Our Plants (List)

Our native buckeye is one of the few California members of the soapberry family, sapindaceae. California’s maple trees fill out the family. Buckeye grows as a multi-trunk, rounded little tree with silver-white bark and large compound leaves. The branch structure tends to be tortuous and quite ornate as the tree…

This hyssop is scattered in a variety of plant communities throughout the western US and southern British Columbia. One usually associates the genus agastache with the Southwest, but a couple of species occur in California. Like many members of the mint family, the giant hyssop grows with upright stems with…

Desert agave is one of about 18 species of California natives in the Agave family, which includes the Joshua tree and – somewhat surprising – soaproot. It grows naturally in California’s southeastern deserts, conspicuously populating sunny areas with sandy soil. The silvery blue leaves grow in a rosette to about…

Shaw’s agave grows naturally in the southwest corner of coastal San Diego County. It occurs in only a few locations but becomes more common in Baja, Mexico. Another subspecies (goldmania) is found further south on the Baja peninsula. Shaw’s agave is widely planted in gardens in Southern California because of its…

Nevada agave occurs at higher elevations along the eastern edge of Inyo and San Bernardino Counties. The agaves are more commonly encountered at lower elevations in the deserts of the Southwest. Nevada agave is unusual in its tolerance of extreme cold. The growth form is typical with whirls of thick…

This little onion is native to low to mid-elevations of the mountains of Northern California. Its range includes much of the Pacific Northwest and southern British Columbia. It grows in typical allium fashion with a whorl of grass-like basal leaves emerging in late winter and early spring. Once the bulb…

The glassy onion is a common member of grassland communities on the lower slopes of the western Sierra Nevada and the southern SF Bay Area (Santa Clara County). After its long summer dormancy, the glassy onion greets the winter rains with several long narrow leaves. These are followed in early…