Mission Bells: 'Fritillaria Lanceolata'

We went to the Sonoma Valley Regional Park in Glen Ellen this morning and were pleased to find that the wildflowers are beginning to appear, many of them ones we have never seen before. As we were puttering along the trail trying to identify several varieties we had never seen before, we came upon a park naturalist, out on a hike to see what new growth she could find. She said a lot of new species are attracted to disturbed ground, either because the seeds had been underground for years waiting for fire to open the seeds, or because they were transported by wind or water to the disturbed areas where they could take root more easily.

We had never seen these 'mission bells', and stood around on the trail with the naturalist consulting the  library of flower books she had brought with her. We also found buttercups, white mustard flowers, tiny yellow 'cotton flowers' and tall blue 'hound's tongue', the latter another plant none of us had ever seen there. The Columbine will be blooming soon, although there were none of their elegant flowers in evidence yet.

The landscape has changed. The signs of fire are still everywhere  but the brilliant green grass has grown over much of the blackened and scorched earth and will soon be dotted with many more species of wildflowers. 

I had hoped that the fire would kill the poison oak that thrives around here, but it looks like the poison oak will survive. Although reduced to charred sticks, most of them are sporting very healthy clumps of the distinctive three leaved clusters at their bases. It is the urushiol oil within these plants poisonous to humans, causing a burn like, itchy skin rash which takes at least two weeks to subside.The smoke from burning it can can put people in the hospital.  

The naturalist told us that if the area had gotten more rain, there would probably be even more varieties of flowers,. It is remarkable how quickly areas like this begin to recover, with virtually no human intervention, while around the park, many homesites are still covered with rubble, heavy equipment, dump trucks and tree cutters.