4 | Wildflower Field Archives - Page 2 of 4

Desert or Dune Primrose/Birdcage

Desert Primrose, like the purple Sand Verbena with which it shares its dunes, is one of the more identifiable wildflowers of the Colorado Desert (the desert that encompasses the Coachella Valley). Desert Primrose comes up in spring to add soft, white cup-shaped blooms among the clusters of purple verbena. It can be surprising to see such a delicate looking flower in the desert’s harsh climate.

The blooms open at night and are gone by the following midday. During this period, it is pollinated by the White-lined Sphinx Moth (Hyles lineata). These moths have a unique flight pattern that resembles hummingbirds. In fact, they are sometimes confused with hummingbirds. Once pollinated, the Primrose will set seed. When it has completed its cycle, the stems will grow up and as they dry out, their tips will meet at the top, forming what looks like a birdcage. This has given the plant its additional nickname, Birdcage.

The Wildflower Field

The wildflower field at Sunnylands is overseeded annually with native wildflowers and bunch grasses. This provides visitors with a view of the larger cyclical bloom cycles that we have in the desert. Starting in February, a variety of native species and bunch grasses begin emerging. Each year the vegetation varies slightly, depending on which seed dominates the space. The field can range in color from purples to oranges, whites, and pinks, with a variety of combinations. We cannot guarantee that all wildflowers will be present each year.

Desert Marigold

Desert Marigold is a prolific bloomer in the wildflower field. At least one of the plants appears to be blooming at all times. The largest blooming occurs in spring and summer. Desert Marigold’s common name is slightly misleading as it is not related to what is now categorized as true marigolds, those in the genus Tegetes.

Desert Marigold forms small clumps of bright green leaves and sends stalks up above the clump that produce bright yellow daisy-like blooms. When planted in mass, it provides a gorgeous groundcover. There is more than one species of Baileya, but the species in the wildflower field is multiradiata, which means its blooms are arranged symmetrically. This arrangement creates the appearance of the blooms being perfectly round.

This is a North American native that is found in northern Mexico in the states of Sonora, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, and Aguascalientes. In the United States it is native to California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, and Texas.

The Wildflower Field

Desert Canterbury Bells

Desert Canterbury Bells was added to the seed mix in 2013, the year after the gardens were installed. A visitor favorite, it has a tall stalk and a bloom that curves away from the stem like a bright blue bell. As a desert annual, it appears between February and April during the Spring bloom. It flowers, disperses seeds, and dies. The seeds that it disperses can either bloom the following year or, in a unique pattern of desert wildflowers, can wait several years for the perfect moment and conditions to germinate. With a preference for good drainage, sun, and dry weather, the wildflower field is a perfect location for the Desert Canterbury Bells.

Its range is within the borders of California’s Mojave and Sonoran deserts, though it is heavily cultivated as an ornamental outside this range.

The Wildflower Field

Chia

Chia has been heavily cultivated and commercialized to produce chia seed for the food market and, of course, the ever popular Chia Pet™. It is touted for its health and energy boosting characteristics. It is not an easy wildflower to find naturally growing outside of boom wildflower years, and would be easily overlooked by casual hikers who are unaware of the significant lore surrounding it. It is an important food source for wildlife and humans.

The Chia are small, with flat, frilly leaves that spread out from the base. As a member of the mint family, the Chia stalk has four flat sides. In a crosscutting, the stalk would appear as a square. Blooms are round bracts with flower clusters that are distributed up the stalk.

It is found in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in the United States. In Mexico, it’s found in Sonora and Baja California.

The Wildflower Field

California Poppy

The California Poppy is the official state flower of California. The state’s renowned author, John Steinbeck, described it as evoking the color of cream that would rise from molten gold, if that were possible. It is indeed beautiful to behold in mass, but there’s no challenge in that. A hiker fortunate enough to come across a single poppy on a California sand dune must think, “Eureka! I have found one.”

In the wildflower field, the flower adds a pop of creamy orange that plays well off the bright yellows of the Brittle Bush and the Desert Marigold. According to Matt Ritter, author of California Plant – A Guide to Our Iconic Flora, the first specimen collected for western recordings was during a Russian exploration and is housed in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

When the California Poppy blooms, it sends up a sepal, which is a green, cone-shaped protective shell. The flower pushes through the sepal when it blooms. A fruit that dries follows the bloom. When it’s ready to disperse seeds, it does so forcibly and can make a popping sound. Hence the name, Poppy.

