The East Bay Regional Parks District is again showing its Web strategy leaves all the other districts in the dirt: It has PDF guides to the wildflowers sprouting in each of the district’s parks, plus an overall guide of all the East Bay blooms. (Whether the taxpayers want their money spent on such a thing is another issue, mind you, but for it’s cool for us hiker types).
Speaking of flowers, the Sunol Regional Wilderness Annual Wildflower Festival is this Saturday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. More on the goings-on here.
Great link – thanks!!
Wow! This stuff is nothing short of excellent! I really like the idea of park specific guides too. I’ve never even seen that done before. I’ve payed money for a lot less well done guides. Perfect for beginners, or even veteran hikers who have never really payed attention before. Hunting for wildflowers can turn a typical spring hike into an really interesting day, even when you may have hiked the same places many times before. I get excited about them because you never really know what to expect. Displays change from year to year. Major kudos to EBRPD! Also a good way to promote their parks. I wonder how much the state parks could benefit from having such nicely done presentations?
Nice photos there. But I wish “flower identification” guide authors could understand a few basic things like (1) you need to include a size scale of reference (2) you need to show the leaves and often stems too (3) tiny details in 10X magnification (like hairs and stamens, etc.) are often crucial. The old Peterson Field Guide, even though mostly black & white, is still the only flower guide (or web page) I’ve ever seen that understands this. An opportunity knocking er clicking?
Excellent resource. Thanks for the link. It will make it easier to identify the wildflower photos I’ve been taking lately.
VernB: I wouldn’t rely on this as my only source. Use it as a way of finding out the family and (hopefully) genus and then hit Calflora, Jepson or the taxonomy resource of your choice. It’s much easier if you’ve at least got an idea of where to start looking.