Category Archives: Ranch Journal

California Golden Poppies, Sulphur Ridge

Fiesta Flower, Scorpion Weed, Wild Hyacinth, Miner’s Lettuce, Fiddleneck, Lacepod,

Goldfields

Blue Lupine, Chia, Headed Gilia, Fiddleneck

Agoseris, Filaree

Tomcat Clover, Goldfields

Purple Chinese Houses, Lacepod, Miner’s Lettuce, Fiddleneck, Goldfields

I made the circle of Greasy yesterday with a Kubota-load of salt, slipped away to check the cattle with my camera. Warm enough for the snakes to be out, I wasn’t in the mood to wade and lie down in the tall feed for macro shots, and thought instead of broader perspectives that may be more helpful identifying our common wildflowers.

I tend to think of these patches and clusters as families, however not in the botanical sense, and allow myself to personify them, imagining the dispersal of seed, often years worth, just waiting for the right conditions and circumstances to germinate. Every spring is a little different. Some show up where I’ve never seen them before, and some like the Purple Chinese Houses, Agoseris, Chia and Headed Gilia are at the same location every year, sometimes thick and sometimes thin.