I've been jealously viewing everyone's gorgeous photos of the wildflowers blooming on their respective blogs, so naturally I had to take a day trip to Sonoma and see a few for myself (tough life, huh?).
Soon enough, I happened upon a serpentine meadow in the hills above town. I'm guessing it's serpentine because the soil is quite rocky, there aren't any shrubs, the plants look stunted in growth and it's in an area that I would consider chaparral (or my trusty friends at Las Pilitas would, anyway). Serpentine soils pervade California and are characterized by their lack of minerals that plants typically require to survive. Unless, of course you're a California wildflower adapted to grow there! The photo at the top shows a gaggle of happy Lasthenia californica, or Goldfields. Usually these can be spotted from the road as a low sea of sunshine.
The Lupine made a strong showing, as the small Bumblebees looped from flower to flower in this small meadow.
