Learn about Mission Trails' plants during Native Plant Week!

It's California Native Plant Week! As a natural preserve, Mission Trails Regional Park is home to many native plants, and for this year's Native Plant Week, we will highlight some that bloom in the park this time of year. Since Native Plant Week is nine days, from April 17-April 24, we will introduce you to five of these plants today, and four more on Wednesday.

To encourage the San Diego community to bring more native plants in their own yards, we have partnered with one of the park's regular suppliers, Moosa Creek Nursery, on a special promotion. When ordering plants through their site during the month of April, use the promo code MTRP2021 and 15% of all purchases will be put into a fund for plants for the park. You can bring more pollinators and wildlife to your own yard while helping to create and restore habitat at MTRP. Learn more about this special offer at the bottom of this message.

California Sunflower (Encelia californica)

California sunflower is putting on a cheerful display of spring color throughout the park now with yellow, daisy-like blooms. This shrub is typically three feet tall and as wide. Its main flowering time is February through June. It grows below 2000 feet in Southern California, along the central California coast, and into northern Baja California at elevations. What appears to be a single flower is actually a “bouquet” of flowers. As a member of the Sunflower family of plants, it produces flower heads composed of petal-like ray flowers and small disk flowers in the center. Look closely at one of these flower heads and notice the small structures appearing from the purplish-brown center; each of these is an individual flower that can produce a seed. While you are examining the California sunflower, notice nearby San Diego sunflowers with similar, but smaller, flower heads, a yellow central area, and crinkly, triangular leaves

Ramona Lilac (Ceanothus tomentosus)

Adorning the hillsides of Mission Trails Regional Park and all throughout the chaparral plant community of San Diego County, the Ramona lilac is currently boasting its springtime bloom, painting the landscape in a sea of deep purples, blues and the occasional cream. Upon a closer look, these swaths of color are actually made up of clusters of tiny, individual flowers called an inflorescence. Belonging to the buckthorn family Rhamnacea, this shrub can reach heights of 6 to 9 feet. Considered an evergreen, the leaves will stay a silvery, dark green throughout the year, though some may drop during the hottest months to help the plant conserve energy. Contrary to its common name, it is not a true lilac. The shrub coined its name when early settlers traveling through the Ramona countryside via stagecoach observed how similar this plant was to its namesake on the east coast. In addition to being used by San Diego’s indigenous Kumeyaay people to cure itches, the plant benefits the environment as well. Like legumes, but more slowly, nitrogen is added back into the soil through the plant’s root bacteria. The leaves of Ramona lilac also provide food for the caterpillars of the ceanothus silk moth and pale swallowtail butterfly.

Bush Monkeyflower (Diplacus puniceus)

With dark green leaves that are sticky to the touch, bush monkeyflower is a flowering perennial plant that grows up to 4 feet tall, and thrives from southwest Oregon into Baja California, Mexico. Here in the park, a hike along the Visitor Center Loop or down Father Junipero Serra Trail is sure to provide curious patrons an up-close encounter with the flower said to look like a grinning monkey’s face. From spring into early summer, the plants flaunt long tubular flowers that range in color from red, orange and white, to even a stunning pink variation. Each trumpet shaped flower has five broad lobes, with a notably sensitive white stigma at the center of the flower, which closes after a pollinator visits. In fact, even a human's touch will temporarily close the stigma on the monkeyflower, but it will soon open again. The flowers are particularly attractive to hummingbirds and insects, including bees and butterflies. Once established, the monkeyflower is drought tolerant, deer resistant and is sure to have any garden buzzing with pollinators in the springtime.

Blue-eyed Grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)

Blue-eyed grass is making its seasonal appearance throughout the park and is a delight to discover. Although a low-growing plant typically about one-foot tall, its vivid flowers in varying shades of blue-purple stand out among the surrounding vegetation. Occasionally you can find a white flower. It blooms March through May. It grows below 7800 feet throughout California and into Oregon and Mexico; look for it in open, grassy areas of the park. It is an easy plant to grow in the garden for seasonal color, but it dies back in summer. Despite its common name, it is not a grass but a member of the Iris family of plants. The long slender leaves growing from the base of the plant are probably responsible for the misleading name.

Bladderpod (Peritoma arborea)

The common name of this California native shrub describes its balloon-like fruits, which develop after its flashy yellow flowers are pollinated by visiting insects and hummingbirds. For humans, however, the pungent fragrance is less than appealing. When the fruits dry, the seeds inside rattle when shaken. As a member of the spiderflower (Cleomaceae) family, which includes capers, the seeds are edible and especially enjoyed by the colorful harlequin bug. Though bladderpod blooms mostly in the spring, flowers can be found on it throughout most of the year. This hardy shrub grows up to six feet high, does well in a variety of habitats, and will readily self-seed in your garden. Look, or smell, for bladderpod along most of the trails in the park.

A wonderful resource for finding which native plants are best for your yard is Calscape, an incredible database that allows you to peruse native plants that are ideal for your zip code! Check out Calscape HERE.

Once you know which native plants you'd like, order them through Moosa Creek Nursery this month and 15% of your purchase will go into a plant fund for MTRP. Simply use MTRP2021 at checkout. The nursery will call you to make arrangements for delivery. Thank you!

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