MISSIMER PRESERVE 
EXPLORATORY TRAIL
 May 4, 2017
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Hike Description:
We try to see this  preserve at least once a year as the flowers are so spectacular. This year was no exception. It's also nice to take new people as we hear so many oohs and aahs. There are really no trails so you wander from flower patch to flower patch trying to step as carefully as you can.
 

See our Park page for more information. 

Blooming Plants Not Photographed:
NN=Non Native
Agoseris grandiflora (Large Flowered Agoseris)
Amsinckia menziesii (Common Fiddleneck)
Anagallis arvensis (Scarlet Pimpernel)NN
Achyrachaena mollis (Blow Wives)
Astragalus breweri (Brewer’s Milk Vetch)
Castilleja attenuata (Valley Tassels)
Calochortus amabilis (Diogenes Lantern)
Castilleja exserta (Purple Owl’s Clover)
Collinsia heterophylla (Chinese Houses)
Daucus pusilus (Rattlesnake Weed)
Delphinium hesperium ssp. pallescens (Pale Western Larkspur)
Eriodictyon californicum (Yerba Santa)
Eriophyllum lanatum (Wooly Sunflower)
Gilia tricolor (Bird’s Eye Gilia)
Lasthenia californica (Ca. Goldfields)
Layia chrysanthemoides (Tidy Tips)
Leptosiphon bicolor (True Baby Stars)
Lewisia rediviva (Bitterroot)
Linanthus dichotomus (Evening Snow)
Lupinus bicolor (Miniature Lupine)
Matricaria discoidea (Pineapple Weed) NN
Minuartia californica (Sandwort)
Petrorhagia dubia (Hairy Pink) NN
Platystemon californicus (Cream Cups)
Sidalcea diploscypha (Checkerbloom)
Silene gallica (Windmill Pink)NN
Sisyrinchium bellum (Blue Eyes Grass)
Thysanocarpus curvipes (Lacepod)
Trifolium ciliolatum (Foothill Clover)
Trifolium gracilentum (Pinpoint Clover)
Trifolium hirtum (Rose Clover) NN
Triteleia hyacinthina (White Brodiaea)
Triteleia laxa (Ithuriel’s Spear)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 
Gold Nuggets (Calochortus luteus)
There were hundreds of these spectacular natives in the field by the parking lot.
 

(Scroll down for more pictures)

 

 

Click pictures to enlarge

 
    Cream Sacs (Castilleja rubicundula ssp. lithospermoides)
Heading out through the fields of flowers. Keeping single file minimizes the damage.   These natives are root parasites-- they are partly parasitic but also carry on photosynthesis.

 

 
Royal Larkspur (Delphinium variegatum)   Frying Pan Poppy (Eschscholzia caespitosa)
A native which is poisonous yet some people are brave enough to use them for medicinal purposes.   This native  may look like a California Poppy but the underside is different.

 

 
    Peregrine Thistle (Cirsium cymosum):
Trying to keep to the rocky surfaces our group inspects the site.   Usually the thistles we see are pink or red.
This white colored native was somewhat unusual.

 

 
Evening Snow (Linanthus dichotomus)   Seep Monkeyflower (Mimulus guttatus)
Larger than most Linanthus, this native likes serpentine soil (Soil with low levels of Calcium & high levels of magnesium, iron & other metals usually toxic to plants).   The leaves on this native can be eaten and used as a lettuce substitute.

 

 

 
     
Humm, I know that Calochortus luteus was here somewhere.   Notice how this native Tricolor Monkeyflower (Mimulus tricolor) is white instead of pink on it’s outer petals. It is named “albiflora” due to a mutation.

 

 

 
Blue Cup (Githopsis specularioides)   Tricolor Monkeyflower (Mimulus tricolor)
This native flower was less than ½" across.   We found dozens of these little natives in a small vernal pool area just about a 1/4 mile west of the preserve.

 

 

   
     
Sometimes it's just nice to stand and look around.