Thimbleberry at Huckleberry Preserve

One of our showiest late spring wildflowers. This one is growing among sword ferns. Today we also saw wild roses, douglas iris, starflowers and wall flowers... flower season is far from over! Manzanitas are producing large numbers of their berries, - "Little apples", the source of the Spanish name manzanita for this shrub. The Ohlone people gather this fruit and squeeze the berries to make a kind of cider.