Colusa National Wildlife Refuge 🎕 Summer Wildflowers

Mid-August

California Poppy

European Heliotrope

Bottlebrush

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge Wildflowers, Weeds and Plants

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There's a wide variety of blooms to be found along the auto tour route of the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in August...

Trefoil

Asthma Weed ~ Flaxleaf Fleabane

Bottlebrush

Bindweed 🎕 Colusa National Wildlife Refuge 🎕 Northern California Wildflowers

During our visit to the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge, we saw so many wonderful wildflowers growing along the auto tour route!

This is Field Bindweed (Convolvulus arvensis), also known as perennial morning glory, smallflowered morning glory, creeping jenny, and possession vine.

When I first started taking photos of wildflowers, I swore my camera was out to make things difficult. I couldn't get the macro setting to work and my flowers kept coming out blurry. Turns out, it wasn't my camera's fault, but the operator (me!). I've learned that I actually need to take the photo from further back and zoom in and it comes out crystal clear, rather than trying to get as close as possible and struggling with getting it to focus.

Photography, just like everything else is a learning process. You learn about yourself and more about how to use your equipment until it becomes a joy to do...

Flower Identification Help 🎕 Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

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Does anyone happen to know what kind of flower this is? We found it growing along the auto tour route at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in early-August...

Thanks so much for your help!

Yellow Wildflowers 🎕 Northern California

Today's post is all about my favorite yellow wildflowers!

It seems like we see more yellow wildflowers than any other color, but maybe that's because they grow in such large patches as opposed to a small blue Chicory flower here and there.

Yellow Star Thistle (Centaurea solstitialis) might not be the most unique yellow wildflower, but there are so many purple Milk Thistle at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge that I like seeing the burst of yellow along the auto tour route.

See what I mean about those purple Milk Thistles! These were at the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area in mid-April, creeping in on a bunch of White Mustard (Sinapis alba). White Mustard can be seen growing everywhere in the central valley and is anything but white.

I couldn't do a post about yellow wildflowers without mentioning the Mule's Ears (Wyethia) of Lassen VNP. These cheery beauties cover a huge amount of the mountainside when you're driving through the park and look just as pretty from up-close.

We spotted this lovely Water Primrose (Ludwigia peploides) at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge and we've also seen it at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge as well. It's considered an invasive weed, but it sure has beautiful flowers and the grebes love swimming around in it.

Which color of wildflower do you see the most often?

Poppies for remembrance...

California Poppies

Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

Eschscholzia californica
Also known as: golden poppy, California sunlight, cup of gold.
Became the official state flower of California in 1903.

Orange Wildflowers 🎕 Northern California

It's time to celebrate some of the beautiful orange wildflowers I've spotted growing around northern California!

First off, is the Western Wallflower (Erysimum capitatum) growing in Lassen VNP. We spotted this particular flower along the side of the road through the park in Mid-June, but we also saw several when we hiked to Ridge Lakes in early-August, too.

The next orange wildflower should get an award for most adorableness and greatest name. I present to you the Menzies' Fiddleneck (Amsinckia menziesii) we saw on the Logan Creek trail of the Sacramento NWR in late-March. I told you it was cute!

This Sulphur-flower Wild Buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum) is technically considered a yellow flower, but this one looks pretty orange to me and I'm including it because of its incredible location. We spotted this one on the trail up Brokeoff Mountain. (Lassen VNP, Late-August)

And finally, I don't think I could consider myself a true Californian if I didn't include Poppies (Eschscholzia californica) in today's post. No, these aren't from the super-bloom in Southern California, they're a humble little cluster growing at the Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in late-April.

What is your state flower? Do you love it or do you wish it was something else? (🤣 Bonus points if I just made you look up your state flower!!!)

Weeds and Wildflowers 🎕 Colusa National Wildlife Refuge

Field Bindweed ~ mid-August

Prickly Lettuce ~ mid-August

There always has to be one I don't know the identity of!