Story Ideas
BE ABREAST OF OUR BEST BLOSSOMS
Kern Valley wildflowers are some of the most abundant and varied in the state
From March through May, certain hillsides and fields are awash in a painter’s palette of color. Spring brings a dazzling array of wild, uncultivated flowering plants, but you can find floral treats throughout the year in the Kern River Valley and environs.
 |
Copyright © Rachael Miller |
Take January 2006, for example. An inventory of locally spotted blooms would include: tiny, pond-floating duckweed; bright orange California poppies; delicate yellow trumpets of fiddleneck; bright-yellow-petaled Acton’s brittlebush daisy; lemonade-yellow bush monkeyflower; yellow gooseberries in the driplines of deciduous oaks; small, violet-petaled redstem filarees; annual woolly sunflowers; ground-hugging rosettes of shortpod mustard; and the pure white, fragrant, daisy-like flowers of Layia.
As photogenic as the mountains surrounding the valley and the river flowing through it, wildflowers make great subjects for photo safaris. But wildflowers should remain photo subjects rather than bouquets. You can be fined for picking wildflowers on public lands or roads or on private property. Not to mention, fellow flower-lovers will then have a chance to see the spectacular color displays as well.
Three best bets to stay abreast of the blossoms:
- Nature Alley by Alison “Nature Ali” Sheehey (www.natureali.org) posts photos and reports on specific wildflower, as well as wildlife, sightings.
- The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers and Native Plants maintains the Southern California Wildflower Hotline ~ 818.768.3533,
- While the Kern County Board of Trade operates the Kern County Wildflower Hotline ~ 800.500.KERN (5376), providing the latest bloom information from March through May.
