A Flower That Blooms for a Single Day … oops a Single Night! The plant we are featuring in this hunt, commonly known as Datura, and in the Nightshade family, is unusual in many ways. First it has several names, among them: Devil’s Trumpet, Devil’s Weed and Jimson Weed*. And, unlike the Miner’s Lettuce and Willow of…
Willow and Water Go Together Meet the Family The Willow Family consists of over 400 different species of trees and shrubs of the Salix genus – a group of moisture-loving plants that are native to temperate and cold regions in the Northern Hemisphere. Depending on the species, willows range in size from towering giants of 90 feet…
Welcome to the second of our treasure hunts. The plant we bring you now, Miner’s Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), can be found in shady places on More Mesa, along creeks and in parks everywhere around Santa Barbara. Remember to keep your 6 foot distance and have fun!! The Surprising Truth About Miner’s Lettuce Miner’s Lettuce got its…
No one would dispute we are in very troubled times. But while we are “Sheltering in Place” we are definitely not “Under House Arrest”. So, if you are tired of fixating on the Ups (number of cases of the virus) and the Downs (the stock market), the More Mesa Preservation Coalition offers you … a…
Mother Nature Has Incredible Ability to Bounce Back! In our Spring Issue we waxed eloquent over the rains that had filled our prolific and very significant vernal pool. And further, those same rains also created an unusually effective ecological chain of events. The rains brought grasses … grasses in great profusion. These grasses then provided an abundance…