About 20 braids worth per 1/2 pound.


Sue and Craig Dremann's Excellent
March and April 2008 California Wildflower Adventures



Photos copyright © 2008 by Susan and Craig Dremann, text copyright © 2009 by Craig Dremann from Notebook 215, pages 52-55, all right reserved including the web, or any other image storage or transmission technologies.

Box 361, Redwood City, CA 94064 (650) 325-7333



Amboy crater
Amboy volcano crater and desert daisies

Amboy flowers
Amboy crater desert daisies

Amsinckia
San Luis Obispo county Amsinckia

Amsinckia
Hwy 46 Amsinckia

Baby Blue Yeyes
Highway 58 Baby Blue Eyes

Coreposis
Hwy 58 Coreposis

Desert dandelion
Desert dandelions

Goldfields
Hwy 58 Goldfields

Dune primrose
Mojave dune evening primroses

GoldfieldsSan Luis Obsipo county Goldfields

Goldfields
..and more Goldfields

Goldfields
...and even more Goldfields


Hwy 46 Phacelia, Amsinckia & Coreopsis (from front to back)

Phacelia
...more Hwy 46 Phacelia and coreopsis

Layia
Hwy 58 Layia

Lupines
Bush lupine

Lupines
Bush lupine

Locoweeds
Hwy 58 Locoweed or Milkvetch

Desert flowers
Interstate 40 Desert daisies

Ocotillo
Joshua Tree NP- Ocotillo plant

Ocotillo
Joshua tree NP - Ocotillo flowers

Owls clover
Hwy 58 Owls clover and Amsinckia

Owls clover
Hwy 58 owls clover

Paeonia
Hwy 58 Paeonia

Phacelia
Hwy 58 Phacelia and Amsinckia

Sand verbena
29 Palms Sand Verbena

Shooting stars
Hwy 58 Shooting stars

Yucca
Mojave Yucca

Purple sage
Cal. Hwy 166 Purple Sage

Desert dandelion
Cal. Hwy. 138 Desert Dandelions

Indian paintbrush
Near Hwy 41 & 46 - Indian Paintbrush

California poppies
California poppies...

California poppies
...and more poppies...

California poppies
..and still more poppies off Cal. Hwy. 138...

California poppies
...and even more poppies!

California poppies

And a single white poppy plant among 100 acres of orange.

rainfall map

All of California in March and April suffering a historic drought, when central and southern California in March got only 0-10% of average rainfall for the month. The lack of rain causing the exotic annual grasses to start drying out early, and fire danger to be rated as "Extreme" in parts of the state by mid-April. Data from
http://www.wrcc.dri.edu/spi/spi.html

All the grasses that turn brown in the summer in California, are weed grasses from Europe that kill the native wildflowers. The lack of normal spring rainfall in 2008 greatly helped the California wildflowers by suppressing the European exotic annual grasses, and the native wildflowers grew and bloomed in areas where they had not been seen for decades.



California Hwy 58 transect, west to east, March 2008 (Notebook 215)
What plant we saw, mile-by-mile :

0 = Weeds, European grasses
A = Amsinckia
AG = Agriculture
B = native Bunchgrasses
BB = Baby Blue eyes
BRO = Brodiaea
COR = Coreposis
ET = Elymus triticoides
G = Goldfields
H = native Hordeum grass
L = Lupines
LAY = Layia
LO = Lomatium
ML = Miner's lettuce
MUHL = Muhlenbergia grass
OC = Owls clover
P = California poppies
PHA = Phacelia
RS = roadsides
SC= Stipa cernua
SS = Shooting stars
TOF = native chocolate Paeony (three ovary flower)
V= Yellow native violet
YBP = native Yellow Bush plant

SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY
Post miles, Hwy 58, going east, start in town of Santa Margarita:
2 = A @ RS
3 = MULH
4 = A is common
5 = 0 - oaks
6 = 0 - chamise at pass
7 = 0 - Junction 229
8 = 0 - chamise, Chia, BRO, ML, TOF very rare in 1-2 year old burned chamise, YBP.
9 = 0
10 = 0 - bridge
11 = 0 - Pinus sabiniana
12 = A, G, L, SS valley
13 = 0 - chamise
14 = A, B, L.
15 = A, B, B-Poa, SS
16 = BRO, G, L.
17 = A, L, P
18 = Junction La Panza road, awesome BB, G-10 acres.
19 = A, L
20 = A, P, pines
21 = Junction Shell Creek road, BB, G, Lay
22 = A, B-Poa
23 = A, BB, P
24 = A, L. COR starts
25 = A, G
26 = A, G
27 = 0 - oaks
28 = 0 - oaks
29 = A, BB, COR, G
30 = A, G, P
31 = A, COR, PHA starts, SC
32 = A, COR, G
33 = A, G
34 = A, COR, G
35 = A, G-acres of it
36 = A, juniper
37 = A, L, junipers
38 = A, COR, L
39 = Junction Bitterwater road, AG, A, PHA
40 = 0 - AG
41 = A, AG, PHA
42 = A, AG, PHA
43 = A, AG
44 = A, AG
45 = Junction Soda Lake Road, A, AG
46 = A, AG, PHA
47 = A, COR
48 = A, COR
49 = A, right angle bend in road
50 = A
51 = A - cow chewed
52 = A - cow chewed
53 = 0 - tumbleweeds
54 = A - cow chewed
55 = Junction Seven mile Road, A, COR
56 = COR solid
57 = A
KERN COUNTY AT PASS
1 = A, G. PHA
2 = SOLID COR, PHA, ML
3 = A, PHA
4 = A, PHA
5 = SOLID A, B, SC
6 = A, PHA, first OC
7 = A, B, OC, Locoweed first seen
8 = A, cow chewed
9 = Locoweed, PHA
10 = Locoweed, cow chewed
11 = A, cow chewed
12 = A, cow chewed
13 = A, B, cow chewed
14 = A, shrubs, cow chewed
15 = 0, shrubs, cow chewed
15.20 = 0 - Junction Hwy 33, Near town of McKittrick, California in Kern County.



See other Dremann Wildflower adventures, 2003, 2009 and 2010


Updated December 24, 2022 - The Reveg Edge Ecological Restoration service