Visitors 47
Modified 14-Feb-22
Created 5-Feb-22
0 photos
In this Mediterranean climate, here where months pass with no rain, many native plants – especially wildflowers – shelter their vitality and nutrients over the dry season, under the earth, waiting for the return of rain. In roots, bulbs, rhizomes, corms, and tubers. Often, above ground, there is no sign that life thrives below. (The First People here knew well where to find and harvest this treasure – and how to encourage the plants that offer it.)
After the rains come back, and the morning sun warms the soil, our wildflowers send stems, leaves, and flowers upwards, for another season of gathering sunlight, water, and carbon for nourishment and growth, as well as for preparing and spreading the seeds for future generations.
Buckeyes too senesce in the warm dry summertime. Pulling nutrients from their tired leaves, developing but retaining their conspicuous seeds, they wait out the dry time. Once the ground is moist again, a good time for planting, they drop their seeds, put out new leaves, and begin the cycle again.
Here are some views of early springtime, flowers and more, around Portola Valley between late January and early February 2022, in chronological order. These stem from Helen’s and my morning walks near Portola Valley Ranch: Sweet Springs Trail, Deer Path, Mader Valley; Black Oak, Blue Oak, and Los Trancos Trails; and towards Windy Hill, on Eagle Trail, Hamm’s Gulch Trail, and to the bottom of Spring Ridge. (Since our dog usually comes along, I have avoided the Coal Mine Ridge Nature Preserve of Portola Valley Ranch. This is also a wonderful place to experience springtime; the absence of dogs makes it doubly special.)
I keep adding springtime views here. Now from January 21 through February 9, 2022. No rain all year, and none in sight. Nice for the hikers now, a bad omen for the future of our ecosystems.
Enjoy! And get out of the house!!