Wildflowers in Shell Ridge

March 10, 2004

In spite of the recent warm spell, this is a late year, mostly because of the cool rainy weather in February. Therefore, normal blooming is about 2 to 3 weeks overdue. Yet, there are tens of millions of flowers on these hills we will walk today. The trouble is there are only a few different kinds of flowers. Our walk took us from the Sutherland entrance (off of Walnut Blvd.) to Shell Ridge, taking the road to the right past Bramhall Pond, up the hill to Ginder Gap, up the narrow footpath to the crest of Shell Ridge, along the summit, down the switchback, near Indian Valley school, down the hill to Indian Pond and back to the entrance again. This is about a four-mile walk and will take about 90 minutes. Today I saw about 22 species of wildflowers and more will come every day now. These were:

Flower		Refs.
Common Name	Color	(1)(2)	Location
Blue Dicks	Blue	352	Top of Shell Ridge (SR)
Blue-eyed Grass	Blue	350	Near Bramhall Pond
Wally Baskets	Blue	352	Near broken bench
California Poppies	Orange	224	Spread around
Red Owl's Clover	Pink	240	One on top of SR
Vetch	Pink	326	All over - yet to bloom
Arroyo Lupine	Purple	376	Top of SR
Filaree - storksbill	Purple	286	Roadsides
Geranium	Purple	284	Roadsides
Shooting Stars	Purple	246	Top of SR
Fremont's Camas	White	6	Back of Fossil Hill
Miner's Lettace	White	294	Millions of blooms
Nemophylla	White	74	Tousands of blooms
Peppergrass	White	24	Roadsides
Poison Oak	White	-----	Top of SR
Shepherd's Purse	White	26	Roadsides
Wavy Leaf Soap Plant	White	12	All over
Buttercups	Yellow	154	Spread around
Common Butterweed	Yellow	208	Roadsides
Fiddleneck	Yellow	226	Top of SR
Lotus	Yellow	180	Roadsides
Mule Ears	Yellow	184	Top of SR
Mustard	Yellow	140	Spread around
California Sage	-----	-----	Top of SR