Tag Archives: chamise

How Dry I Am

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  • June
  • 2020
  • Lopez Cyn

Adenostoma fasciculatum: pride of the CFP; stalwart pillar of its chaparral community; bellwether of the habitat.

Wired has an interesting article on drought and climate change; it tells how California ecologists use the timing of the browning-out of chamise blossoms, to track soil moisture in the dry season. (Spoiler: they’re predicting a doozy of a fire season this year.)

https://www.wired.com/story/the-humble-shrub-thats-predicting-a-terrible-fire-season/

August 8, 2020, El Escorpión

CHAMISE; 1846. From the Spanish, chamiza. The date (from Merriam-Webster) invites my speculation, that it was none other than Col. John C. Fremont, of the U.S. Army Corps of Topographical Engineers, who gave it its charmingly Franco-inflected English name.

Look, Ma, I Brung Ya Some Flow’rs!

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A VIRTUAL MOTHER’S DAY “ROADSIDE VIEW-QUET”

…plucked from the by-ways of the California Floristic Province. To honor Kathi Martin and Janet Robinson, with a love as wide as these skies. Mothers don’t do it all, just all the heavy lifting. Blessings.

Mom last year, visiting the last-surviving theatre built by her great-great grandfather, J.M. Trimble. We were all so proud.
Janet feels far way from the quiet virtues of traditional New England life. But these days, in the national sense, don’t we all? I hope she finds a bit of solace in our shady garden in the SFV.

Why call FTD? A hand-plucked posey of wildflowers is more distinctive. So hop in, and let’s go tear up the chaparral for these ladies. Hang on!

  • This is Lopez Canyon
Quick, pull over!
  • ,,,,what have we here?
  • Mugwort!
  • …if only they were pearls.
  • Chamise, the lacey keystone of chaparral
  • Also known as “greasewood.” For Mother’s Day, it’s “chamise.”
  • Too Much Mustard, but…
  • Blue heliotrope and white clarkia
  • and black sage
  • dear deerweed
  • Holy Yerba Santa, Batman!
  • Prickly phlox and Island snapdragons
  • Deadly nightshade…
  • May-Flower-Moon Mother Momoy, sacred goddess
  • Goldenbush…
  • and all the bloody lupines you want.
  • More pearls! California buckwheat going into perfect puff. SO fresh and sweet.
Happy Mother’s Day, Moms!
Happy Mother’s Day Janet!