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[theplanthropologist]

A Mylitta Crescent butterfly with a chunk taken out of its hindwing, possibly the result of an attack by a bird or lizard.

[theplanthropologist]

There is a native wild grape plant growing on a wire fence and over a coast live oak near the periphery of the UCSC Arboretum, and I always try to check on it from time to time to see how the fruit is developing.

[theplanthropologist]

I love seeing white checkered skippers around campus.

[theplanthropologist]

My first time seeing leopard lilies on an outing with the Santa Cruz CNPS chapter.

[theplanthropologist]

In the rare instances where the academic enterprise is not taking up 100% of my time I like to teach myself how to make linocut prints. I finally got real ink today and I’m happy with some of the preliminary results.

[theplanthropologist]

Natural Bridges State Beach

[theplanthropologist]

The colors of the coastal chaparral in June: dormant, graying sage bushes reddish buckwheat, and green sumacs.

[theplanthropologist]

Acorn Season continues, these are immature acorns from a coast live oak.

[theplanthropologist]

Summer is of course the seed harvesting season, although climate variations across California mean that plants further away from the cooler coasts start producing seeds a bit faster. This was my first time harvesting my chaparral bushmallow plant. I’ve never been able to successfully grow this plant. Last year, heavy rains washed out all my mallow seedlings. I’m hoping I can successfully sprout some more this fall. I have always loved our native bushmallows for their beautiful flowers but also for the joy of getting to see our native turret bees nestled in the blooms of this species, which they visit often.

[theplanthropologist]

July - Clarkia Season

[theplanthropologist]

Acorn season approaches for many of our local oak trees.

[theplanthropologist]

Part of a coastal restoration project in Redondo Beach, where invasive ice plant used for dune stabilization is being removed and replaced with native buckwheat, sand verbena, and coastal bush lupines. Removing ice plant and restoring this area has led to a local boom in the population of El Segundo Blue butterflies, an endangered species that is found only on a small strip of land between Santa Monica and Torrance.

[theplanthropologist]

Somewhat terrible Sonoran Bumblebee pics. This was in Irvine near the San Joaquin Marsh. The Sonoran Bumblebees and our other native bees are vastly outnumbered by non-native honeybees at nearly every site I’ve been to in Southern California. In the marsh, the Sonorans were found almost exclusively on Cleveland Sage plants, which weren’t visited by the honeybees.

[theplanthropologist]

The Angeles National Forest

[theplanthropologist]

Some flowering plants in the Piru Creek area, Angeles National Forest.

[theplanthropologist]

It’s the season for the rare El Segundo Blue Butterflies to emerge! Found only on a tiny strip of coastline between Santa Monica and Torrance, these butterflies can be seen every June on their host plant, Seacliff Wild Buckwheat.

[theplanthropologist]

Summer Kelp & Seaweeds