Announcing…Another new children’s story set in Madagascar

It’s available on Amazon today! Leo’s Great Adventure: A Golden Bamboo Lemur Tale. Yes, it’s another Lemur story set in Madagascar, but the storyline is quite different from the previous tale of Luna, the Mouse Lemur. [You can click on the links to go directly to the Amazon site to order the book(s).]

The back and front covers of the book.

One of the most fascinating things I heard about when we visited Madagascar was that Bamboo Lemurs really do eat mostly bamboo. In fact, two lemur species eat the highly toxic giant bamboo which has the highest cyanide content of any bamboo. Those two lemur species consume an amount daily that would kill a human. In addition, one of the most beautiful forests we visited, Ranomafana National Park, was the perfect setting for a story about Bamboo Lemurs because they were the reason that the park was created in 1991.

Several pages at the end of the story are devoted to background information about lemurs, bamboo, and the precarious survival of native species in the face of increasing human development.

As I mentioned in my previous post about the Luna book, I would like to write a series of children’s books about endangered animals and places to raise awareness of their fragile existence in our world today with the hope that younger readers will be inspired to contribute to conservation efforts in the future. My royalties from book sales will be donated to conservation research in Madagascar, specifically at this time to the Lemur Center at Duke University.

I hope you’ll like this fanciful tale and read it to your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc. Here’s a small sampler of the wonderful illustrations created with ChatGPT’s AI art platform DALL-E (from OpenAI). My daughter Alison generated the images from precise written descriptions of the animal, the situation being described in the story, and the background where it took place. She’s a wizard at this stuff! The book was put together using Canva, a program with a library of clip art and image editing tools to blend art and text.

Leo has met up with Greater Bamboo Lemurs on his adventure, and they have taken him to a stand of Giant Bamboo.

“What’s the matter, little lemur?” inquired one of the friendly Greater Bamboo Lemurs.
“This bamboo tastes bad, and it makes my stomach hurt,” Leo replied. “Why is this bamboo so different from the plants near my home?”

AI creation of this chameleon was based on the Panther Chameleon, which probably does not occur in Ranomafana NP, but is found in more northern tropical forests in Madagascar.

I hope you will write a comment and tell me how the kids liked the book. Thanks in advance for your interest!

Ay, Chihuahua!

Literally, Oh! Chihuahua!, as in to be impressed, or terrified, or surprised by the amazing expanse and diversity of North America’s largest desert. The expression probably originated with early Spanish explorers who were cautioning others to beware of the Chihuahuan desert area and the Apaches that lived there.

The Chihuahuan desert is indeed a great expanse, extending 900 miles from Albuquerque to just north of Mexico City. It also consists of a great variety of different land formations in typical basin and range topography: broad desert valleys (basins) bordered by mesas and mountains (ranges). Medium elevation of 1000-6000 feet keeps both summer and winter days cooler than one would expect in a desert climate. Summer rains from the Gulf of Mexico monsoons provide some moisture.

Desert valley floor: prickly pear-type cactus and widely spaced creosote bushes dominate the landscape.

A little higher elevation and Yucca species mix in with cactus. There is more grass here – a great place for antelope.

In the mountain foothills, oak and juniper are added to the mix of cactus, low shrubs, and grasses.

Montane areas used to be heavily forested, with streams running down into the lower grasslands. But the hillsides were logged, and the drier microclimate makes this area suitable for just pines, junipers, oaks, and cactus.

As a result of this climatic diversity, the Chihuahuan desert has a remarkable diversity of plants and animals. For example, more than 20 species of mammals can be found throughout the Chihuahuan desert area: mule deer, pronghorn, bighorn sheep, coyote, grey fox, even wolves, in addition to jaguar, puma, bobcat, javelina, bison, skunk, coati, jackrabbits, and many species of small rodents. Driving through the area in the dead of winter, you wonder how there could possibly be that much diversity, but the landscape will change dramatically when the rains come.

It’s just mid-February, but the Texas Bluebonnets are already blooming. More wildflowers will add to the mix of roadside blooms when spring arrives.

We were not lucky enough to see all the mammalian diversity that inhabits this desert area, but here’s what we could perhaps expect to see on another visit.

Pronghorn antelope in grassy areas of the valleys.

Mule deer and White-tailed deer in the tall grasses and woodland areas.

Bighorn Sheep in the rocky outcrops and montane cliffs

Coyotes live just about everywhere. This one was a roadside coyote that might have been waiting for handouts from tourists, or it might have been sick.

