Yay, wildflower season is upon us here in the Coachella Valley desert! Temperatures have warmed, we received another smattering of rain and our wildflower season is starting to blossom in “hot spots” around the valley floor. You know where to find me—in the canyons, on the dunes, in the hills, on the desert floor. I’ll be the wildflower geek showing my son how to lay on his stomach to discover all of those tiny, happy “belly flowers.”
One other place I might be…at your local library or historical society sharing my wildflower love with others. One particular demonstration everyone takes part in is the “petal pick.” We pass around a store-bought sunflower and ask each person to remove one petal. As it gets to the other side of the room, the flower is picked clean, often leaving about half the group without a petal to claim, and more importantly without any resemblance of a flower to enjoy. The whole flower represents a protected natural area, each petal represents a wildflower in that area. As you can imagine, it helps get the message across that with hundreds of visitors enjoying our wildflowers, if we each justify to ourselves, I’m just picking ONE flower, it can significantly alter the ecology by removing the resource and the beauty for future enjoyment.
If you see Caliso “wildflowering,” watch where you step (belly flowers) and come over to say, “Hello,” I would love to meet you! Yes, I will also be the mom teaching my son not to pick the wildflowers—a challenge indeed as he always grabs for flowers to give to mommy and daddy :)
We must preserve the natural world; for without nature, there would be no beauty to inspire us. ~Hap Hagood
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment