Tommy Stoughton was kind enough to let me know about some good things blooming at the Baldwin Lake Ecological Reserve near Big Bear including Androsace which I had never encountered before. The pebble plains at the Reserve are a fairly unique botanical habitat with some alpine affinities, and consist in the main of clay soils and quartzite cobbles. The diversity of pebble plains species has been compared to that of coral reefs. Native plants here are usually very small and grow close to the ground, beginning their bloom in March even as snow still persists. The pebbly pavement heats up faster than other types of terrain and thus the bloom season is usually over by May. The Reserve is located on Highway 18 at the intersection of Holcomb Valley Road on the north side of Baldwin Lake. I initially found a single plant of Androsace as I was scouring the area but it had no flowers on it. Since I could see other tiny things like Collinsia parviflora and Microsteris gracilis from a standing position, I thought I would see the Androsace as well if there were any flowers to be found. I knew that this species is sensitive to cold and there had been snow only a week or so earlier, so I figured I wasn't going to find any in bloom. But toward the end of the day, as I was sitting on the ground looking at some other tiny plants, my eye was suddenly caught by something and, lo and behold, there it was! And another and another and another and another. I would never have seen it if I hadn't been right down on the ground. There are other things here like Myosurus apetalus that I haven't seen yet, but I am hoping that a subsequent visit may rectify that. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a species that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip. Thanks to Tommy Stoughton for the identifications of most of these species and to Hartmut Wisch for the bee fly ID.