In full bloom: East County regional parks put on best wildflower show in years
California is having its best wildflower season in five years. After a terrible drought, it is heading into spring with average or above average rainfall and that translates into plenty of moisture for seeds to sprout and wildflowers to bloom.
So it makes perfect sense to listen to East Bay Regional Park District naturalists when they advise everyone to get out now and keep returning over the next two months to watch for new wildflowers as the season progresses.
"Enjoy this while it lasts because we might not have another winter like this for a long time," said naturalist Trent Pearce.
Several East Bay parks share the wildflower-wealth. These include Black Diamond Mines and Morgan Territory regional preserves and Contra Loma and Round Valley regional parks in the northeast, Briones Regional Park in the northwest and Big Break Regional Shoreline on the Delta.
Northeast sector naturalist Edward Willis recommends late morning, after flowers have opened up, for good viewing. For dramatic photography he suggests late afternoon when the setting sun provides longer angles of light.
"I'd also advise people to stay on the trails because there have been some tick sightings and if you walk through tall grass you could pick up a hitchhiker on your clothing," Willis said. "Be careful not to walk on the flowers and don't remove them from the park; the best way to capture a flower is through a photograph."
Black Diamond has early season wildflowers, February through March, and late season, April through May. Right now the best trails are Manhattan Canyon Trail and the Chaparral Loop Trail.
Early season flowers include bright yellow buttercups, magenta-flowered red maids, blue dicks, California golden poppies, red flowered Indian paintbrush and Indian warrior, and shooting stars.
"We're starting to show bush and grassland lupine with purple flowers and purple tansy at the north end of Black Diamond Mines," he said. "Within the next two weeks we'll have a lot of shooting stars, both the pink-purple and white colors, and yellow flowered Mule's ears in the oak woodland.
Into April and May the Mt. Diablo fairy lantern, owl's clover, Ithuriel's spear, and the white butterfly Mariposa lily bloom.
Contra Loma and Round Valley are primarily grassland habitats, displaying lots of yellow wild mustard, golden poppies, blue dicks and buttercups. At Round Valley there is a chance of seeing yellow fairy lanterns in the canyon and bright orange fiddlenecks in the fields.
Wildflowers in Morgan Territory almost mirror those at Black Diamond Mines, showing up about two or three weeks later. At 2,000 feet, Morgan Territory takes longer to warm up, while its location up a twisty country road keeps things quiet.
"You feel a certain sense of remoteness at Morgan Territory; the kind of feeling like you've got the place to yourself," Willis said. "There might be a large number of people near the staging area, but once you hit the trails the park does a great job of absorbing people."
Briones, in the Northwest sector of the district, has similar wildflowers to the Northeast sector in its grassland and chaparral habitats, so Pearce likes to focus his April wildflower walk along Bear Creek Trail, one of the few trails that goes through a riparian corridor and has a completely different wildflower community.
Since poison oak is so prevalent he recommends this be the first plant visitors learn to identify. Once past that, walkers can look for the tiny white Pacific starflower, checkered lilies with their pendant purple blooms, woodland stars, blue Pacific hound's tooth and blue witch.
"The trail passes through open chaparral area with a good showing of California manroot, wild cucumber," Pearce said. "The tendrils are sensitive so a neat trick is to lift it with your finger and gently rub back and forth. Within a minute it will wrap around your finger."
Pearce has two wildflower tips. One is to visit the same spot more than once because you are likely to see different things every time you go.
"Observing the change over time can really give you a connection to an area and help you learn the timing of wildflowers in a given spot," Pearce said. "Another tip is to use a Smart phone or camera to take photos of wildflowers as a way to learn, then at home identify them with a field guide or upload them to a citizen science website."
Along the Delta at Big Break Regional Shoreline wildflowers are less diverse but still lovely and interesting. Supervising naturalist Mike Moran suggests a walk on the pier, looking to the west, or on Big Break Regional Trail to see the rare white flowered Yerba mansa.
"Another rare plant is the Suisun Marsh aster with violet flowers; it hides sparsely among some of our islands in Big Break and is best sleuthed out by kayak," Moran said. "Water primrose, water hyacinth and yellowflag iris are invasives we would rather not see, but they do put on a bloom show."
This year promises to be a great wildflower season and now is the time to head out.
"The flowers aren't going to wait for you," Willis said. "Don't think about it too long, just get out and see them. They're ephemeral, they come for a few weeks and then they're gone just as quickly."
