Hot Book (for Orange County)

It's hot, because Amazon resellers are jacking up the price more than three times list!  I'm glad it sold well, and I hope they print more.  (First printing only 2500 copies.) It's Wildflowers of Orange County and the Santa Ana Mountains, by Robert Allen and Fred Roberts.  At $35 it's pricey, but what a great gift for a local floraphile or hiker.  Sea and Sage Audubon in Irvine has a dozen left at list price, and it's available online from CNPS-OC.  But probably not for much longer.

I love this book.
It's on my nightstand to prime my eyes for beautiful dreams.

California  has thousands of flowering native plants; a comprehensive guide might require a wheelbarrow.  Or a computer.   Those little tri-folds at the entrance to the trail don't take you very far.  Our climate and terrain are so diverse.  Similar-looking plants of different species grow here but not there, how does a hobbyist tell one from another?

With the guides, outstanding photos, and indexes in this book, I can avoid deluding myself that I've found a plant that only exists in Shasta County.  I actually identify the flower in question, or at least produce a short list of candidates.  I know which plants in my yard really grow in the nearby hills too.  And I can drool over photos of flowers I might really see in person!  Hooray!

Because of this book, I can confidently state that these little gems
in the UCI Ecological Preserve are California Goldfields (Lasthenia californica).

Don't expect to get accurate bloom times from this book.  Bloom times near the coast are so quirky-- they may be a month apart on different sides of my yard.  But there's lots to learn about where to find what, history of names, uses of plants, and insets about neat collaborations between plants, bugs, butterflies, and other wildlife.  And detailed descriptions that really help you figure out which plant you've seen.

Best of all, this book offers a sense of place and breathtaking beauty from two guys who put their heart and soul (and 12 years) into making Orange County wildflowers accessible to the rest of us.  Orange Coast Magazine ran a cute story on them.  Deep gratitude for the encyclopedic knowledge and persistence of Bob Allen and Fred Roberts.

These little beauties, seen on coastal ridge line trails,
 are California Sun Cups (Camissoniopsis bistorta), it turns out.

Bob Allen calls the cover flower, commonly known as Blue Dicks, "School Bells,"  because he gives tours to school groups who just can't get past the more common name.  That's the thing about common names: you can pick your own!  (I do.)

If I remember to check the style color next time, I'll know for sure which Prickly Pear I'm seeing.
This one was at Crystal Cove.  I never knew what a style was before. 

You don't actually have to bring this tome hiking with you.  Just snap photos of the plant in question with your phone and figure it out when you get home, or maybe in the car.  Remember to get a snap of the foliage.  And in tricky cases, the underside of the flower.  And don't forget the style!  Before this book, I never could keep my lupines straight, but now I know I saw Pauma Lupine, Stinging Lupine (very fuzzy, don't cuddle) for sure, and probably Coulter's Lupine and a few others too, in my last Crystal Cove hike.  I'm still looking (smelling) for Grape Soda Lupine.  Happy hiking!

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