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Santa Clara Valley Chapter

THE BLAZING STAR

NEW MEMBER INFORMATION

Chapter history | Membership | Chapter Activities | CNPS Policies & Legislative Activities | Patterns on the Hills | Plant Communities | Public Lands & Public Agencies | Rare & Endangered | Natives | Gardens & Nurseries | Books and Publications | Weeds & Invasive Exotics | Birds, Wildlife & Native Plants

GARDENING WITH NATIVES

The cultivated landscape in California is going through an evolution from extensive lawns and high water usage plants to a landscape more fitting with our dry Mediterranean-style climate. The California Native Plant Society encourages the use of native plants in the landscape. Planted in an appropriate site, pleasingly arranged and maintained properly, these landscapes make up the new California identity in the garden. The best way to choose what would be appropriate for your site is to study what grows naturally -- in the same exposures as you intend to plant -- in the wild near your home. Join in the many field trips our chapter offers and attend the Gardening with Natives group.

Gardening With Natives special interest group usually meets on the first Thursday of the month. Locations vary; check The Blazing Star and the Gardening with Natives webpage http://www.gardeningwithnatives.com/.

There are informal discussions and presentations on native plant horticulture and field trips to native plant gardens and nurseries. Members sometime become involved in community programs and in growing plants for the chapter plant sales.

resources
from Kim Boatman, "Going Native," SV Magazine 9.17.00.

required reading

Gardening with a Wild Heart: Restoring Californiaís Native Landscapes at Home (1999) by Judith Larner Lowry.

Growing California Native Plants (1980) by Marjorie G. Schmidt.

Complete Garden Guide to Native Shrubs of California(1994) and Complete Garden Guide to the Native Perennials of California (1990) by Glenn Keator.

Growing Native, a bi-monthly newsletter by Louise Lacey, P.O. Box 489, Berkeley, CA 94701, www.growingnative.com, (510) 232-9865.

on the Web:

www.nativehabitats.org/calret.htm
A helpful list of retailers and resources

www.laspilitas.com/bird.htm
Guide matches native plants with the birds they attract

http://www.calflora.org/
Detailed database of more than 8,000 plants

www.cnps.org
Site for California Native Plant Society

nurseries (a fuller listing including aboreta follows below)

Yerba Buena Nursery, 19500 Skyline Blvd., Woodside, (650) 851-1668, www.yerbabuenanursery.com. Open 9-5 daily. Two-acre botanical garden lets visitors view plants in natural settings.

Native Revival Nursery, 8022 Soquel Drive, Aptos, (831) 684-1811. Open 8:30-5 Tuesday-Friday and 10-4 Saturday and Sunday. Small demonstration garden.

treeArboreta and Herbaria

California Academy of Science and Dudley Herbarium
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco.
Carl Sharsmith Herbarium
San Jose State University.
Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Tilden Park, Berkeley.
Stanford Unviversity arboretum and central campus (Grounds Services)
Stanford, CA.
Strybing Arboretum
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. Leaflet (quarterly).
The University and Jepson Herbaria
The University and Jepson Herbaria are part of the Berkeley Natural History Museums Consortium. Support group: Friends of the Jepson Herbarium. Publication: The Jepson Globe (three times/yr.)
UC Berkeley Botanical Garden
Strawberry Canyon, Berkeley.
UC Davis Arboretum
UC Santa Cruz Arboretum
On Empire Grade on the campus. 408 427-2998. Support group: The Arboretum Associates. Publications: Bulletin.

treeOther Gardens

Yerba Buena Nursery
Located 2.2 miles west of Skyline Blvd. between Page Mill Road & Woodside Road in a beautiful natural setting. This two acre garden has extensive collections of manzanitas and ceanothus among many other native plantings. There is something in bloom almost the year around. Open 9 to 5, seven days a week, closed major holidays. 650 851-1668. Yerba Buena Nursery, an employee's view, by Brenda Butner.
Native Hill at Foothill College
El Monte Avenue just east of Highway 280 in Los Altos Hills. At the college entrance turn left. Continue to the Ornamental Horticulture unit. Native Hill is on the right adjacent to the bus stop. This planting is a joint project with the Santa Clara Valley Chapter CNPS and the Foothill College Ornamental Horticultural Department. There are many plants of mature size and an extensive addition is planned. Bring four quarters for parking, except on weekends. Plant list.
Environmental Center at De Anza College
Woodside Library Gardens
3140 Woodside Rd. in the town of Woodside. The garden in the back of the library is planted exclusively with natives. Walk through the library to get there. Open Monday and Wednesday 12:00 to 8:00 p.m., Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 12:00 to 6:00 p.m., and Saturday 12:00 to 4:00 p.m.
Sunset Magazine Gardens
85 Willow Rd. in Menlo Park. The garden features nearly 300 native plants of the West Coast arranged by region. Tours offered Monday through Friday 11:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Groups should make advance reservations. 650 321-3600.
Hillsborough Water Conservation Park
El Camino and Floribunda near the Town Hall. This park has mixed plantings of California natives and exotic plants with an eye to drought tolerance.

