Monday, June 13, 2011

Bike Ride: Poway (Sycamore Canyon) Native Plants

Having a office job means that it is necessary for me to get outside on my lunch breaks. I work out in Northeast San Diego County in Poway (The City in the Country). The nice part about this area is the accessibility to hiking and bike trails. From our office we can be on 3 or 4 trails within a .25 mi.

Early this Spring (end of March) we went on a ride to see the status of the native plants after we received so much rainfall this year. This actual ride was on our road bikes and is a nice 6 mile loop from the Business Park of Scripps Poway Parkway and up Sycamore Canyon Rd. It has a good hill near the turn-around area where you can continue down into Mission Trails Park.

Wild Purple Nightshade - Solanum xanti 
Great Flower and related to the tomato and eggplant. (Check here for better Nightshade pictures)


Yellow Yarrow -Eriophyllum Confertiflorum
More pictures of Yarrow












Fuchsia-Flowered Gooseberry - Ribes speciosum
Stay tuned to a future post about harvesting the berries and preparing them for a sour beer
More pictures of Fuschsia Flowered Gooseberries







Black Mustard - Brassica Nigra
This will be harvested soon and I will make my own mustard with the wild seeds










Chaparral Yucca - Our Lords Candle - Hesperoyucca whipplei
Here is a good site about how the Native Americans used Yucca






One last note a great way to identify native plants is to use the Cal Photos website. You can enter as many details as possible and then just look through pictures till you find the one you need. This site is much more helpful if you already know the basic plant family or common name.

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