By Tom Oberbauer
Back in December 2020, when hopes were high that we could have a decent precipitation season, I was able to visit the north end of Laguna Meadow (below) the morning after a snow storm.
The reports had been that five inches of snow fell, but I hiked through snow that was at least ten inches deep. The meadow was pure white and the tall Pinus jeffreyi (Jeffrey pine) trees that line the meadow edge were quickly dropping snow and ice from their needles and branches. Clouds were racing across the sky, leaving fast moving shadows over the white surface.
Fast forward to April 2021, and since our area received much lower levels of rainfall than normal (less than 50 percent for Mount Laguna with a reported just under 10 inches), the prospects of any flower displays, especially annuals, appeared dim. It is true that most of the precipitation in the higher mountains fell as snow, so that Mount Laguna has probably had a seasonal total of between 45” and 55“of snow in more than three major events. It is also true that there were some pleasing displays of Ceanothus earlier in the spring, but such a low amount of precipitation usually does not bode well for annual wildflower displays.
With that in mind, I was stunned when Jonathan Dunn sent me a short video of a display of Platystemon californica (Cream cups) from the north end of Laguna Meadow. I had seen the meadow in full flower years ago following an exceptionally wet season, and it was full of Cream cups and other flowers, but nothing would have led me to expect that this year would have more than a few flowers.
The next week, I drove up and hiked to the location I visited in December and sure enough, the display of Platystemon californica (above) was pretty amazing. Sheets of color extended across the slopes leading into the center of the meadow. I spent some time attempting to photograph and create video of the breeze gently shaking the small flowers. From this location, the view of the meadow ranges across its full length, extending more than three miles in the distance to the south. Laguna Lake also contained a good level of water reflecting the blue sky, apparently left over from the previous two good rainfall seasons. I attempted to capture the view of the flowers with the lake and end of the meadow in the distance. The breeze and the movement of the flowers in this manner always reminds me of when I was a child and my family visited Estes Park in Colorado and we observed alpine wildflowers.
As the days of the week wore on, I decided to hike into the meadow from the south, just to feel the ambiance of the meadow and the columns of tall pines that bordered its narrow sides. I drove on the Sunrise Highway from the north, past the area east of Cuyamaca Lake where Lasthenia gracilis (Gold fields) were beginning to flower and creating small patches of yellow on both sides of the highway. I saw a small patch of the white Limnanthes gracilis ssp. parishii (Parish’s slender meadowfoam), which is only found there and at a few locations on Laguna and Palomar Mountains, an area in the lower San Jacinto Mountains, and Santa Rosa Plateau in Riverside County. Following heavy precipitation seasons, it can be quite extensive on the east side of Cuyamaca Lake, but it was nice to see it this year.
Layia platyglossa and Lasthenia gracilis Cuyamaca Lake. Photo: Tom Oberbauer
As I drove south on the Sunrise Highway, I also saw the Cercis occidentalis (Western redbud) beginning to bloom (below). I was familiar with this location because my father would stop there to see it on Sunday drives when I was a child. The small trees are striking patches of pinkish-red on the chaparral slopes along the road. The flowers appear on the bare branches before the new growth of foliage, so they are particularly colorful.
Cercis occidentalis has an interesting natural distribution that extends from the northern Sierras and Coast Ranges of California to the Clark Mountains and a few mountains in southwestern Utah and scattered peaks in Arizona. It was originally thought not to occur naturally in many of the other Southern California counties, but skipping to San Diego County, however, it is so widely planted now as an ornamental that its natural distribution in other counties is not so clear. I pulled off the road and approached one that was a little farther along in flowering, and as a member of the legume family, its small pea flower shaped blossoms were buzzing with a mass of honeybees. The white flowered Ceanothus perplexans (Cupped leaf ceanothus) was also in flower nearby and I could detect its odor that reminds me of warm whipped cream.
I drove through the village of Mount Laguna and stopped at the trail head for the southern end of Laguna Meadow. My plan was to walk a short distance and then enjoy the vanilla scent of the Jeffrey pines and listen to the breeze through the needles of the trees. As I walked, the ground in general was dry, but beneath all of the trees, the ground was moist from condensation of fog. The coastal areas of San Diego County received small amounts of misty drizzle the day and night before, mostly in terms of a few to several hundredths of an inch, but Mount Laguna did not record any actual precipitation. However, the fog drip was a welcome addition to moisten the soil. The sun was clear and a slight breeze drifted through the area in the surprisingly pleasant temperature. As I walked, I spotted patches of Platystemon californica in the narrow arm that extends southward in the southern part of the meadow. As I came out to the edge of the larger heart of the meadow, I could see significant patches of Platystemon californica extending all the way northward. The patches in the north were more deeply colored and larger than they were the week before. In addition, yellow flowers were beginning to grow in patches near the northern end as well. At that moment I decided to walk the length of the meadow and revisit the northern end once again to see how the flowers had progressed.
As I walked along, I passed patches of Phacelia curvipes (Washoe phacelia; below). It is a nearly prostrate plant with clusters of small flowers that have purple edges and white centers. It was common in areas that were somewhat open as well as in locations where some pine needle duff existed.
It was near patches of Nemophila menziesii var. menziesii (Menzies’ baby blue eyes) that were scattered about.