Where To Purchase Natives

CA Native Plant Link Exchange allows a user to find which nurseries sell a particular plant species. At the moment, 59 nurseries that sell CA natives are listed on the site, including many in or around the Bay Area. More than 1900 species are available at these nurseries.

Baylands Nursery
1103 Weeks St., E. Palo Alto. Phone: 650 323-1645 or 650 328-9166. Many California natives. Call for open hours.
 
C.H. Baccus
900 Boynton Ave., San Jose, CA 95117. Phone: 408 244- 2923. Specializes in Calochortus, Fritillaria and other western bulbs. Send a self addressed stamped envelope for mail order list. Spring container and dormant bulbs sold by appointment.
California Flora Nursery
Somers & D St., P.O.Box 3, Fulton, CA 95439. Phone: 707 528-8813. Focus on uncommon perennial and California natives. Open Monday to Friday, 9-5; Saturday 10-4.
Central Coast Wilds
Specializes in restoration and native plant propagation. Santa Cruz at 336 Golf Club Drive, off River Street near Harvey West Park. Website is currently being revised. "We encourage people to visit it or us at the nursery. We've recently added a residential design and installation division to our company in addition to our restoration installation division, nursery sales, botanical consulting." Contact James Hiestand, Residential Project Manager or James Enyart, Nursery Sales Manager at 831-459-0655.
Christensen Nursery Co.
16000 Sanborn Rd., Saratoga. Phone: 408 867-4181. Wholesale and retail; some larger sizes.
Common Ground Organic Garden Supply (http://www.commongroundinpaloalto.org/)
Palo Alto. Phone: (650) 493-6072. Seeds, plants and classes.
The Dry Garden
6556 Shattuck Ave., Oakland, CA 94609. Phone: 510 547- 3564. Specializes in drought-resistant plants including California natives.
Elkhorn Native Plant Nursery
1957B Highway 1, Moss Landing CA 95039. We are only open to the public on Fridays from 8-4. Wholesale hours are
(preferably) by appointment Monday to Friday from 8-4.
Far West Bulb Farm
Grows and sells by mail order about thirty species of California Native Bulbs.
Larner Seeds
P.O.Box 407, Bolinas, CA 94924. Phone: 415 868-9407. Seeds of California native wildflowers and perennials by mail order. Sometimes available in local nurseries. Demonstration garden.
Mostly Natives Nursery
27215 Highway 1, P.O.Box 258, Tomales, CA 94971. Phone: 707 878-2009. Open Wednesday to Saturday, 9-4; Sunday 12-5.
Native Revival Nursery
2600 Mar Vista Dr., Aptos, CA 95003. Phone: 408 684-1811.
Pacific Coast Seed
7074 D. Commerce Circle, Pleasanton, CA 94566. Phone: 510 463-1188. Wildflower seeds.
Redwood City Seed Company
P.O.Box 361, Redwood City, 94064. Phone: 650 325-7333. Specializes in grass seed.
Saratoga Horticultural Reasearch Foundation, Inc. (www.saratogahortfoundation.org/)
15185 Murphy Ave., San Martin, CA 95046. Phone: 408 779-3303. Plant sale every first friday of the month open to the general public. SHRF members receive a discount. SHRF has introduced numerous selections to the horticultural trade, including many California natives. Periodic sales to members only.
Yerba Buena Nursery
19500 Skyline Blvd., Woodside. Phone: 650 851-1668. The Santa Clara Valley Chapter has had a longtime relationship with Yerba Buena. Over the years many field trips and meetings have been held at the nursery and many of our members have worked or volunteered there. The nursery has over 300 species of native plants including trees, shrubs, perennials and ferns.
Other nurseries
Local nurseries in addition to those listed above may sell native plants; see the directory at the Bay Area Gardener.

Native Plant Sales

The Santa Clara Valley Chapter sales are late April or early May, and late October at Hidden Villa, Los Altos Hills. See the our Pressroom for information.

