Home»Gallery»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»4/30/2019 Late Spring Wildflowers, from the Lake to the Serpentine Grasslands

Anticipating a midmorning tour, I arrive early for an exploration after dawn, and head down to the lake and up Trail 8. Flies still sleep in their flower abode; an ant explores a flower. Then down to the Grinding Rock. Checking my watch, I hurry back toward the Sun Research Center to pick up the tour. A deer grazes the grasslands; a Great Blue Heron wings toward another day on the lake.

Then I share a second walk across the dam with folks from Grassroots Ecology. They know a lot about the local plants and ecosystems, so I just have to point the way. We venture up Trail 8, then along Road F all the way to the serpentine grassland, where, a few weeks earlier, some of these same people and I experienced the peak of the spring wildflower display: Goldfields, Poppies, Owl’s-clover, and more in a riot of color. But now the grasslands are more somber: Blue Dicks and Cream Sacs, in a much more restrained and dignified display. As often happens, the journey has been more rewarding than the destination. Our journey has led us past flowers of yellow, red, blue, and white tinged with subtle coloration. White Globe Lilies seemed to be at every turn. Yerba Santa was at its peak. Sticky Monkeyflower showed its golden monkey face, with the white central flaps, the doors to the ovaries – which close shut once the flower has been pollinated, preventing pollination a second time.

Leaving the ridge, we pass down shady Trail 3, ecosystem by ecosystem. Leading, I take few photographs here. Along the creek; back to the Grinding Rock, where we discover many more mortar depressions, in addition to the prominent triplet; and back to the Sun Research Center for a picnic. The Rattlesnake dozes on.

Enjoy the change of seasons!