California Jewelflower | drycrikjournal

California Jewelflower, Caulanthus californicus

California Jewelflower, Caulanthus coulteri

Like hay to cows,
we bank good fortune
in the ground

building fences
and pipe corrals
as if always

there will be cattle
grazing grass above
our scattered ashes.

Our gods and fickle
goddesses rest among
generations,

and we with them—
have no legions
to wage wars,

and promise not
to new converts
what they already have.

We are the dirt
we’re rooted in,
look to the skies

for any kind of rain
and granite cracks
of snowmelt leaking

to stay alive—
to give good fortune
back to this ground.

Endangered Species Recovery Program

While gathering to brand last week, the girls and I noticed a wildflower we’ve never seen before. Identified from Calflora photos this morning, I learned that the California Jewelflower is listed by USA and California as ‘Rare and Endangered’. No sighting recorded before in this part of Tulare County. One must assume that that the seeds have been banked for years until our current weather conditions germinated them.

HOLD THE PHONE: misidentified, according to the Jepson manual. Jagged leaves and bristly hair on stems = Caulanthus coulteri, neither rare or endangered, but new to us.