Home»Portola Valley Ranch, Windy Hill, Etc.»6/8/2024 Sweet Springs Afternoon: Soap Plant and California Pink

Walking Sweet Springs Trail in the afternoon, one finds flowers. Each blossom of Soap Plant blooms for one night only, from 4 or 5 pm until early the next morning. Even though someone intentionally bent it over, one stalk puts forth a bumper crop – perhaps stimulated by this threat? At the viewpoint nearby, California Pink bursts forth. This is the only population of this flower in all of Portola Valley Ranch, including our Coal Mine Ridge Nature Preserve.

Mader Valley Trail makes a nice loop. A majestic buck shows off his antlers, still in velvet. Bucks stick together now – the harems come later. At a smaller scale, an insect shelters inside a Sticky Monkeyflower.

If we have a cool afternoon soon, venture along shady Sweet Springs Trail!