Black-tailed Jackrabbits are wonderfully adapted to desert heat, with their huge big ears for radiating body heat to any cooler object they might sit near or under.

Several other large mammals used to be present in the Chihuahuan desert but were extirpated in the U.S. when large ranches were established in Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona in the 1900s. Jaguars, pumas, bobcats, even a smaller version of the gray wolf, called the Mexican Wolf, were originally part of the Chihuahuan fauna. Imagine being able to see these animals there today.

Jaguars once ranged throughout the Chihuahuan desert area all the way into southern South America. But today they have a much more tropical distribution in South America. Jaguars are the largest cat species in the Americas, and the third largest cat in the world, with a bite so strong they can pierce the shells of tortoises and the skulls of their mammalian prey, killing them instantly. This one was photographed in the Pantanal of southern Brazil.

Cougar, mountain lion, panther, or puma are widely distributed from the Yukon, across the U.S. to the tip of South America. Their diverse diet contributes to their success in a variety of habitats throughout their range; they might prefer large ungulates like deer in one habitat, capybara rodents in another, but will also eat mice, beaver, hares, raccoons, wild donkeys, etc. — basically, anything they can pounce on and kill. (Photo by Debbie Reynolds from Argentina)

Like cougars, wolves in North America are wide-ranging animals, that have spread from Asia into a variety of environments in the U.S. and Canada and become somewhat specialized to live there. Mexican wolves filled the top canid carnivore role in the Chihuahuan desert but were hunted to extinction in the U.S. Several of them were captured in Mexico in the 1970s and sent to the U.S. to start a captive breeding program. Generations later, their descendants have been reintroduced in parts of Arizona and New Mexico, and their numbers have slowly been increasing. Some were even sent back to Mexico because the population of wolves there had become very rare. However, there are less than 400 of them in the wild today.

Mexican Wolves are the smallest of the Gray Wolf sub-species, but their gene pool shows evidence of past hybridization with other gray wolves, coyotes, and possibly dogs. The conservation plan for these animals is complex.

One important feature of the Chihuahuan desert area to note is that it spans two countries, between which, historically, wildlife moved freely. At least this was true before there was a huge barrier erected between the two countries. The Wall does more than limit human movement. It prohibits the exchange of wildlife (and thus gene flow) necessary to sustain vibrant communities in both places, and it limits animals from moving north toward cooler climates in an era of record-setting heat waves year after year.

A view of The Wall running off into the distance from the Coronado National Memorial south of Sierra Vista, Arizona.

Close-up of the previous image

The Wall near Sasabe, AZ separates Mexican and American houses just a few yards apart.

How will this 700+ mile long structure impact wildlife in the Chihuahuan desert? Time will tell.

Sonoran desert sights

The Sonoran desert in southwestern Arizona is hot, but amazingly diverse in plant life because it receives two periods of rainfall annually and it provides subtropical warmth in the winter. In fact, some of the cacti growing in Organ Pipe National Monument on the U.S.-Mexican border can’t survive freezing temperatures.

A landscape of cacti, palo verde trees, and creosote bushes — the plants are so closely spaced it looks like a thorny subtropical forest.

Mid-winter rain makes the desert green and lush looking.

The dominant cacti are the spiny cholla (left), the tall, columnar saguaro, and the multi-stemmed Organ Pipe, which only grows here, in the U.S, but is also found across the border in Mexico.

They are well-named since their bunched, stout columns resemble the pipes of an organ. The multiple columns arise from a common stem and each stem continues to elongate over time with some reaching heights of 20-30 feet.

Two new stems are growing from the base on this plant, but it will take them several decades to reach the height where they will have flowers. Organ Pipe cacti are very slow growing and typically mature and flower only after 100 years of growth.

An interesting feature of plant growth in the Sonoran desert is the role of “nurse” plants, which are well developed trees or cacti that provide shade and protection for other young plants. You can see an Organ Pipe Cactus growing up through the shade of a Palo Verde tree on the right side of the photo, and an Ocotillo plant growing up next to an Organ Pipe Cactus in the center of the image.

Even with all the diversity of plant life in the Sonoran desert, climate is a challenge for birds and other animals, especially during the hot summer. By far the most numerous birds we saw while driving through the desert in mid-winter were the Ravens, which seem to be able to tolerate the climate and seasonal food scarcity extremely well.

