Home»Jasper Ridge Galleries»A Day at a Time: Individual Visits»6/9/2025 Rare Bushmallow Appears after Fires

Sheena leads a small group to the location of the burn piles, uphill from Mapache Gate. We spend an hour or two pulling invasive thistles and admiring the sudden appearance of Western Bewildering Bushmallow (Malacothamnus arcuatus var. arcuatus) – a fire-follower, endemic to the Bay Area. After piles of vegetation were burned here, this plant sprang up in rings around each burn pile – at just the right peak temperature, not too hot or cold. Its seeds had lain dormant in the soil since soon after the last fire here, before the First People were prevented from tending this land.

Seeds’ Dream

Dormant in the soil,
Waiting – season after season.
Thousands of years here
Suddenly interrupted.
Where are the fires?

We flourished for generations,
Grateful to First People
Who tended these lands,
Spread seeds,
Gathered bounty,
Set fires to maintain the cycles of plenty.

Ohlone mother and daughter
Stood here,
Noticed new shoots, pink flowers;
Recalled Grandmother’s story
Of fire-following miracle.

Springing from burnt-over soil,
Thriving for the years it takes a child to grow,
Aging, overgrown, disappearing –
Rising again after fire.

For a quarter millennium,
A dozen human generations,
We wait for the next fire.
Dry season, wet season, dry, wet…
No fire to quicken us
To spring forth after rain.

Then one day:
Trimmed vegetation piled high:
Blessed flame --
Fire returns.