These Fabulous Flowers Are Spring’s Final Encore
When other plants start hunkering down, clarkias send up a dazzling array of purples and pinks.
Category: The California Naturalist
Naturalist, marine biologist, backyard beekeper, college biology lecturer and lifelong Californian Allison Gong tours the amazing natural world of Northern California. Read more at her blog, Notes from A California Naturalist.
The Calypso Orchid—Shady Trickster of the Understory
This fancy flower is secretive yet brash, and it’s an expert in the art of deceiving bumblebees.
They Can’t Stand Air or Rain. They Live Exposed to Both. How do Tidepool Creatures Survive?
Although the world’s oceans cover approximately 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, most humans interact with only the narrow strip that runs up onto land. This bit of real estate...
Invasion of the Bee Body-Snatchers
Meet the flies that lay their eggs in a bee's body.
Voracious Flowers of the Tidepool
Some of the most conspicuous animals in Northern California tidepools don’t look like animals at all. They resemble flowers more than any animal you’re probably familiar with.
Meet A Beach Worm That Builds Sand Castles
Phragmatopoma californica breathes over its entire body, poops from near its mouth, and reproduces with other worms despite living inside a tube.
Tidepool Creatures Bend the Sex Rules We Take for Granted
Learn about the small snail Crepidula fornicata, the anemone whose babies crawl out its mouth, and gymnastic barnacle sex.
The Eyes of the Sea Star
We’re used to bodies having front and back, top and bottom, left and right. But as some common California tidepool creatures show, there’s a totally different way of living.
Anemones Recognize ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ — and Go to War Over It
Check out any Pacific coast tidepool for a chance to see the evidence of a common invertebrate going to war over the difference between us and them.
