Dear WeatherCat drought watchers, . . .
Another south African species that has found the arid California climate to it's liking is the
Amaryllis belladonna or "Naked lady" flower:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AmaryllisThese flowers get their name because their growing period is complete separated from blooming. As soon as there is enough rain, the plant produces rich green leaves and grows throughout winter into spring. After the rains stop, the leaves dry out and the plant appears to "disappear" until mid summer when:
The flowers appear on a stalk completely "naked" thus the name. Most likely this wild naked lady is a "gift" of a squirrel planting a bulb it thought was edible.
While this line of naked lady flowers is not exactly a wild scene, nonetheless this cannot be entirely cultivated either:
Naked ladies reproduce by creating new bulbs along side the old. So even if this line of naked ladies may have started out cultivated, there is no doubt they naturally increased the number of plants into the multitude seen here. Because the plants are trapped between the culvert and the wall, they can only form a line of blooms.
Finally, another example of my fondness for California poppies. These sure are hearty plants:
Obviously that's a small flower compared to my thumb, but still blooming nonetheless . . .
Cheers, Edouard