November 19, 2005

Native plants at Lake Cunningham

Here is a small selection of the plants that will be featured at the native garden. All of these plants like full sun and are drought tolerant once they are established, which takes about two to three years.

The native garden in Lake Cunningham Park comes alive in the spring with wildflowers like goldfields.

Trees
- Coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia —evergreen mainstay of the hills of California produces acorns to feed wildlife and is an important habitat for many species of birds and insects

- Valley oak, Quercus lobata — deciduous oak with droopy branches and lobed leaves, also a great habitat tree

- Buckeye, Aesculus californica — deciduous tree goes dormant during the dry season to reveal beautiful sculptural structure, and leafs out with the winter rains

Shrubs
- Holly-leaf cherry, Prunus ilicifolia — hedgerow evergreen with thin spiny leaves produces big-pitted summer fruit for wildlife

- Toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia — orange-red winter berries persist on this rose-family evergreen that can be trained as a small tree

- Coyote brush, Baccharis pilularis — tough, easy to grow, dense evergreen shrub supports a multitude of insects

- Blue elderberry, Sambucus mexicana — edible berries occur in thick clusters, following fragrant flat-topped flower clusters on multitrunked tall shrub; does better with moderate water

- California buckwheat, Eriogonum fasciculatum — clusters of flowers on stems above the rosemarylike foliage attract a wide variety of beneficial insects

- Coffeeberry, Rhamnus californica — a well-behaved foundation plant for any landscape with mahogany red stems

- Cleveland sage, Salvia clevelandii — fragrant gray-green foliage and lovely blue flowers from spring to fall

- Black sage, Salvia mellifera — wrinkly green foliage and whitish flowers on an easy-to-grow mounding evergreen
Perennials

- Bush monkeyflower, Mimulus aurantiacus — lovely peachy flowers and sticky leaves, often seen on roadcuts and steep slopes

- California fuchsia, Epilobium canum — gray-green foliage accented with bright red to orange tubular flowers that hummingbirds love in late summer to fall

- California sagebrush, Artemisia californica — fast-growing aromatic fine-leaved gray shrub

- Yarrow, Achillea millefolium — white flowers rise above ferny foliage

- Checkerbloom, Sidalcea malvaeflora — mallow-family plant with pink-purple flowers

Bulbs
- Ithuriel’s spear, Triteleia laxa — broad clusters of lavender-blue flowers on stems rising above the foliage in late spring

- Gold nuggets, Calochortus luteus — yellow flowers on this native relative of tulips

Annuals
- California poppy, Eschscholzia californica — tough survivor with wonderful orange flowers and blue-green foliage

- Seep monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus — yellow flowers on moisture-loving plant

- Elegant madia, Madia elegans — blooms at the height of the dry season

- Tansy phacelia, Phacelia tanacetifolia — dense foliage and small blue flowers that attract bees and other beneficial insects

- Elegant clarkia, Clarkia unguiculata — glorious pink-purple flowers in spring

Grasses and Grasslike Plants
- Deergrass, Muhlenbergia rigens — robust bunchgrass

- Purple needlegrass, Nassella pulchra — delicate purple-tinged grass nods in the slightest wind

- Foothill sedge, Carex tumulicola — evergreen bunchgrass look-alike