Alien life forms at Huckleberry Regional Preserve

I went to Huckleberry a couple of weeks in search of Ribes sanguineum blossoms.  I found that and quite a bit more.  One of the storms seemed to have knocked a tree over at the beginning of the trail.  But I saw some people coming up that part of the trail so I went on down.  Shhh, don't tell.  I think it was only for liability reasons anyway.

 The ferns were emerging from their dry season slumber.

These weird shapes were on the madrone trunks.

 

 

 More after the jump...

Huckleberry Preserve - Failed berry foraging walk

So even though I didn't find any berries on my walk, as explained on my last post, there was plenty to keep my interest.  There was hairy vine honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula var vacillans) in bloom and some huckleberries just starting to form.  They are a reliable harvest, but much later in the year.

There was a very interesting grass's seedhead.  Probably not native, but beautiful all the same.

There was some ocean spray aka cream bush (Holodiscus discolor), whose buds supposedly taste like thyme, but most were a little too dry for my taste.  Others would have worked, but I didn't try any.

The flowers on these miner's lettuce were the most beautiful shade of purple.  I'm used to seeing white blooms.  Is this a variety, or do the blooms change color with age?

And nearby was a carpet of yerba buena (Satureja douglasii).  I love the aroma of its leaves. I don't remember seeing this growing wild here before.  It seems very happy.

I think these might be silktassle berries.  And then this little, yellow, mystery flower/weed.  Anyone know for sure what either is?

Huckleberry Preserve - Attempted berry foraging edition

So I went up to Huckleberry preserve in hopes of finding thimbleberries, a native, and supposedly delicious berry I have yet to taste.  Well the first plants I found were only in flower.  And while there were some berries after all further down the trail, none of them were ripe yet.  It will have to wait till later.

This park always amazes me with it's variety of native plants and a wonderful, quiet beauty.  Here is filtered sunlight on California grape.

I also saw a bee at work on these blackberry blossoms and another one that seems to have passed out drunk from the monkeyflower nectar.  He didn't move for a good minute or more.  Better for my camera.

 I don't know if I'm more aware, but I swear that some plants are more common now than just a few years ago.  California rose for example is scattered along the trail in quite a few spots now.  Here's a rosehip just starting to form.  And although most of the rose blooms were done for the year, a few more were getting ready to open.

Another reason I came to the preserve was to look for California hazelnuts (Corylus cornuta var californica).  Also edible, but not quite ripe.  A very strange, but beautiful housing for the future nuts. And the buds just awakening.

And I wanted to see if there were any ribes berries to sample.  The ribes species that grow in the park I don't think are very tasty, but I'm still curious to try some.  They weren't ripe either.

It seems like our wet and late winter pushed some things back from their usual cycle.   Luckily I didn't mind just having a pleasant walk through the woods.

Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve

I try to come up to this park several times a year in different seasons.  It is a truly magical place.  It's not very large, but it has an astounding diversity of plants.  Many of the natives are found throughout the East Bay hills, but here you literally bump into them again and again.

Here are the first blooms of the eponymous huckleberry.  The buds are from lower down the canyon and the open blooms from up on the manzanita barren (drier and sunnier).

Fiddleheads, aka opening ferns.

Some rare and not so rare plants after the jump.

Ribes sanguineum

I had a late cancellation for work today, so I decided to go up to the hills with my camera and take some pictures.  It was a beautiful day after some rain this morning.

I decided on Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve because I wanted to see some Ribes sanguineum in bloom and I was not disappointed.  This one was right at the parking lot/entrance.

There were several in flower throughout the preserve.  And also several budding out.  Some of the new leaves apparently come out of this flower like growth at the end of branches.

I was reminded why this is one of my favorite plants.  It was impossible to capture with my camera, but they have the most beautiful architecture.  They have a elegant and delicate structure.  If you look at the lighter colored leaves in the pics below, you can see one of the Ribes spreading out in its fashion.

 

Huckleberry Preserve

Huckleberry is by far one of my favorite parks in the Bay Area. Despite it's small size, it has a mind-boggling diversity of native plants. It's a great place to hike in all seasons, since there is something flowering almost all year. Spring definitely puts on a show, however.

Although there are a few spots with more open views, most of the trail feels like a tunnel of green. This is great for me because I can just focus on all the plants. Here are some pics from this damp spring day.


Douglas iris bud and flower










Ribes Sanguineum and Zigadenus Fremontii (common star lily)









Fritillaria Affinis var. Affinis
(Checker Lily)