  But I had only seen it occurring naturally in one spot and only one plant, on a rock bluff about a half mile up the canyon.  Last spring I explored another nearby rock outcrop and found a few more and made a point of returning to collect 3 siliques (seed capsules); each plant might have 20 - 50 siliques if medium-sized.

A loose grouping of wallflowers on my rock outcrop in March.  They provided a wonderful bright wand of color during the damp and often dreary days of "winter" here.  The bluish lilac heads in the picture are the native blue-dicks, Dichelostemma capitatum, pre-existing at this site.

Knowing that this species is biennial, that is, it takes two years to flower and then die - and, not wanting to wait for two years before "seeing" it, I decided to try a trick that I had used years ago while at the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley.  I waited until the last week of August to sow the seeds, even though it was during a heat wave and hardly the conditions you wanted tender seedlings to endure.  I made sure the seed pot stayed watered, and within eight days, there were dozens of tiny seedlings.  During September and October I carefully made sure that they didn't dry out and gave them small doses of fertilizer every few weeks.

Grown off of rock, in "regular" soil - here being a heavy clay - Western wallflower typically produces a bushier plant with many side branches, thus creating a mound of flowers.  This can also be induced by pinching the primary "leader" during its vegetative phase.  Sometimes browsing rabbits may do this for you..

We were fortunate last fall to have a substantial rainfall in mid October which thoroughly moistened the ground including my rock outcrop.  I used this opportunity to plant out the rather small seedling plants into various crevices, niches, ledges, etc. on the outcrop.  Although we didn't have follow up rains for several weeks after that, I watered down the areas with new seedlings regularly so that they did not dry out - as young seedlings are wont to do if not watered, usually with tragic results.

By the time the rains returned in November, the seedlings were already quite well established, and subsequent rains kept them growing quickly.  A little fertilizer around each rosette helped them turn into small plants by December.  Being mustards, wallflowers thrive during the cool season, getting bigger as the days got colder and shorter.

Early flowering wallflowers and juvenile rosettes (rosette above right of big flower head).  The rosettes of wallflowers are formed from many long narrow leaves, each leaf having shallow drawn-out lobes on the sides - these scattered teeth and lobes give an extra visual appeal to the foliage mound .

In nature, wallflowers germinate soon after the first rains and grow through the winter/spring into rosettes, which then sit out the long dry season until the next seasons' rains revives them and prompts them to flower the second spring.  By starting them early and getting them to grow before the New Year into little rosettes, when the days lengthened, they "thought" that they were already a year old.  Thus during January I was thrilled to see most starting to elongate into flowering stems - the "trick" had worked.  Of the nearly 75 seedlings planted out, nearly 68 flowered (5 had died), thus the biennial had been turned into an annual.


Apart from growing them in your garden which is quite easy since they are readily available (Annies Annuals, etc.), our Western wallflower is always an attractive plant to come across in the wild.  This species, Erysimum capitatum, is the most widespread in the state, occurring in many sites at many elevations.  The color too varies considerably, and previously some of the color variants were considered species or subspecies but are now lumped together.  The most widespread color is a deep golden orange, but some are more pure orange, others more yellow, others even cream.  For example, the plants native to the Calistoga area are slightly more golden than those at The Cedars 40 miles to the W, where they are more orange.

Western wallflower at The Cedars in Sonoma Co. in March.  Wallflowers are excellent at attracting butterflies to the springtime garden.

Evalyn's Touch.

If you want to add an annual to your garden that no-one has ever seen before, one that will amaze you every time you see it, try the Farnsworth jewelflower, Streptanthus farnsworthianus.  Native to the southern Sierra Nevada foothills it is named for a 20th century rancher and amateur botanist/naturalist, the late Evalyn Farnsworth of Porterville, Tulare Co.  Like most jewelflowers it grows on sterile, stony or rocky places, especially "balds" and ledges.

