There are so many reasons to love the Golden State and especially the Bay Area, but my personal favorite is that when family and friends in snowier states are coated in Arctic frost, our first native blooms begin to unfurl.
California’s Mediterranean climate and the Bay Area’s mild, wet winters yield incredible plant diversity—and can lead to relatively early bloom times. There can also be benefits to blooming early. Says David Greenberger, the rare plant chair for the Marin chapter of the California Native Plant Society: “Winter-blooming plants are [likely] taking advantage of a time period when they may be the only show in town for early pollinators.”
A handful of small wildflowers emerge soon after the new year as little pops of color poking out of the wet ground, like warrior’s plume, milkmaids, houndstongue, and fetid adder’s-tongue. But I’ve noticed it seems like the stars of the early bloomer show are actually a handful of trees and shrubs that bloom with gusto in a variety of gorgeous colors and textures.
WATCH
Bay Nature Talk: Winter Wildflowers
Alison Pollack introduced us to these blooms and more at a lively talk on January 14, 2026. Here’s the link (requires login).
Access to talk recordings is a benefit of Bay Nature Membership; here’s how to sign up.
Why do woody plants bloom sooner? If you know, get in touch. Some literature I found suggests that wildflowers require both temperature and rainfall cues to germinate, while woody plants mostly rely on temperature and daylight length cues to start the show. I’m just grateful for the midwinter show of color, and you will be too.
Red flowering currant
Ribes sanguineum
Where to find it: In riparian areas, oak woodlands, and some chaparral. Try places like Point Reyes, Mount Tam, The Presidio, and Tilden.
Let’s start with one of the showiest: a cascading explosion of deep fuschia and light pink, the red flowering currant.
Sanguineum means blood-red, referring to the flowers—which honestly locally are more of a tepid fuschia. But I like the vibe behind the scientific name: there is a striking fierceness to the pop of pink flowers amidst the winter greenery. A variety of the same species grows at higher elevations with more of a blood-red hue, but our Bay area varieties keep it more mellow. They bloom in clusters of tubelike flowers, inviting myriad pollinators, especially hummingbirds. Like the rest of the flowering plants on this list, this currant is incredibly important for early emerging pollinators as a food source before the great buffet of springtime opens up.
Manzanita
Genus Arctostaphylos
Where to find it: Chaparral, oak woodland edges, south-facing slopes. They are plentiful in our open spaces, but try Mount Tam, Tilden, or East Bay Hills to start.
We can’t really talk about blooming shrubs in our region without mentioning the regal manzanita. California is the global hotspot for manzanita diversity, with at least 40 species that are found here and nowhere else in the world. These shrubs are easiest to recognize by their namesake little apple “manzanita” fruits, but don’t sleep on the delicate, tiny, pale, tear-drop-shaped flowers (which, like the fruits, are also edible but not quite as sweet). Some manzanitas bloom as early as November and the pale hues create a striking contrast against the shrubs’ smooth, deep red bark. The flower shape isn’t just cute, it’s functional—the bell-shaped flowers help retain pollen, protecting it until the precise moment a visiting bee releases it through buzz pollination.
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Bay laurel
Umbellularia californica
Where to find it: Find oak woodlands, mixed evergreen forests, chaparral, redwood forests, or a riparian area, and you are almost sure to see a bay tree.
Our fabulous, fragrant local relic from an ancient time. These trees are living fossils from millions of years ago, when California was much more tropical. The hints to their past we get now are their affinity for coastal areas, and fruits that look like teeny-tiny avocados (bay is in the same family as the holy grail of guacamole).
The flowers are tiny stunners that remind me of the crepe-paper flowers I made in elementary school art class, but in a juicy shade of pale chartreuse and yellow. The scent is unique—herbal, spicy, musky—a bit like a watered-down version of the leaves. That sharp scent in the leaves is caused by a terpene that serves the tree as an insecticide and to prevent herbivory and plant competition. Scientific articles frequently discuss the bark and the leaves but not the flowers, but they likely share similar properties. The flowers are primarily pollinated by flies and gnats, but also known to feed a variety of native bees.
Western Leatherwood
Dirca occidentalis
Where to find it: It has a limited range; try Huckleberry Botanic Regional Preserve, Edgewood Park and Preserve, or Midpeninsula Open Space District lands.
The western leatherwood is considered rare, but it has a notable presence circling the Bay Area. It’s distributed into several genetically distinct regions in mixed conifer ecosystems within its tiny range.
Leatherwood blooms as early as November, but typically January to March. Flowers usually appear before the leaves, making the stark presence of bare branches and flowers extra dramatic.
It’s in the plant family Thymelaeaceae—which besides being a great way to use up your Scrabble vowels, comprises species that are mostly decorative, ornamental types, and mostly found in warm climates. And it shows. Leatherwood blooms with little yellow firecracker-shaped flowers that seem like they belong in the showiest section of a botanical garden. What appear to be petals are modified yellow leaves, fused together. This makes for a tough floral tube that can withstand the rains of winter.
Researchers and naturalists know the plant is popular with hummingbirds, but beyond that, its pollination and reproduction largely remain a mystery. The critter that likely dispersed its seeds historically (whatever it was) is thought to be no longer present.
Silk Tassel
Garrya elliptica
Where to find it: Coastal scrub, like at the Presidio, Lands End, Montara, and San Bruno Mountain. Or a good old-fashioned botanic garden, like Tilden Regional Parks Botanic Garden, where you can see many of the plants on this list.
The silk tassel is a work of art that photosynthesizes. The striking pollen-bearing flowers are arranged in long strands called catkins and are considered tetramerous, or in four parts. The flowers are wind-pollinated. which lends to their appearance—like a gorgeous, foamy waterfall.
The unique shape has an awful lot to do with reproduction strategy; these flowers accomplish some mega-efficient pollen spread and capture. As a wind-pollinated plant, the female flowers act like pollen-catching cups. The structure of the male flower snags any loose pollen not carried by the wind and stores it in its slits for another wind burst, rather than letting it falling to the ground.
