Theodore Payne "Hummingbird Mix"

A list with photos of the flowers included in the "Hummingbird Mix" seed packet -- "an assortment of annuals, perennials and low shrubs most attractive to hummingbirds, designed to keep hummingbirds in your garden year round" -- from the Theodore Payne Foundation. All images from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons.

Castilleja exserta (Owl's clover).

Purple owl's clover, March 2015, Antelope Valley California Poppy State Reserve, Lancaster, California. Photo by Walter Siegmund.

Clarkia unguiculata (Elegant clarkia), May 2010, photographed on Panoche Road, San Benito County, California by Eric in SF.

Clarkia unguiculata, at the Grotto Trail, Circle X Ranch, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California.

Diplacus longiflorus, syn. Mimulus longiflorus (Monkey flower), May 2017, photographed by Jesse Rorabaugh.

Penstemon centranthifolius, photographed at the Wild Animal Park, Escondido, California, USA by Wikimedia Commons user Stickpen.

 

Penstemon centranthifolius (Scarlet bugler), photographed in Cottonwood Heights City, Utah.

Penstemon spectabilis (Showy penstemon), Wild Animal Park, Escondido, California.

Penstemon spectabilis, photographed by Wikimedia Commons contributor Dennismudd.

Peritoma arborea, formerly Cleome isomeris (Bladder pod), photographed near California State Route 58 west of Barstow, California by Stan Shebs.

Peritoma arborea (formerly Isomeris arborea, syn. Cleome isomeris)m photographed on Kelbaker Road near Willow Wash, Mojave National Preserve, southeastern Californiaby Stan Shebs.

Salvia columbariae (Chia), photographed by Walter Siegmund in a dry wash west of Godde Hill Road, 150 m north of Hacienda Ranch Road; Lancaster, California.

Salvia columbariae (Chia), photographed by Walter Siegmund in a dry wash west of Godde Hill Road, 150 m north of Hacienda Ranch Road; Lancaster, California.

Salvia mellifera (Black sage).

Salvia mellifera.

California burclover

Probably most kids in Southern California are familiar with this weed, from having the burrs stuck in their socks after playing outside at recess or lunch (I remember being fascinated by the burr's spiral construction!).  There is rather a lot of it in our front yard this year for some reason, so I decided to look it up.  It is Medicago polymorpha, also known as burr medic, toothed bur clover, and, for some reason, California burclover -- it is not native to California at all, but to the Mediterranean, presumably the reason why it grows so well here.  In lawns it is usually short, most likely because it keeps getting mowed off, but when given its head it is long and sprawling, either along the ground or borne up by nearby plants. 

(Quite a number of online sources remark on its being called "California burclover" while native to the Mediterranean, but none of them wants to even hazard a guess as to why it is associated with California!)

Theodore Payne "Meadow Mix"

These are the seeds in the "Meadow Mix" seed packet available from the Theodore Payne Foundation --

Achillea millefolium (Yarrow), photographed by Wikimedia Commons user Georg Slickers.  [Note that the TPF doesn't specify, but perhaps the one they include is A. millefolium var. californica].

Blue dicks (Dichelostema capitatum), photographed in Mitchell Canyon by Wikimedia Commons user John Rusk from Berkeley, CA.

Dichelostemma capitatum leaves before the appearance of flowers. Photographed at Hedgepeth Hills, Maricopa County, Arizona by Wikimedia Commons user Mike.

Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) by Wikimedia Commons user Ryan McMinds.

Western blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) photographed by Wikimedia Commons user Björn S... [sic].

Creeping or molate red fescue (Festuca rubra "Molate").

Festuca rubra, photographed by Wikimedia Commons user Bildoj.

Acmispon glaber, formerly Lotus scoparius (Deerweed). Photographed on the Backbone Trail in chaparral habitat, in Circle X Ranch Park, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California, February 2004.

Stipa pulchra, syn. Nassella pulchra (Purple neddlegrass), photographed in the Santa Monica Mountains, within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Southern California. Credits NPS photo from Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, California.

Brown widow egg sac

And the brown widow too, though luckily I didn't know this until after I had taken the photo.

More information here at BugGuide.net and here from the CISR in Riverside.

Unidentified mushrooms, possibly agrocybe praecox

Patches of these mushrooms were clustered around the bases of landscape olive trees in Yorba Linda this morning.  I should have put something in the photo for a better idea of scale, or turned over one of the mushrooms!

Agrocybe praecox? or maybe Pholiotina sp.?

Cloud study, sunset

Young mushroom

This mushroom popped up in a penstemon I bought at the Fullerton College plant sale a few weeks ago, and was planting yesterday.  The spore print is a little smeared -- the cap dried up and shrank to much less than a quarter of its original size during the time I was taking the print (overnight) -- but is clearly black in color.

Perhaps Coprinopsis friesii or one of the Parasola plicatilis group?