Memorial Day I took the ferry over to Tiburon to check out Old St. Hilary’s. I was googling around about wildflowers in Marin, and found this description from the landmarks society website “Wildflowers surround Old St. Hilary’s, Tiburon’s iconic hillside landmark, which was originally a mission church named for St. Hilaire, Bishop of Poitiers. The heirs of John Reed—who held title to El Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, the Mexican land grant that included the Tiburon Peninsula—deeded the one-quarter acre site for $2 to the Archdiocese of San Francisco, which built the church as a place of worship for local railroad workers in 1888.”

I was sold, and love any excuse to get on a boat in the bay. It’s not a long walk from the ferry drop off to Old St. Hillary’s. In early spring you can find the super rare Tiburon Paint Brush (Castilleja neglecta). I was able to track down a couple wildflowers while I was there. Didn’t see a single other person the whole time I was there except for a lone jogger.

Mariposa lily cuteness was in bloom all over the place. Lots of little black beetle like bugs in most of them.

Thanks to Annie’s I can identify crap loads of plants I was clueless about earlier, but I’m still a rookie. As a junior level California native plant identifier, I think the above is a Brodiaea of some sort, but that’s all I know. They were everywhere!

Keep an eye out for Dudleya blooms this time of year if you live near the coast. Guessing this is Dudleya farinosa. All of our backyard duds are in flower right now.

Lots and lots and lots of California poppies blooming all over the place. They were the cute little light orange guys.

I have four guesses of what this might be, but for now I’m going to call it Gosh Darn Yellow Composite. Update, thanks to a helpful flickr member help I have a positive id: Hemizonia congesta ssp. lutescens

This was another unknown (to me) until a kind flickr member ID’ed it for me as Silene californica. I love you flickr! Next year we’ll get our wildflower searching happening a little earlier when more is going on.