The Living Landscape: A profusion of late spring flora
- Kathleen Scavone
- Posted On
LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The late spring rains we have enjoyed in Lake County have extended the opportunities for native wildflower viewing under our pellucid skies.
Besides our seemingly ever-present state flower, the California poppy that grows alongside highways and in our many parks, you can take pleasure in the multi-hued clovers, Ithuriel's spear, evening primrose, chicory, lupine and more.
A fireworks display of color can be found at the Lake County Land Trust's Rabbit Hill in Middletown.
There are sprays of the yellow woolly sunflower, or Eriophyllum lanatum. These commonly found flowers thrive in parched open areas below 10,000 feet. This is a perennial plant that grows from one to two feet in height and attracts lupine ghost moths as well as geranium plume moths in certain areas.
A uniquely beautiful woodland flower set amongst the dense curtain of grasses in shady areas, is Diogenes' lantern, or Calochortus amabilis. This yellow, nodding flower is also called golden fairy lantern. Endemic to California, the plant's bulb was a traditional fare of the Kashaya Pomo, or "bo" who prepared them to eat by first baking or boiling.
If you look carefully, you will spy the flowers of the wavy soaproot plant. These delicate white blooms open near the end of the day, and stretch up, on a straight stalk amidst the center of the leaf rosette. Soaproot is related to the lily.
These marvels of evolution do not have to rely upon bees or wasps for pollination. They depend upon small night flying beetles, flies or moths to do the deed.
Many traditional uses of soaproot were employed by California Indians. Soaproot has been used to construct utilitarian brushes from the strong, brown fibers which cover the bulb.
When the plant fibers were removed from the bulb, and cleaned of debris, they could then be fashioned into various sized bundles for sifting acorn flour.
The handle for the soaproot brush was often made from boiled soaproot bulbs. Once it was made into a pulp, it adhered to the soaproot fibers and dried. Brushes from the soaproot plant were put to use to clean their baskets, mortars and pestles.
One more soaproot factoid: According to a survivor of the 1846 Donner party, pioneer Patrick Breen detailed in his diary that a local Indian he met then shared a half-dozen of the roots of this plant for a small meal, which look like small onions. Soaproot, aka soap plant or amole, is considered to be one of the most abundant bulbs in California.
Another plant with white flowers is the Yerba santa, or Eriodictyon californicum.This bush proliferates in and amongst the serpentine soils, rocks and boulders here in Lake County. It also thrives in oak woodlands, redwood and pine forests.
Yerba santa acquired its moniker from early Spanish settlers who thought of it as a “blessed herb.” It was used by the Spanish in California in the early 1800s, as well as American Indians before them, who concocted a tea for asthma or colds.
For a great seasonal plant uses list of plants used by the local Clear Lake people visit Dr. John Parker's 'Lake County Archaeology" Web site at http://wolfcreekarcheology.com/Pomo2.html .
Kathleen Scavone, M.A., is a retired educator, potter, freelance writer and author of “Anderson Marsh State Historic Park: A Walking History, Prehistory, Flora, and Fauna Tour of a California State Park” and “Native Americans of Lake County.”