Spring on the rocks

  

Quick shot of one of my favorite spring wildflowers on Bodega Head -- Coast Rockcress (Arabis blepharophylla).  Photographed on 11 March 2025.

May luck be your friend

  

A couple of photos to help celebrate St. Patrick's Day!  

Above, a Sierran Treefrog (Pseudacris sierra) framed by Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana) leaves.  

Below, Coast Rockcress (Arabis blepharophylla) and clover (Trifolium sp.) leaves:

 

 
With many thanks to Eric for the great photos!

First of spring

Today we saw the first Coast Rockcress (Arabis blepharophylla) flowers of the spring.  This species grows near rock outcrops in grassland areas on Bodega Head.

 

 

These pictures are for Michelle, who is heading south to Marin County, but will always inspire us to look more closely at wildflowers and grasses wherever we are.  

Remembering walks with Michelle will also remind me to always have fun during natural history adventures — who else would agree to lie down next to a badger burrow and diggings to provide a sense of scale? 

 

(Michelle is ~5'3" tall, so perhaps that gives you a feeling for how much soil was dug up by the badger!)

P.S.  To learn more about the Coast Rockcress in the pictures above, review the post from 28 March 2012.

On the rocks

Coast Rockcress (Arabis blepharophylla)

An early spring perennial growing around rock outcrops, along coastal bluffs, and on grassy slopes.  Flowering from February through May, with peak in March and April.

Look for bright pink petals (pale in some individuals, darker in others), oval basal leaves and cauline leaves (growing along the stem) that are often hairy.

Seeds are contained in long, narrow pods ~2-4 cm long (see below).

 

On 23 March 2012, I noticed a few flowers being eaten by woolly bear caterpillars (Platyprepia virginialis, which will become Ranchman's Tiger Moths).  

[For East Coast readers that I know are probably wondering, although also called a woolly bear, this is different than the familiar caterpillar with the same common name (or sometimes called a banded woolly bear) in the eastern United States.  That species is Pyrrharctia isabella and it becomes an Isabella Tiger Moth.]

We're lucky to be able to enjoy this lovely California endemic on Bodega Head.