I heard the mew like calls of Pygmy Nuthatches, I saw Mountain Chickadees and observed and heard the loud clamoring clack-clack calls of Stellar’s Jays as I walked. The trail took a long loop around a bulge on the west side of the meadow and passed an oxbow shaped pond that contained water, Schoenoplectus acutus (Common tule), and calling Redwing Blackbirds. The red and yellow on their shoulder patches were very bright against their black bodies. American Robins were singing with their flutey warbling song and Blackheaded Grosbeaks flew by. All along, the wacka-wacka-wacka calls of Acorn Woodpeckers could be heard in the forest and many of the Pinus jeffreyi trees had hundreds of holes drilled in their bark for storing acorns.
Most of the meadow area still had a tinge of dried grass coloration with the new green growth of herbaceous plants still subdued. Fluffy, bushy clumps of Muhlenbergia rigens (Deergrass) were scattered throughout the area.
On the edge of the trail, in the openings between the trees, Viola purpurea ssp. quercetorum (Oak yellow violet) grew in little clusters. In the shaded areas, tiny Collinsia parviflora (Blue eyed Mary) could be detected. In the open areas, it was apparent that the snow had stood for a while because on the surface in some places, long earthen cores of gopher paths that were constructed beneath the snow were visible.
The trail continued north on the west side of the meadow, mostly among the trees but occasionally into the open. It passed along the west side of the Laguna Lake. The lake has an earthen berm that holds back the water so it has been enhanced, but it was constructed in a portion of the meadow that would have had a natural lake due to the high water table. In fact, the water only touches a small portion of the dam this year. With a heavy rainfall season, the lake would have been higher and would have backed up behind the dam, but this season, the dam is not contributing greatly to the lake. It is interesting that in 2016, the lake was completely dry. At this time, the lake is nearly a half mile long even though the precipitation has been low but three of the previous four seasons have been above or near normal and have contributed to the water level.
A number of types of waterfowl were present. In addition to the ever-present Coots, two pairs of Greater Scaup with their large blue-gray bills, big heads, and white patches on their sides were present. Brightly colored pairs of Rudy Ducks were present as well, occasionally practicing their paddle across the surface technique for moving quickly across the water.
Farther up, north of the lake, the Platystemon was in more dense large patches, uniform cream color on the surface (above), but when observed closer to the ground with a horizontal view (below), their forms and extent become more striking.
Layia platyglossa (Tidy tips) were also beginning to flower and there were many buds to open in the future.
A week later, I was perusing the HPWren web site that has remote webcams from various locations around the County when something caught my eye from the Cuyamaca Peak webcam northeastern view. A dense patch of orange/yellow was east of Cuyamaca Lake. I had already decided that I would try to visit the Laguna Meadow one more time, but I would also check to see if it was worth stopping at Cuyamaca Meadow.
The weather had cooled very sharply from a few days before to the point that the high temperatures in the mountains might not have been warm enough for the flowers to be open. However, I planned on going anyway. It was misting heavily as I left my house in Point Loma and actual rain was falling near Mission Bay and driving east near Miramar. It misted off and on all the way up through Ramona and into Santa Ysabel where I had to stop for Dudley’s Cherry Cheese Pockets and a couple of pieces of cherry pie at the Julian Pie shop for later. It misted through Julian but the clouds melted as they passed to the east over the desert edge. Still, they were rolling into the gap between Middle and North Peak of the Cuyamaca Mountains and partially obscured Cuyamaca Peak. The wind was blowing and it was a cool 52oF but the flowers were putting on an impressive display for this season. Meadowlarks’ high whistling calls could be heard all across the area as I rushed over to the main floral mass. It was apparent that some of the Lasthenia gracilis (Goldfields), had already withered from a few days before, probably the result of the two-day heat wave we had.
However, over to the edge of the display, the Layia was going strong, the floral stalks moving with the wind gusts. The clouds and fog drifted with the wind across at times, shadowing the sun, but mostly moving quickly leaving sun and shadow patterns on the bright cream, yellow and yellow orange color of the Layia, Lasthenia and some Platystemon. The air was cold and the view invigorating.
I then quickly walked back to my car and headed for Mount Laguna again from the north. The Cercis occidentalis had more flowers than the previous week.
As I drove up to Mount Laguna, the car’s thermometer actually climbed as well until it was over 60 degrees, passing above the inversion layer which is where the cold fog and clouds lay. The sky was clear and gentle breezes could be felt and heard through the pines as I walked on the trail toward the north end of Laguna meadow. Leptosiphon parviflorus (Coast baby star) which is bright yellow in San Diego County was observed in patches and clusters along the sides of the trail. Pentachaeta aurea (Golden ray pentachaeta; below) was growing in larger numbers now with the flower heads that contain varying numbers of ray flowers, generating a diversity of appearances of flowers.
As I approached the meadow, it did appear that some patches of the Platystemon were denser than the weeks before. On the western portion, Layia platyglossa was now flowering in good numbers and the Lasthenia gracilis was also flowering in dense patches so that some areas seemed to support continuous patches of the flowers with the cream then yellow and then orange yellow of the flowers in the foreground and the entire Laguna Meadow stretching to the south and past the skyblue lake. I aimed low to capture the photos and listened to the breeze and watched the small flowers flicker and sway as the air moved by. I could have sat there all day.
As I walked back to my car, the scent of pines in the air, I was thinking about how fortunate we are to have these resources and how especially fortunate we are to have any sort of wildflower display on a year with half the normal precipitation.