Tag Archives | plants

Coyote mint
Monardella villosa subspecies villosa
Henry W. Coe State Park, Santa Clara County
© 2009 Barry Breckling

The lumping and splitting of California’s treasures

On African savannas, poachers have forced black rhinos nearly to extinction. Closer to home, poaching, poisoning and habitat loss threaten California condors. Yet nearly 60 percent of all endangered species in California are plants. With more than 6,000 native plant species, the Golden State is so rich that Conservation International calls it a biodiversity hotspot….

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Though naturally rare and found only in the Santa Cruz sandhills, the Santa Cruz spineflower (Chorizanthe pungens var. hartwegiana) carpets the ground where it grows

Keep (the) Santa Cruz (Sandhills) Weird

I’ve heard that Santa Cruz might be weird. I live in the redwoods above the city and maybe it’s a little strange here too. Sunset Magazine called Boulder Creek, just up the road, “absurdly rural.” In a search for the absurd, I considered visiting the nearby Bigfoot Museum to see if I could scare up…

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Rows of native plants at the Thimann Lab greenhouse, grown for coastal prairire restoration (photo: E. Loury)

Plants on a Hot Green Roof

There’s a room at UC Santa Cruz filled with chocolate and vanilla, cinnamon and green tea, bananas and pineapple.  But far from ready-to-eat desserts, all are leafy and green, basking in the humid light of one of the three UCSC campus greenhouses. A certain former UCSC student and plant aficionado in my life recently told…

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A little lemon love

A couple of good lemon recipes One of my favorite cakes to make, containing a few of my favorite things: zucchini, olive oil and lemons. Zucchini Cake with Crunchy Lemon Glaze With eggs, almonds, cream and lemons, this frittata-cum-tart is a knee-weakening swirl of flavors. Cake, Tart, Frittata: Call It the New Baking I haven’t…

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