Birds in the desert

Actually, we’re not seeing a lot of birds in the desert on this trip: it’s winter (food is scarce), and it’s cold! Cold enough to snow—I.e., it’s warmer in Minnesota than in Arizona right now. We have braved walking around in the rain, sleet, snow, and strong winds trying to find the birds, but they are too smart to come out to greet us in this weather. 

The Mojave desert is an intimidating place — extreme heat in the summer and extreme cold in the winter. What a challenge for a small, warm-blooded animal to exist there. How do birds manage?

The variety of plants in the Mojave desert provide many different hiding and roosting spots for small animals, and their leaves and fruits are a source of food for many birds and small mammals.

Cholla is a scary-looking plant. Its small, jointed lobes can easily break off and adhere to a careless passer-by, but it offers protection from predation to birds that nest in it, like Cactus Wrens and Thrashers. Fruit ripening on the tips of the branches are a food source for some animals.

Bladderpod is a medium-large shrub that offers some shade from desert heat. The leaves emit a pungent odor to deter herbivores from munching on it, but the flowers have lots of nectar.

On a warmer, sunnier day, we might have seen quite a variety of birds in the Mojave desert. These desert species are champions of water conservation, using scanty water resources, finding food, and building or finding protection from heat and/or cold.

Gambel Quail eat primarily seeds, but seek out succulent green vegetation and dewy leaves in the early morning hours as a source of water. They can fly to distant water holes to replenish their body water, when they get heat stressed or dehydrated.

Black-throated Sparrows can survive without access to standing water on just a seed diet. Fat-rich seeds provide a gram of water for every gram of fat metabolized, and they excrete a dry paste which also saves them some water. They supplement their seed diet with juicy insects when they are available.

Cactus wrens can also live in areas without free water available, but they eat mostly insects, fruits, and succulent vegetation to obtain enough water daily.

Verdins are tiny, distant relatives of chickadees and are primarily insectivorous, but they supplement their diet with fruit and nectar when it’s available. Verdins build a globular nest of thorns and dry leaves in thorny shrubs that they use for both raising their chicks and for a retreat from the hot midday sun in the summer or the cold days in winter.

Curve-billed Thrashers are not fussy eaters. They eat insects when available, and consume fruit and nectar or succulent vegetation and new leaves to balance their water budget. Almost all Curve-billed Thrashers build their nests in Cholla cacti, where the spines of the plant offer both protection from predators and shade in the middle of the day.

Desert scenes

The Mojave Desert is a challenging environment for living things with its cold winters, extreme hot summers, and lack of water. But it is an interesting place to visit nevertheless because of its stark scenery, weird vegetation, and the odd formations found off the beaten path. We took a detour on a loop road through the Mojave National Preserve in southeastern California and found the following interesting scenes that really deserved a longer look — but unfortunately not this time.

One of the entrances to the “Hole in the Wall” trail, an area of gas-filled lava deposits that wind and water have carved into strange and fantastic formations. The trail winds around and drops into a narrow slot with “holey” walls. It’s called Banshee Canyon because of the noise the formations make when the wind blows through them. To exit the canyon, you climb the walls with the assistance of rings set into the stone. A fun activity for old people like us??

The twisted, spiky, asymmetrical Joshua trees aren’t really trees. They are very tall yuccas, members of the Agave plant family. Their tough exterior and complex arrangement of leaves make good nesting and roosting sites for many animals.

A unique site in the desert landscape in the Mojave are the Kelso dunes which formed from the wind-blown sediments of former lake bottoms in this area. Although the dunes don’t look big or expansive in this photo, they are 600 feet high and cover 45 square miles. A unique community of animals and plants inhabit the dunes.

Who would imagine finding a big railroad depot in the middle of the Mojave desert? The Union Pacific railroad built the depot in early 1900s to serve trains running to and from Los Angeles ports. Kelso was at a point in the line where the trains needed supplies and helper engines added to the train to get it over the steep grade. Now the 120 year old building is a Visitor Center. The palms are the original trees planted here when the depot was built.

Granite boulders along the road were an excuse to stop for a snack and a quick hike. In other areas the granite was much more rugged, with fractured slabs, spires, and upturned blocks.

Another view of the granitic formations in the Mojave Preserve.

So many places to explore in what looks from the highway like just more boring desert, but driving the back roads reveals a wonderland of places to see.

Baobab — a different way to build a tree

Madagascar is home to 6 of the 8 existing species of Baobab in the world.  Here in the Avenue of Baobabs, near Morondava, Madagascar, individuals of three Baobab species are the remnants of the dry, deciduous native forest that has been replaced by agricultural fields.

