Acalanes Wildflowers

March 30, 2009

The rains were a little below normal this winter and most of the rainfall occurred in February and early March. Bloom times seem about normal. These are the wildflowers we saw along the creek and in the large meadow at the top of the Acalanes Open Space. We walked up the creek from the Sousa Drive entrance, followed the Briones-Mt. Diablo Trail to the multi-trail junction, crossed the middle of the meadow, and came back along the bottom. The flowers are listed by color.


Color	Common Name	Scientific Name	Native?	Where Seen
blue	Blue dicks	Dichelostemma capitatum	Yes	Scattered
blue	Blue eyed grass	Sisyrinchium bellum	Yes	Scattered
blue/white	Baby blue eyes	Nemophila menziesii	Yes	Two patches
blue/white	Lupine	Lupinus spp.	Yes	All over
gold	Fiddleneck	Amsinckia menziesii	Yes	All over
green	Coast live oak	Quercus agrifolia	Yes	At bottom
orange	California poppies	Eschscholzia californica	Yes	All over
pink	Filaree	Erodium cicutarium	No	Just starting
pink	Geranium	Geranium dissectum	No	Just starting
pink	Red maids	Calindrinia ciliata	Yes	Along trails
pink	Tomcat clover	Trifolium wildenovii	Yes	Few at bottom
purple	Vetch	Vicia villosa	No	Just starting
white	Miner's lettuce	Claytonia perfoliata	Yes	In patches
white	White nemophila	Nemophila heterophylla	Yes	Along the creek
white	Woodland star	Lithophragma affine	Yes	Few
white/pink	Owl's clover	Castilleja ambigua	Yes	Scattered in meadow
yellow	Bladder parsnip	Lomatium utriculatum	Yes	Scattered in meadow
yellow	Buttercups	Ranunculus canus	Yes	All over
yellow	Mustard	Brassica campestris	No	Few
yellow	Pacific sanicle	Sanicula crassicaulis	Yes	Along the creek