Other Bay Area chapters of CNPS

Other sales

PUBLICATIONS ABOUT OUR LOCAL FLORA

Chapter Book Sales: Titles and Prices. You may browse these and other titles at the publications table at most chapter general meetings. Proceeds from book and poster sales provide important income for the chapter, and a wide selection of titles are offered for sale.

Corelli, Toni (2005). Illustrated Field Guide to the Woody Plants of the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Monocot Press, 178 p. in soft cover with spiral binding, with 206 woody plant species described and illustrated. Easy to carry in the field and has location information such as what public land the plants occur on. This book updates John Hunter Thomas Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains for the woody plants. The chapter helped fund this project and will be selling it for $20 at meetings and other events. It also can be ordered from Toni Corelli at (650) 726-0689 or corelli@coastside.net.
Corelli, Toni and and Chandik (1995). The Rare and Endangered Plants of San Mateo and Santa Clara County with photographs and illustrations.
Order from the chapter or from Toni Corelli at (650) 726-0689 or corelli@coastside.net.
Hickman, james, ed. The Jepson Manual: higher plants of California. [Jepson Interchange]
edited by James Hickman. University of California Press, 1993. 1400 pages. A new state-wide flora updating Munz and Keck. See John Thomas' review in The Blazing Star (September/October 1993), and Stephen Edwards' "Letter to the Editor" (March/April, 1993).
Howell, John Thomas. Marin Flora, Manual of the Flowering Plants and Ferns of Marin County, California. 2nd edition with supplement.
University of California Press, 1970, 336 pages. Another classic local flora with keys to an annotated list of plants occurring in Marin County.
Lyons, Kathleen and Mary Beth Cuneo-Lazanro. Plants of the Coast Redwood Region. 2nd edition.
Photographs by Howard King. Looking Press, 1988, 197 pages. Excellent color photographs and non-technical text describe many of the region's trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and ferns.
McClintock, Elizabeth et al. A Flora of the San Bruno Mountains, San Mateo County, California.
Elizabeth McClintock, Paul Reeberg and Walter Knight. California Native Plant Society Special Publication no.8, 1990, 223 pages. A completely revised edition provides an update of the 1967 flora for this rich botanical but isolated mountain range south of San Francisco. The introduction not only provides information about plant life on the mountain but lists butterflies, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, and birds. An annotated list of vascular species provides information on location, flowering times, history, scarcity, and short descriptions.
Sharsmith, Helen K. Flora of the Mount Hamilton Range of California.
California Native Plant Society Special Publication no.6, 1983, 93 pages. Reprint of the author's Ph.D. thesis that first appeared in the American Midland Naturalist, provides an annotated list of vascular plants of the Mt. Hamilton Range. No keys are provided but an index compiled by Carl W. Sharsmith and Nobe Kurotori brings nomenclatural changes up to date with those of Philip A. Munz' A California Flora (1968). A valuable introduction discusses factors relating to the distribution and origin of the flora of the Mt. Hamilton Range.
Sims, Lee. Shrubs of Henry W. Coe State Park.
Illustrations by Judy Mason. Pine Ridge Association, 1987, 64 pages.This guide contains keys to fifty-three species of shrubs that occur within the Park. The keys are based on vegetative characters and are easy to use, and are accompanied by the fine illustrations to each shrub.
Thomas, John Hunter. Flora of the Santa Cruz Mountains of California: A Manual of Vascular Plants.
John Hunter Thomas. Stanford University Press, 1961, 439 pages. This flora includes keys to families, genera, and species, with distributional notes, blooming periods and a very useful introduction covering, among other matters, plant communities and history of botanical description in the Santa Cruz Mountains region.
University of California. California Natural History Guides.
Published by the University of California Press is a useful series of pocket books that describe the trees, shrubs and wildflowers of the Bay Region. Line drawings and some color photographs as well as good written descriptions aid one in learning to identify our local plants. Titles in this series:

WEEDS & INVASIVE EXOTICS

Oh you who plow and reap and sow,
guard well your acres from this foe
nor vigil cease, nor labor spare
lest weeds become harsh tyrants there.

Ecologically, a weed might be defined as a pioneer species, a colonizer of open habitats. It is a plant that takes advantage of disruptions of natural plant communities. To the extent disruptions are caused by human activity, weeds are like camp followers. Like the cockroach, the rat, and the starling, they are uninvited guests in a niche carved by humankind.

