Spotted this beautiful wildflower on a walk around Mission San Luis Rey.
I didn't recognize it, so I emailed my photos to Grammy and Pop-Pop for identification (they are my resource for all things flora, fauna and bird!)
Well, a few minutes later, up pops their reply:
Coulter's Matilija Poppy
They also gave me a link for more info. That website described the flower as
spreading out like an egg cracked in a frying pan.
Isn't that just a PERFECT description?
The flowers are about 6 inches in diameter and consist of six crinkled white petals surround the sunny-side-up yellow center of multiple stamens.
This extraordinary plant will begin creeping underground
-(kind of scary huh?)- soon you will have a HUGE colony that can spread well beyond the parent plant.
...and I'll tell you that's the truth, because the plant I saw was 5 feet tall and 15 feet wide!
(I'd say you DEFINITELY shouldn't be planting it in your little garden! )
For myself I hold no preferences among flowers,
so long as they are wild, free, spontaneous.
Bricks to all greenhouses!
Black thumb and cutworm to the potted plant!
- Edward Abbey
Also known as nopal cactus and Indian fig, it thrives in dry, rocky poor soil with little care.
The cactus is also a food source. The fruits (those roundish buds) are sweet, juicy and nutritious and the pads (the flat beaver-tale shaped parts) are cooked and eaten as a vegetable.
Aren't the flowers gorgeous?
These are NOT so gorgeous...
Thought this one looked like a heart....
And does this sign just crack you up? Personally, there's no way I'm reaching my hand in there to pick a cactus! OUCH!
"I bought a cactus. A week later it died. And I got depressed, because I thought, Damn. I am less nurturing than a desert."
Demetri Martin
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