Baobab are often called bottle trees, or upside-down trees, for their strange, thick cylindrical shapes that taper at the crown before branching into what resembles a mass of roots that are actually its branches.

A lone Baobab tree still standing in a Malagasy farm yard.

Not only is their structure unique and remarkable, but their annual phenology (cycle of leaf, flower, fruit production) is as well.  The trees shown here flower during the dry season from May to August, but each flower lasts less than a day, and the entire flower production of the tree may last less than a week.  Leaf production follows during the wet season from October to May, which marks the period of tree growth and fruit production.

Flowers burst into full display from buds within a few hours, displaying creamy white petals below a huge mass of anthers (yellow-tipped filaments in the image).  All the pollen is released the first night the flower is open.  The floral perfume and nectar attract huge numbers of pollinator visitors:  hawk moths, fruit bats, birds, and mouse lemurs.

The fruits are dry, but full of vitamins (C and B6) and sugars. They are protected by a thick shell, but some baobab species drop the fruit from the husk at ripening, making them available to birds and mammals on the ground.

Baobab also provide roost and nest sites for a variety of animals: the dense array of their branches are ideal platforms for nesting birds, for example, and we did see a few species cruising the tree’s upper architecture, perhaps looking for the perfect spot.

A Sickle-billed Vanga poked around a bit, maybe hunting for insects, or a nest site?

Sakalava weavers flitted through the low bushes and over the tops of the Baobab. Weavers build remarkably complex nests in trees, but I don’t know if Baobab is one of their preferred nest sites.

But the most intriguing thing about these unusual trees is why they look like they do!  Is the shape really an adaptation to life in an arid landscape, with the trunk acting like a water reservoir in times of drought?  Do the trees use the water in the trunk for photosynthesis to build flowers, leaves and new branches?

The trunk diameters are impressively large, more than 9 feet in this tree (according to the 6 foot person standing next to the base). And the trunk supports a massive weight of tree that may reach 100 feet or more in height.  Baobab grow very, very slowly.  The giant is probably hundreds if not thousands of years old, while the young sapling may already be dozens of years old.

Researchers from the Missouri Botanical Garden and the Kirindy research station near Morondava, Madagascar, investigated this question and found some striking departures from the traditional assumptions about “water storage” in Baobab.  Most important, they documented that less than 10 percent of the water in the spongey, water-laden central mass of the trunk actually moved upward to be used for photosynthesis by the leaves.  Well, then, what’s all that water for?

Humans were unsuccessful in cutting down the Baobab when they cleared the dry forest. They simply couldn’t cut through the incredibly thick outer bark.

Living in a nutrient-limited, water- limited forest environment meant that Baobab trees would need to economize on wood production in order to grow tall as quickly as possible.  So, these trees use a combination of outer bark strength and turgor pressure of the water in the interior spongey cells to maintain a rigid column, rather than putting energy and material (e.g., synthesizing lignin) into production of wood.  If they lose too much of their interior water, the trunk will collapse under its own weight, so the interior water reservoir remains full. Basically, the larger the base of outer wood and inner water-filled space, the greater the strength of the column for support.  The interior “water reservoir” is a biomechanical stiffening agent.

Their girth and their height are truly amazing.

Baobab are dry forest survivors in this part of Madagascar, but the Malagasy people call them “mother of the forest”. Their iconic shape reminds us of the many ways that “life will find a way” (a la Jurassic Park)

Madagascar highlights

We’ve just returned from a two week adventure in Madagascar, during which we visited a variety of humid tropical forest and dry forest habitats in a few of the 19 national parks to see some of the country’s endemic species of lemurs, reptiles, plants, and insects.

There are over 100 lemur species in Madagascar, all of which evolved on the island from a single ancestor that found its way there after the island separated from Africa and India. The Golden Bamboo Lemur is one of the rarest and most endangered.. First discovered in 1986, its presence, along with other critically endangered fauna in the same area, led to the formation of Ranomafana National Park in 1991.

Ring-tailed Mongoose or Vontsira, medium sized weasel-like mammals, are one of the ten species of carnivores in Madagascar. Some scientists believe that all Madagascar carnivore species evolved from a single ancestor that may have rafted to Madagascar from Africa.

Photo from Wikipedia

There are 283 bird species in Madagascar, 40% of which are endemic to the island. This means Madagascar has the highest percentage of endemic bird species in the world at this time. However, many species are on the EDGE, literally and by category (evolutionarily distinct and globally endangered).

