I would like to take this opportunity to state as I have before and probably will again how much I appreciate those people who look at my photos with a critical eye and with the knowledge and experience that years of observing and studying Southern California flora has afforded them. I am not a professional botanist and my expertise is limited. I do not have the time to key out every species I photograph and sometimes make egregious errors. These photo galleries benefit greatly from being corrected when necessary by my good and diligent friends and colleagues, and I thank them most heartily. I can't mention everyone by name, but in particular I want to express my gratitude to Tom Chester, Mike Simpson, Jeff Greenhouse, Jane Strong, RT Hawke and Jay Sullivan.

I took a break from my detailed work at Whitewater Canyon and Vasquez Rocks to join a group of people to explore the flora of the Desert Pines Wildlife Sanctuary, an area of Joshua tree woodland about five miles west of the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve off of Lancaster Road and 205th St. Desert Pines is a unit of the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. The group was led by the very knowledgeable Mickey Long from Eaton Canyon County Park and Jane Strong of the San Gabriels chapter of the CNPS. With the Liebre Mountains in the background and a bright splash of orange from an incredible display of poppies in the distance, the yellow of goldfields and desert dandelions, and the purpley-blue of common and tansy-leaf phacelias, it was a riot of color. The first three pictures below were actually taken outside the Poppy Reserve where our group first congregated. Having to keep up with the group made it difficult to take the time to check identifications and thus there are a number of uncertainties in this gallery. 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 indicates a non-native taxon.

California poppy
Eschscholzia californica
Papaveraceae
[Named for Johann Friedrich Gustav von Eschscholtz, 1793-1831]

Common fiddleneck
Amsinckia intermedia
Boraginaceae
[Named for Wilhelm Amsinck, 1752-1831]

Davy gilia
Gilia latiflora ssp. davyi
Polemoniaceae
[Named for Filippo Luigi Gilii, 1756-1821]

Tansy phacelia
Phacelia tanacetifolia
Boraginaceae

Purple owl's clover
Castilleja exserta
Scrophulariaceae
[Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793]

Scarlet bugler
Penstemon centranthifolius
Plantaginaceae

Common phacelia
Phacelia distans
Boraginaceae

California goldfields
Lasthenia californica ssp. californica
Asteraceae

Bajada lupine
Lupinus concinnus
Fabaceae

Silverpuffs
Uropappus lindleyi
Asteraceae
[Named for John Lindley, 1799-1865]