Wildlflower Field

Our Lord’s Candle

Our Lord’s Candle can grow in two varieties, as a single or multi-clumped growth pattern. This is another species that can appear to be a rather large bunch grass or multi-mounded bunch grass, but is indeed a Yucca down to its sharp and rigid leaves. The long, blue-green to gray-green leaves are teethed and grow outward to create a globe shape to the plant.

This Yucca’s flowering stem can grow up to 13 feet, displaying bright white flowers that may have a purple tint. The stigma on Our Lord’s Candle is green, brush-like, and ends in a compact head, which is unique to this species. Like the agaves, this species of Yucca is monocarpic, meaning it will die after it blooms. In the mounding (or clumped) variety, each individual plant will bloom before completing its lifecycle. This can take many years, and some will live up to fifty years.

Our Lord’s Candle naturally occurs in chaparral and coastal scrub habitats in southern California and Baja California. Other varieties occur in the Mojave Desert and at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. It is heavily cultivated in the southwestern United States and in Europe.

Beaked Yucca

Beaked Yucca is most obvious in the wildflower field. Entering from the path that starts in the middle of the parking lot and taking the route to the left, it lies immediately ahead on the left side of the path. When it was originally planted at ground level, it appeared like rigid bunch grass. In recent seasons, it began to be more obvious as a trunking species that will rise up between 6 and 15 feet. As each new row of leaves dies, it falls downward to create a skirt effect on the trunk. It can grow single or multi-headed branches. Its leaves are mostly rigid and may or may not have a slight curve.

Rostrata, like other yuccas, is truly in its glory when it blooms. Its large candelabras of pure white blooms signals that it is another species attractive to nocturnal pollinators, which is common in the desert. The main pollinator of yuccas is the Yucca Moth. They have a special symbiotic relationship with this genus and, although other pollinators may visit, the Yucca Moth is the real partner. The plant’s fruit is shaped with a point like a beak, which is why it is nicknamed Beaked Yucca.

The distribution of Beaked Yucca is in the states of Chihuahua and Coahuila in northern Mexico, and western Texas in the United States.

Moroccan Mound

Another popular plant at Sunnylands is the Moroccan Mound, which grows in a dome shape created from chunky square stems. In the right conditions, it can spread up to 30 feet, but in the gardens, it’s spread is a maximum of 3 feet. It does well in poor soil and prefers full sun to partial shade. The plant can be grown for visual interest as its sculptural shape does catch attention.

Euphorbias have a unique flower from other genera. In late winter or early spring, they grow what is called a cyathium (plural – cyathia), which is a small flower cluster. On Moroccan Mound, the flowers are bright yellow and grow along the plant margins near the tops of the stems.

Moroccan Mound is native to the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

Candelilla

The name Candelilla is attributed to more than one source. It is associated with the shape in which it grows, resembling a cluster of little tapered candles, but also because it is used as a source of wax. The species name of antisyphilitica references medicinal qualities associated with this plant.

Candelilla prefers limestone slopes and hillsides on which it can capture water flowing down in the rainy seasons. Its identification as a medicinal plant, along with its sourcing for wax, has resulted in over-harvesting in its native regions.

After rains in the spring and summer, it forms a stunning display of pink flowers up and down the stems. The seedpod that follows resembles a tiny lantern hanging off the stem. It is really a stunning bloom, but the very small flowers are about the size of a pencil eraser and are best viewed close up to see their incredible detail.

In the United States, it is found in Texas and southern New Mexico, and in Mexico it is found in Chihuahua, Coahuila, Hidalgo, and Querétaro.

Euphorbia vs. Cactus

Euphorbias may be referred to as an “Old World” plant and compared to those that are Cactaceae (cactus) which are referred to as a “New World” plant. “Old World” refers to plants with origins in Africa, Asia, and Europe. The “New World” refers to North, Central, and South America. While possibly meaningful for the purpose of biogeographic classifications, it is problematic because it places a colonial lens on the origin of species.