Many plants developed their weediness as cultivated plants. Under selective pressure by farmers and horticulturalists they became fast-growing and highly productive. These attributes allowed them to invade areas where they were unwanted, thus taking the short step from cultivar to weed. Many other weeds, while never intentionally cultivated themselves, evolved as persistent associates of cultivated plants. Seeds of these are harvested and dispersed along with those of the cultivar. Some weeds are derived through hybridization producing a broad environmental tolerance; the common dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) is a notable example. The cosmopolitan characteristic of many weeds is a tribute both to the ubiquity of man's modification of the environment and his efficacy as an agent of dispersal.

While some natives display weedy characteristics or otherwise act as pioneer species in disturbed areas, e.g., Baccharis pilularis, most of our weeds come from outside of North America, and were introduced either intentionally or by accident. Intentional introductions include horticultural and food plants. Among the most serious weeds are extremely invasive horticultural introductions that replace native species on a large scale. These weeds are known as Invasive exotics, and include species of Cytisus and Genistra (brooms), Eucalyptus, and Cortaderia (pampas grass). Another widespread weed that is the bane of local grasslands is starthistle (Centaurea solstitialis).

Weeds may be handsome, or tasty (Urtica dioica, Rumex crispus), but invasive exotics are threats to our native flora.

Adapted from Ronald Taylor (1991) Northwest Weeds, Mountain Press

CNPS state office Invasive Exotics

Total Taxa & Introduced Plants
(Introduced plants in parentheses)
genera/species (non-native)% non-native
Santa Cruz Mtns (1800 sq. mi.) 650/1799/(553) 31%
California (158,297 sq. mi.) 1075/7704/(846) 11%

Recommended Reading

© Lottie Jenvey
THE PANAMINT DAISY: CNPS Symbol

On the western slopes of the Panamint Range, which separates Death Valley from Panamint Valley, grows the stunning symbol of the California Native Plant Society: Enceliopsis argophylla var. grandiflora. Commonly called the Panamint Daisy, this plant was selected, in 1968, to be the Society's symbol on a membership decal.

This rare, striking endemic of the Sunflower tribe (Heliantheae) is apparently restricted to the western side of the Panamint Range. There it is found between 1200 and 4000 feet elevation in slightly alkaline calcareous clay soils.

I have seen and photographed the Panamint Daisy about one mile west of Wildrose, where it grows up the steep gullies on the north side of the road. The color slide from which our symbol was drawn was taken at this site. The plants were blooming profusely in April of 1968, and flowering continued into June.

The typical variety of Enceliopsis argophylla is found in Arizona, Utah, southern Nevada, and perhaps also in California. The two varieties may be distinguished by their ray flowers, which are roughly twice as long in the Panamint Daisy. The species has been subject to taxonomic changes by various workers. It has been referred to at least three different genera: first to Encelia, then to Enceliopsis, then to Helianthella, and then again to Enceliopsis. The generic name, incidentally, means "habitally similar to Encelia."

F.V. Coville, the botanist of the well-known Death Valley Expedition of 1891, referred to this species as Helianthella agrophylla and commented: The species is a very striking one, single plants often bearing thirty open anthodia at one time. He collected plants that he referred to this species along the gypsum cliffs in the Vegas Wash of southern Nevada not very far from the Colorado River. I have no personal knowledge whether this was E. argophylla var. grandiflora or the typical variety, which has a wider range. Coville did, however, collect the Panamint Daisy in the Panamint Range about 150 miles to the west of Vegas Wash. Collections were made at Hall Canyon and at Surprise Canyon, which is about four miles to the south of Hall Canyon in the Panamints. Here, the plants grow near the mouths of the canyons on banks of apparently calcareous clay. These two stations are more than eight miles to the south of the Wildrose station.

In May 1968, the suggestion was made to the Board of Directors that CNPS have a membership decal on the order of the Audubon Society's egret-in-flight. The suggestion was well received, and there was some discussion as to an appropriate species to symbolize CNPS. Many splendid California natives were considered, and the Panamint Daisy was ultimately selected. One of my slides was sent to Joyce Burr, who made the drawing on which the decal design was based. Shortly thereafter, the decals were distributed to the membership.

Clifford L. Schmidt, CNPS Newsletter v.7, no.4 (January 1972)

Chapter history | Membership | Chapter Activities | CNPS Policies & Legislative Activities | Patterns on the Hills | Plant Communities | Public Lands & Public Agencies | Rare & Endangered | Gardening with Natives | Gardens & Nurseries | Books and Publications | Weeds & Invasive Exotics | Birds, Wildlife & Native Plants