Text by Dirk Walters; art by Mardi Niles.
I chose the Pismo clarkia because it grows in the area surrounding Mardi’s home and nowhere else. It grows naturally in about 20 occurrences from the southern Edna Valley, south through the foothills and valleys of the Southern San Luis Range, ending east of Pismo Beach and Arroyo Grande (Huasna Valley). (more…)
by Marti Rutherford
You have probably wandered the nursery isles looking for the ever more popular native plants being sold. Do you ever consider how those plants have been propagated? Many, if not most, native plants in the nursery trade are propagated by cuttings. The nursery person knows what the plant will look like and behave like. And (more…)
Saturday, June 23
Join us for a day on the Morros and learn which plants grow on each of these volcanic plugs. Ascend one, two, or more. Here are the start times. (more…)
Charlie Blair: Chapter Northern Santa Barbara County Liason
2018 has been a surprisingly good year for spring wildflowers. Except for the January deluge and some good March storms, this has been a fairly dry year. In late September, 2017, several spot fires burned along Rucker Rd. just north of Mission Hills near Lompoc, California. In spite of sparse rainfall, there has been encouraging (more…)
I know it seems too early to be thinking seeds. Many of my plants are just starting to bloom. I just wanted to remind those who are interested that the seed exchange is going to take place ate the October meeting before the main program. Let a few of your garden native plants go to seed and bring the seed to the seed exchange. More information will follow in newsletters to come. There is information on seed collection available on the cnpsslo website under the resources/growing natives tab (link). Marti Rutherford
A Commentary by John Nowak, Plant Sale co-Chairperson
The other day, while checking out at the grocery store, the cashier noticed my CNPS hat and asked me, “How do you become an environmentalist?” I thought for a moment and then I told him “I would start at home.” (more…)
This photograph, taken from Cerro San Luis, shows Bishop Peak, Cerro Romauldo, and in the misty distance, Hollister Peak. The hills on the extreme left margin of the picture are the serpentinite ridge that backs Cuesta College, and the hills of the extreme right right margin are the western portion of West Cuesta Ridge. One of the obvious visual features is the dark chaparral scrub of the peaks, and the brown of the late spring grasses (more…)
Submitted to SLO Tribune
At the San Luis Obispo city Planning Commission meeting of Jan. 24 regarding the proposed continuing care facility known as Villaggio at the Froom Ranch, several commissioners wondered aloud if the project was not “a good project in the wrong place.” This came after a presentation that showed the project seeks removal of several important environmental constraints that constitute a grant of special privilege to the project sponsors. What are these constraints? What do the project sponsors seek? And how are these removals “special privileges”? (more…)
Wild pigs are again active in Morro Bay, causing damage while rooting for the tuberous reeds in the brackish freshwater seep zones close to the high tide line. This time they are at Shark Inlet. We last saw them in 2015 on both sides of the South Bay Boulevard bridge, and neither of the locations appear to have recovered. (more…)
From time to time, our chapter has talked about creating a Wildflower Alert. Well, there is a healthy display of wildflowers this year along the new ridge trail in the Reservoir Canyon Open Space near San Luis Obispo. From the parking lot (see map), walk along the road for 100 ft., through the fence opening on the right, and then over the new bridge at the falls. Once across the bridge, bear right and start up the hill. Pictured here below are some of the flowers seen the weekend of April 21st, 2018. Link: http://gis.slocity.org/Documents/TrailMaps/rescanyon_bowdenweb.pdf
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