The origin of these terms according to the World Atlas:

‘‘Amerigo Vespucci, a Florentine explorer, coined the term New World (Mundus Novus). He quoted the term in a letter he had written to his friend Lorienzo di Pier in the spring of 1503. In his letter, he asserted that the lands discovered by European navigators were not the edges of Asia as Christopher Columbus stated. Instead, they belonged to an entirely distinct continent, the “New World.” Another explorer, the Italian born Peter Martyr, supported the context of the New World. He used the term ‘Orbe Novo’ translated as ‘New Globe’ upon discovering the Americas in 1511.”

Euphorbias are indeed found in the Americas. Some Euphorbias at Sunnylands are native species to the Americas, so those looking for native species in the gardens can include this species on that list.

A better way to distinguish Euphorbia, which can sometimes look similar to a cactus, is by the white, milky latex that is in Euphorpia. Cactus will have a clear sap. This latex does have a toxicity level and may cause skin rashes if handled.

Golden Barrel

The Golden Barrel cactus forms dense wooly caps, from which it can grow crowns of yellow, cup-shaped blooms in spring and summer. These cactuses, like agaves and many other succulents, also produce clones and can create a colony of barrels all stemming from one parental plant.

At Sunnylands, this showstopper is planted in the scoria-mulched beds under the Palo Breas, adjacent the Center. Planted alone in rows, it draws visitors with cameras trying to capture unique views that emerge below the Palo Brea trees. In other parts of the gardens, it shares the spotlight with the San Pedro cactus.

Mary Irish, horticultural consultant on the project, describes these spotlights: “San Pedro cactus and Golden Barrel cactus are set like twin jewels on the dark base. This dramatic presentation is one of the artistic gems visitors find while wandering through the gardens.”

At sunset, the bright green flesh and yellow spines create a glowing effect that looks as if they radiate light.

This cactus, included on the Convention for International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) list, is endangered in the wild. Transport across international lines is restricted as the demand for certain desirable species often results in their depletion at their home of origin, as they are poached and transported to private collections around the world. Now heavily commercially cultivated, they are more available, but as the plants grow to larger sizes, their price point increases, leaving older, wild specimens in danger of being poached.

Bunny Ear

Bunny Ear is found along the path that surrounds the wildflower field and in the specimen beds between the café and solar field. It is a beautiful example of the Opuntia genus, displaying small pads with spines placed close together that give it a fuzzy appearance.

With a common name that evokes a soft and cuddly image, Bunny Ear is a very misleading cactus. The fuzzy hairs on its pads are not soft and touchable. They are groups of spines known as glochids, which are small but strong in bite if you mistakenly brush against them. They are delicate and break off easily at the skin’s surface, but their barbed spines, left embedded in the skin, are very difficult to retrieve. The pain from the almost invisible embedded spines can last for days, sending a stinging sensation each time that part of the skin is touched.

REMOVAL OF GLOCHIDS: If you accidentally touch this cactus, do not attempt to wipe off the glochids, as they can attach to other parts of your skin, causing additional wounds. The best removal strategy is duct tape. Though it may not get all the spines, it is an effective remedy for most. Tweezers and a magnifying glass are good tools to remove the rest.

Bunny Ear blooms in the warmer months. Soft yellow cup-shaped blooms will appear, which are a delight to many pollinators. North and South American desert plants have a unique pollination strategy with native bees. Rather than using leg pouches like honeybees, solitary bees roll around in the flower cups, covering themselves in pollen to be distributed at their next stop. Catching them in the act is a delight, reminiscent of a dog rolling in grass.

Native and endemic to northern and central Mexico.

San Pedro

San Pedro is planted throughout the gardens. You can see it in the specimen beds, in spotlight beds around the wildflower field, and the lower garden path. This is a columnar variety with very small spines spaced along the rib margins. In some cases, the spines are completely absent. Native at much higher elevations than Sunnylands, it nevertheless seems to thrive on the desert floor, as it is one of our most prolific bloomers.

The fragrant, white blooms open at night to await the nocturnal pollinators, bats, and moths.

The large, funnel-shaped blooms remain open the next morning, finding themselves the host of native bees who are completely engulfed by the long, pollen-covered stamens. The bees disappear into the bloom and re-emerge, speckled yellow.

San Pedro is native to Ecuador and Peru, where it is used extensively by indigenous cultures for medicine.