CAMINO CIELO ROAD, SANTA BARBARA COUNTY
JULY 2009 PAGE ONE
Photographs by Michael Charters
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Thanks to Lara Hartley who passed along to me a location she got from Marc Kummel for a mariposa lily that I had not previously encountered, Calochortus weedii var. vestus, which is in the process of becoming Calochortus fimbriatus. This is a lovely flower which blooms when most others have given up the ghost. Camino Cielo Road winds east and west along a chaparral-covered ridgeline from San Marcos Pass Road just below the top of the pass as you come up the 154 from Santa Barbara. "Camino Cielo" means "sky road," and it certainly is, with breathtaking views both north and south. The header photo above is of the ruins of Knapp's Castle, a 1916 mansion perched on the edge of the mountainside overlooking the Santa Ynez River Valley, which was destroyed in the Paradise Canyon fire of 1940. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, and an asterisk denotes a non-native species. |
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Woolly blue curls Trichostema lanatum Lamiaceae |
Indian pink
Silene laciniata ssp. laciniata Caryophyllaceae |
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| St. Catherine's lace Eriogonum giganteum var. giganteum Polygonaceae [Santa Catalina Island was named San Salvador in 1542 by Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, and then renamed Santa Catalina in 1602 by Sebastian Viscaino in honor of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, hence the name St. Catherine's lace. This individual was likely an escape from some cultivated situation, since its range is restricted to the Channel Islands.] |
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Hawkweed Hieracium argutum Asteraceae |
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| Martin's paintbrush Castilleja applegatei ssp. martinii Scrophulariaceae [Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793, and Elmer Ivan Applegate, 1867-1949. The name martinii refers to Martin's Camp in the San Gabriels, run by Clarence Sinclair Martin, 1852-1911, from Boston.] |
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Feltleaf everlasting Pseudognaphalium microcephalum Asteraceae |
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Sticky false-gilia Allophyllum glutinosum Polemoniaceae |
Venus thistle Cirsium occidentale var. venustum Asteraceae |
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| Toyon Heteromeles arbutifolia Rosaceae |
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| Sweet fennel * Foeniculum vulgare Apiaceae |
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| PHOTO GALLERIES INDEX |
CALFLORA.NET | PAGE TWO OF TWO |
| CALIFORNIA PLANT NAMES: LATIN AND GREEK MEANINGS AND DERIVATIONS | ||
| VIRGINIA PLANT NAMES: LATIN AND GREEK MEANINGS AND DERIVATIONS | ||
Copyright © 2009 by Michael L. Charters.
The photographs contained on these web pages may not be reproduced without the express consent of the author.
Comments and/or questions may be addressed to: mmlcharters[at]gmail.com.