Wildflowers

Interesting lecture(as usual) by our own Matt Ritter, Botany Professor at Cal Poly on Wildflowers of San Luis Obispo County. He told us that our county includes 3,616 square miles of land but 1,850 different species in that area.

He quoted David Orr who said, "By the time young people enter college they’ve seen thousands of hours of television, four hours and some minutes per day on average. As a result, one study has shown that college students could identify a thousand corporate logos but fewer than 10 plants and animals native to their own place. So we’ve become not only consumers, but hugely ignorant of the terms by which we live on the Earth." New Perspectives Quarterly

Dr. Ritter showed photos of various wildflowers and also told stories about many of them. An interesting one is Goldfields (Lasthenia california, L. gracilis). There are two distinct species that botanists cannot tell apart morphologically (physical form and structure), but the pollinators do, because they each have their own. I guess their DNA is different hence two different species.

David Douglas tramped through San Luis Obispo County in 1830 gathering plants, seeds, and information. He began his plant exploration in what is now Monterey County down into what is now Santa Barbara County. Along the way, he discovered Baby Blue Eyes (Nemophilia menziesii), which soon became a favorite in English gardens. Peak at Book about Douglas

A unusual native wildflower is the Beach Primrose (Camissonia cheiranthifolia). It only releases it's pollen when the flower is vibrated at a certain frequency by a certain bee.

Native Sons just sent out email that their open house for the year will be April 17, 8am - 3pm. They suggest people bring carts or something for the plants they might wish to purchase.