I was first given a 4" pot of this annual (actually two separate friends gave me one each - I guess my penchant for weird plants is well known) about 4 years ago; it was being grown - and still is - again by Annies Annuals of Richmond CA, a source for many unusual plants in our area (she ships too).

While the wallflowers were flowering in Feb. through April, the seedlings of the Farnsworth jewelfower were growing discretely, having self-sown for 4 years now on this rock face.  By May, they were producing their curious "flowers", actually spikes of flowers set off by huge purplish/metallic blue bracts.  While hard to see in this overall view, there are many in the central area of this picture.

Having moved to Calistoga the previous year, I immediately thought that I should  try this native treasure on my new rock outcrop.  They did excellently, and when they went to seed, I crushed it up and sprinkled around to a wider area.  The next season they returned in good numbers, and I've enjoyed this plant ever since.

Sometimes called Evalyn's jewelfower, this remarkable annual displays its bright white true flowers against a very unusual expanded bract of rose purple overlaid with a strange bluish color that reflects the light.

Our native jewelflowers (genus Streptanthus) are numerous and all seem to have developed odd features - growth form (branching), foliage modifications, flowers and even seed capsules (siliques).  But Evalyn Farnsworth really hit upon one of the weirdest.  But it isn't simply weird, it is quite lovely, Dr. Seuss would have loved it.

Those who have followed my "ramblings" for some time know that jewelflowers have been an interest of mine for nearly 30 years.  Here in Calistoga, we have the bristly jewelflower, Streptanthus glandulosus (ssp. glandulosus) on a rock outcrop across the canyon.  At our property at The Cedars N of Cazadero in Sonoma Co. we have two other subspecies (ssp.) of bristly jewelflower, the ssp. sonomensis (Sonoma jewelflower) and the ssp. hoffmanii (Hoffman's jewelflower).  We also have another annual, the bearded jewelflower, S. barbiger, and the odd biennial, Morrison's jewelflower, S. morrisonii.  The last four entities only occur on serpentine soil or rock - another interest of mine.

While the stems and true flowers are small, it is the purple-blue bracts that stand out from a distance, creating a wonderful color accent in the garden.

I have over the last 30 years tried to grow many of California's fascinating jewelflowers, but most have been very difficult and frustrating in cultivation; especially if you want to keep them for more than one season.  Last winter I tried growing seed of the bristly jewelflower from across the canyon, but it - while germinating quickly and easily - grew stunted and distorted as the plants enlarged.

What you see is not what you get.  Similar to some other jewelflowers, the juvenile plants give no indication of its future.  As a young plant the leaves are finely divided, with almost thread-like divisions.  In mid-life, it has a "crisis" and changes its appearance entirely, the ferny foliage of youth becomes large clasping heart-shaped leaves which then produce the even larger purple colored bracts below the flowers.  This plant is in transitions showing the two types of foliage.

Thus it is surprising to me that the Farnsworth jewelflower does so well.  I'm sure the rock outcrop helps, but it doesn't seem to be bothered by disease, mildew or aphids like some of my other attempts with other species.

Mass of Evalyn's jewelflower on rock face.  These have self-sown into the rock crevices - a hard place for any plant to grow.  The colored bracts provide an excellent accent to the silver and grays of Dudleya, Santolina chamaecyparissus, Senecio talinoides 'Jolly Gray', and trailing Salvia sonomensis. Below, Athanasia acerosa, a shrub with yarrow-like flower heads and lilac-pink rose.

Autumn in June.  As the plants matures and begins to dry out the clasping foliage turns soft colors of lilac, bronze, peach, salmon, yellow and chartreuse. The purple bracts look even more interesting at this phase.

Not your ordinary garden annual, both the form and color of this jewelfower creates exceptional interest.  I have not tried this, but if it could be dried with these colors, it would make a unique dried "flower" arrangement.

A cloak of many colors giving its farewell to spring, time to segue to another season.