Here is a synopsis of our May 2026 outings. Most of these were held in cooperation with the Sierra Club.
Jenny Creek Open Space Field Trip
May 2, 2026
This field trip helped Friends of Jenny Creek familiarize local residents and neighbors with the area. It was a very basic introduction to native plants, and an opportunity for the Friends to talk about their opposition to a wide, paved trail that is proposed for the area. There were few wildflowers in bloom, but the group learned about blue oaks, interior live oaks, common and white-leaved manzanita, wavy-leaved soap-plant, and weeds like Queen Anne’s-lace, to name a few.
Shingletown to Manton Field Trip
May 3, 2026
On this field trip, we stopped on Black Butte Road and walked a service road out and back for two miles to see a grove of large MacNab cypresses (Hesperocyparis macnabiana), perhaps 25 in all. Other interesting plants included yellow-and-white monkeyflower (Erythranthe bicolor), other monkeyflowers, yellow star-tulip (Calochortus monophyllus), hoptree (Ptelea crenulata), and clustered broom-rape (Aphyllon fasciculatum). Near Manton, we saw California nutmeg (Torreya californica) and California bay (Umbellularia californica), and at Lake Nora we saw fields of butterweed (Senecio sp.) and Tolmie’s mariposa-lily (Calochortus tolmiei).
Castle Crags State Park Field Trip
May 9, 2026
This was supposed to be a 4-mile field trip, but I hiked up the trail and took photos of Castle Crags while the others had lunch by a waterfall, and when I returned, they wanted to walk up to see the the view, too. So that made it almost five miles for them and six for me! This was prime time for seeing wildflowers, which included many western azaleas (Rhododendron occidentale), Sierra morning-glory (Calystegia malacophylla), naked mariposa-lily (Calochortus nudus), and mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii).
Clikapudi Trail Field Trip
May 16, 2026
No one signed up for this field trip, but I hiked the trail on two separate trips with friends and once by myself, finding it lush with a diversity of plants. Click Clikapudi Trail Plant List to see my work in progress. ~David Ledger, Field Trip Chair