Monterey Peninsula Wildflower Kaleidoscope
A Photo Essay of Superbloom 2023
Story and photos by David Laws
Every springtime since I moved to California, I have photographed the glorious kaleidoscope of wildflowers that fill our meadows and mountain slopes. In superbloom years, I have driven hours to the Carrizo Plain, the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve, and beyond.
Heavy rainfall delivered by the more than one dozen atmospheric rivers that deluged the Central Coast this winter brought a superbloom to my doorstep. This essay shows ten places within 30 minutes drive of my home on the Monterey Peninsula that blazed with color this year. I can even walk to the first and last spots described below. Enjoy the show.
The ocean bluffs of Asilomar Dunes Natural Preserve are noted for their variety of dune flowers, including the endangered Menzies wallflower (Erysimum menziesii). Yellow bush lupins (Lupinus arboreus), on the other hand, are in no danger. The twenty-five-foot waves that pounded the coast on the night of January 4th, 2023, destroyed the footpaths and beaches where I walked our dogs for years but seem to have only encouraged this lupin's dominance of the landscape.
One of the most Instagrammed spots in one of the most Instagrammed regions of California is in Garrapata State Park. Cala Lilly Valley is named for the invasive South African species (Zantedeschia aethiopica) that has taken over this idyllic creekside setting.
Mal Paso Canyon is privately owned and accessible only by residents of the Carmel Highlands community. This backlit California thistle (Cirsium occidentale) stood out among the more colorful species that cling to steep rocky walls lining the former railroad bed from a coal mine to Whaler’s Cove at Point Lobos.
Blue bush lupins (Lupinus arboreus) range six feet high over a meadow alongside San Jose Creek in Ixchenta State Park, named for a seasonal village of the former Costanoan Rumsen native inhabitants, south of Carmel. Entrance is by permit only on hikes organized by the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District.
As a newly-minted docent, I was required to learn the names of thirty-three of the more than 200 flowering plants of Point Lobos State Natural Reserve. Many of them thrive together on this rocky headland of Granite Point overlooking Carmel Bay at the entrance to Whalers Cove.
Vasquez Trail on the gated lands of the Santa Lucia Preserve is noted for its late spring display of Soap plant (Chlorogalum pomeridianum). Although a few of the delicate fairy-like blooms were showing in early June, this combination of Pretty Face (Triteleia ixioides) and delicate creamy pink Globe lilies (Calochortus albus) commanded my attention.
This magnificent global seed head found in a dry creekbed of Toro County Park is from the native Mountain dandelion (Agoseris heterophylla), an attractive but otherwise undistinguished yellow herbaceous annual in the sunflower family.
A friend raises annuals and bulbs endemic to Monterey County in pots in her tiny courtyard garden in the leafy enclave of Hacienda Caramel. This brilliant yellow Lindley’s blazing star (Mentzelia lindleyi) is my favorite.
Pink sand verbena (Arbronia umbellata) and California sagebrush (Artemisia californica) are two of the few species that have established a foothold on the challenging windblown headland of Point Pinos and the historic Lighthouse Reservation at the entrance to Monterey Bay.
If you would like to know more about the native flowers of Monterey County
Attend meetings of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society (CNPS).
Monterey County Wildflowers — A Field Guide by Rod M. Yeager and Michael Mitchell describes over 950 taxa from 97 families found from Fort Ord in the north to Priest Valley in the far southeast.
Wildflowers of Point Lobos State Reserve by Art Muto is a handy spiral-bound guide sold at the Information Station on the reserve.
Read about the great superbloom of 2016 on the Carrizo Plain of Central California.