The spectacular Paradise Flycatchers are widespread in Madagascar but are also found in the Comoros Islands, I.e., it is not endemic to just Madagascar. They are relatively common in all forest types except montane, and are one of the few bird species of least concern on the island.

Crested Coua and eight other Coua species are all endemic to the island. They are jay-like in their behavior, even sounding like a Jay, but are related to cuckoos. They are rather weak flyers and hop between ground and low branches rather than flying in the dry deciduous forest.

Malagasy Kingfishers are one of two endemic kingfisher species. Only 5 inches long, their brilliant coloration nevertheless makes them stand out in their wetland habitat.

All 72 species of chameleons are endemic to Madagascar. The Blue-legged Chameleon, also known as the cryptic chameleon, can change its brilliant colors into dull brown to avoid detection.

The Madagascar Collared Iguana is not related to iguanas of the Americas, but is in a separate family. They do act like iguanas though and can be found on the trunks of trees as well as the ground in the dry forest.

Madagascar Brilliant Blue is a nymphalid butterfly found on many of the islands of the western Indian Ocean. There are more butterfly species (300+) than bird species on Madagascar, about 210 of which are native just to Madagascar alone.

Insects like the Giraffe-necked weevil may have been blown from Africa to Madagascar. This odd little beetle has a long tubular neck used for fighting in males.

Baobab alley on the western coastal area of the island features the giant baobab trees that are remnants of the dry deciduous forest that used to be here. The tough, thick bark at the base of the trees resisted the “slash and burn” efforts of the farmers to clear the land here, leaving them standing among the rice paddies.

There are over 900 Orchid species in Madagascar, an astounding 83% of which are native to the island.

The astounding biodiversity in Madagascar is a product of its long evolutionary isolation and its diverse topography. Central highlands (up to 8000 feet) drop off to the east where a wet climate produces lush tropical rainforest along the length of the island at mid and low altitudes. To the east, the rain shadow effect of the highlands results in a series of rolling hills of grasslands, eventually giving way to dry deciduous forest along the west coast and spiny forest at the southern tip. So many environments, so many niches to fill, so much biodiversity.

But this amazing biodiversity is fragile and vulnerable to the presence and actions of humans that have colonized the island for the past 2000 years and have transformed the landscape for agriculture.

Hillside forests are gone, replaced by terraces of rice paddies and vegetable gardens. (Click on the photo to enlarge the view.)

Men spade up the ground after harvesting to start another crop. The land is continually in production, aided by irrigation from local rivers.

Loss of habitat, especially removal of trees that provide food and protection for animals, is a major threat to Madagascar’s biodiversity. Add to that the pressure from a rapidly growing and expanding human population (30 million in 2023) and increasing extremes in weather that have changed the periodicity and extent of wet and dry seasons. The challenges to protect biodiversity are enormous, and risk of failure is high. Species facing the greatest threats (according to an article from the journal Science in 2022) are fish, mammals (especially lemurs), amphibians and mollusks, as well as a wide variety of plants.

EP= extinct before 1500 CE. EX= extinct after 1500 CE. EW = extinct in the wild. CR/PE= critically endangered, possibly extinct. CR= critically endangered. EN= endangered. VU= vulnerable. NT= not threatened. LC = least concern. From Ralimanana et al., Science, 2 Dec 2022.

Hiking among the Pinnacles

The last stop on our recent CA adventure was the Pinnacles National Park, just southeast of San Jose. Aside from its natural beauty, two interesting things about this park are the massive and eroded spires of an extinct volcano (i.e., the pinnacles) and the California Condors that can often be seen on the High Ridge trail of the park in the winter. On this day, however, I had to settle for views of just the volcanic spires because the Condors had already left the park to breed elsewhere.

We were greeted on the trail by a Beechey’s Ground Squirrel

A Stellar’s Jay rested in the bushes along the trail

The Pinnacles are the eroded remnants of an extinct volcano that has been sheared in half by the movement of the San Andreas fault.  Its other half is located 150 miles to the south, in the desert of southern California, while the part we hiked in now resides within the coast range bordering the Salinas Valley.  The area is composed primarily of  exposed lava flows, paler volcanic rocks called rhyolite, and a type of conglomerate rock that looks like you threw rock chunks into cement and then stood the mass up on end to weather.

We chose the trail that climbed to the peaks through a series of caves along a stream, ducking our heads around rocks and squirming through narrow slits in rocks (in the dark).

