San Antonio Valley and Mount Hamilton - 4/16/2021

I finally spent a day driving around San Antonio Valley, and it truly was lovely. Probably not the best year for the carpets of flowers I've heard about, and I think it was a on the early side for some interesting plants. But the Oaks were glowing, and the further in I went, the more flowers. Which was interesting, since I expected more in the lower, grassy hillsides outside of Livermore in mid-April, but very few there. Instead, the higher elevations were much more floral, when I expected them to be much further behind. I saw several species in particular on the west side of Mt. Hamilton in bloom already, that were at the same stage in early May last year.

One star of the show was Buckbrush, which really went off this year in Sierra Azul, and is totally going off around Mt Hamilton now, brightly punctuating the chaparral, and intoxicatingly scenting the breeze. Some nice fields of goldfields and smaller areas of poppies in the valleys. But my main interest was checking out some of the burned area, of which there was much, hill after hill both blackened and occasionally greening, including a lot of stump sprouting. As I've seen elsewhere, one of the main plants that seem to be thriving in the burnt understory are Claytonia, and some others were present too, although many still in their infancy. Another treat was seeing more Blazing Stars than I ever have. Maybe they're always there in at least that density, or maybe they got a boost from the fires. Too bad so much of this drive is past fences, through "private property", one of the worst ideas to ever taint human relation to land.

Posted on April 17, 2021 05:04 AM by newtpatrol