Naturalist’s Notebook: Spring Flowers That Change from Blue to Purple
John Muir Laws turns his naturalist's eye and paintbrushes to the hound's tongue, one of our early spring bloomers.
Botany
Best Bay Area hikes into wildflower country
Got some time on a beautiful spring weekend? Spend it in wildflower country on some of the Bay Area's best hikes.
Bay Area native plants play it safe, biologically speaking
Bay Area plant species bloom to their own tune. Our plants are always sending something out, but they've also learned to play it safe.
Madeline’s Garden
A resident of Saratoga, Madeline Morrow sits on the Steering Committee of the 2013 “Going Native” tour, a two-day extravaganza of 60 open gardens around Santa Clara, including hers. The...
Planting in memory of MLK
What's native plant restoration have to do with MLK Day? Maybe not a whole lot, unless you spend it on the MLK Regional Shoreline planting seven varieties of wetland species.
A marvel of magnolias
Magnolias may not be native to Northern California. But the SF Botanical Garden has been conserving this endangered flowering tree, and now's the time to see them in full bloom.
Trees snag Oakland’s first major creek daylighting project
A 250-foot stretch of Sausal Creek would see the light of day. But Oakland's plans to remove 84 trees, many of them coast redwoods, has raised an uproar among Dimond...
Finding my Charlie Brown perfect at San Pedro Headlands
The San Pedro Headlands offers up the ultimate solution in "sustainable" Christmas trees -- restoring coastal scrubland by removing Monterey pine. My tree was a little short of perfect, but...
Art in the shade at the UC Botanical Garden
This Sunday, visit the UC Botanical Garden, see a remakable collection of installation art, and hear from artist Todd Gilens about the 100-foot-long mural he created on the side of...
Rare Plant Persists in Salty Soils at Livermore Preserve
In the highly alkaline, salty soils of Springtown Preserve near Livermore, few annuals can make it through the hot, dry summer months. But the Palmate bracted bird’s-beak has found a...