This was the easy part of the trail.

Emerging from one cavern and about to enter another on our way up.

The caves here provide roosting and nesting spots for at least 13 different species of bats. In addition, the 26,000 acres of the park are home not only to the Condors, but attract the largest density of breeding Prairie Falcons in the U.S. A study done in 1990 found that the Pinnacles have the highest density of bees (per unit area) of anywhere in the world (for which there is similar data). Quite a unique and interesting place!

At last we completed the cave path and headed up the steep stairway up to a very nice lake.

A delightful sunny afternoon and a beautiful lake view was the reward for our climb.

The trail back to the parking lot was an easy walk with incredible views.

Lava outcrops along the trail were sometimes covered over with vegetation.

Silver Bush Lupine lined the side of the trail.

Sticky Monkeyflower can apparently grow right out of the rock.

A good example of the volcanic spires that loom over the trail.

Looking back at the parking lot (center white spot in the far distance) from the trail

Purple Chinese Houses — great name for a flower.

A striking yellow lily — member of the Triteleia genus

Indian Paintbrush and sunflowers were common along the trail

And so were Beechey’s ground squirrels.

Wildflower bonanza in San Luis Obispo county

We left the verdant green of the outer coast range to drive inland toward Santa Margarita to a place we had heard was a hotspot for wildflowers.

Sure enough about 20 miles east of Santa Margarita on highway 58 and right at the intersection of Shell Creek Road, there were more than 50 cars parked on the roadside, and several dozens of walkers spread out over an enormous field of wildflowers. This was a veritable carpet of intense color — so vibrant the camera didn’t really capture it as well as my eyes saw it. So, here’s a look at what the rain produced in the central coastal mountains this year.

The panorama view doesn’t do the scene justice — the grass has grown up and over a lot of the flowers, dimming their brilliant color. Walking paths through the field made it easy to see the flowers without stepping on them.

This part of the field was dominated by a yellow and white daisy called Tidy Tips.

Looking in a different direction, there were more poppies and fewer daisies and a lot more grass.

Big, healthy clumps of poppies were everywhere in the middle of this field and ranging up to the hills beyond.

Looking back toward Shell Creek Road where the cars were parked, the field was dominated by poppies and lupine. Here there was also a solid ground cover of a small flower called California goldfields that formed a solid mat along what would have been bare ground.

The mat of Goldfields flowers surround the Lupines and daisies. No grasses here.

Looking toward the west was a beautiful field of poppies and lupines stretching over to the shady oak trees at the base of the hills.

Just like a huge bouquet…

More flowers along Shell Creek, where the Goldfields flowers again form a mat of yellow color.

Owl’s clover and lupines among the Goldfields flowers.

Further up Shell Creek road, the hills were covered with drying grasses, and a stand of Larkspur.

The brilliant purple of one of the western Larkspur species really stand out in the reddish tinge of the grasses.

What a treat to walk around this place that some kind rancher has managed so well and generously allowed passersby to explore.

California’s color explosion

The last time I visited the central California coast in the spring flower season was more than 50 years ago when I was a college student. But I never witnessed a mega-bloom spring flower season like the one going on here this past month. A dozen or more “atmospheric rivers” of rainfall this past winter have apparently promoted the germination of seeds accumulated over many years. The result is a vibrant carpet of color in grassy fields, roadsides, deserts, seasides, and foothills everywhere in California. Here are some highlights of our hike last weekend in Montaña de Oro state park, located just south of Morro Bay on the central California coast.

Even ordinary mustard and wild radish flowers create a colorful scene along the rocky coast in the park.

It truly is a colorful carpet with fiddleneck flowers so dense you can’t see bare ground between them.

The carpet of flowers is almost overgrown with grasses now, but there is still plenty of color in the mat of California Poppies.

The diversity of wildflowers was amazing. Looking closely at one square meter, you could see at least a dozen species, packed closely together, growing over each other.

And just as many clumps of flowers in the fields stretching away from the coast toward the hills.

Tall spikes of hedgenettle grew in clumps in some of the depressions. It doesn’t form a hedge, and it doesn’t sting like true nettles, so the name is a mystery. But it does have very attractive purple and white spotted petals, making it quite distinctive.

Some kind of milkvetch (white stalks) among the poppies

Orange-colored bush monkey flower, so named for their resemblance to simian faces, were common on the drier hillsides.

But the overall dominant plant here, in color and in profusion, was the Poppy. And it must be the namesake of this Mountain of Gold park.