When I want a closer brush with nature than my own garden provides, I usually go to the local botanic garden but, as my January visit showed me, it's not particularly tranquil at present. Then it dawned on me that I haven't visited Madrona Marsh Preserve since January 2019. It's a natural wetland area that provides a sanctuary for birds in the middle of the nearby city of Torrance. A canceled appointment on Tuesday morning opened up an unexpected opportunity to pay a visit.
This post focuses on the native plant garden surrounding the Preserve's Nature Center, directly across the street from the marsh itself. I'll cover my visit to the marsh in a separate post on Friday.
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The Nature Center's building wasn't open to visitors on Tuesday morning but the garden was of greater interest anyway
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These bush sunflowers, Encelia californica, were the most prominent floral features in both the native plant garden and the marsh itself. Their sheer numbers and bright color made them hard to miss.
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The first thing I noticed once inside the garden was the sound of the birds chirping and the bees buzzing. As the marsh and the Nature Center are surrounded by a mix of busy roads, condominiums and businesses on all sides, it was surprising how well the sounds of nature masked them.
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This was the garden's only water feature but the birds were all over it
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The ever-popular bug house was prominently featured
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The plants were roughly organized by local ecosystems (coastal scrub, chaparral, desert, etc.) but I've loaded my photos in alphabetical order rather than the order in which I encountered them. Although some plants were individually identified by signs, most were not and I spent a considerable amount of time working on plant names following my visit. My cell phone's plant identification feature helped (it's getting better!), as did clues provided by signs scattered around the garden.
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Many of the plant signs were almost buried within the foliage and at least one provided photos without plant names. All relied exclusively on common names and many plants weren't identified at all.
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I was very impressed by this bushy Arctostaphylos. I'd love to have one like this in my own garden.
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I do have Artemisia californica in my garden. Pruned hard 2+ months ago, it's growth has exploded since our rainy January.
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The flowers of this Astragulus trichopodus (rattlepod) were less interesting than its seedpods
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I think this is Berberis nevinii (syn. Mahonia nevinii)
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The red fairy duster (Calliandra californica) was found in the garden's desert plant area
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No California native garden is complete without Ceanothus. I can't name the variety.
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This Cercocarpus betuloides, commonly known as mountain mahogany, was new to me. It's a large shrub with masses of small yellow flowers.
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There were a lot of Dudleyas scattered about
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I think this one is Eriodictyon califonicum, also known as Yerba santa, but I could be wrong. The plant is used in traditional medicine to treat asthma and upper respiratory ailemts. It's also the primary nectar source for checkerspot butterflies.
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My brain identified this as a trailing Lantana at the time of my visit but I questioned that identification when I looked at this photo. It might be Mirabilis laevis, also known as desert wishbone bush.
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This isn't the lupine I see growing alongside local roads but it might be Lupinus chamissonis, aka dune bush lupine
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Rhus integrifolia (lemonade berry) grows all over my own area but they don't bloom nearly as heavily as those I found at the Nature Center
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This appears to be Rosa minutifolia, aka Baja rose
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This hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) had a head start on the Cleveland sages , which were just getting started
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I think this is Verbena lilacina 'De la Mina'. I have a few in my garden, although they're not looking nearly this good.
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I'll share my walk through the marsh on Friday.
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material © 2012-2023
by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
It was most interesting to read about your visit Kris and I look forward to the second part. Love the insect hotel đ
ReplyDeleteThat may be the biggest bug house I've seen yet, Anna!
DeleteLooks like my kind of place. I'll have to check it out when I'm out there next time. Time has slipped away during the pandemic, hasn't it?
ReplyDeleteYes, the pandemic period feels like an extended void, from which we're only just emerging, Beth. Timing is everything if you visit the Madrona Marsh. Their website offers a virtual tour covering a range of seasons. which you may want to check out before visiting.
DeleteThere were many marshy low spots in multiple places in the area east of Manhattan, Hermosa, Redondo, etc before Europeans arrived. Beavers once lived here. Farming then development flattened out the land and rain was directed to concrete channels and thence to the Pacific.
ReplyDeleteI imagine that garden looked dead last summer--now it is alive again. Rain is magic, and forecasts say we've got some on the way! I had to retreat indoors--the wind is blowing pretty good here.
'de la Mina' was a big disappointment here. Not sure why. Multiple plants, multiple places--they did not like any of them.
The wind last night produced sounds from a horror movie, HB! However, we had no damage, although I saw signs of a bit of that on my now daily walk through the neighborhood - one half-dead tree came down but it didn't look like there was much, if any, damage to the metal fence the trunk came down on. I passed a gardener taking our a large branch from another tree fronting the street so I'm guessing it was also broken by the wind.
Delete'De la Mina' hasn't been impressive here either. I added 2 more plants this fall in a different area and only time will tell if that and the January rainfall make a difference.
Interesting to see some of your Californian native plants - most of which are not known to me. We have Artemisia californica in our local botanical garden, planted in a demonstration garden for Mediterranean climate appropriate plants. I love the cola like smell of the foliage when crushed. That arctostaphylos is just gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI'm more used to the tree-like forms of Arctostaphylos but I instantly fell in love with the bushy one I discovered at the Nature Center. It'd be a better fit for my garden than the others I've seen. Now to find it...
DeleteI love the plant palette there. So many plants that I want to try, especially the mountain mahogany. Makes me feel a little nostalgic for the desert southwest.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed by the mountain mahogany too, Jerry. I can't say I've ever seen it anywhere else, though maybe it's less noticeable in a landscape when it's not in flower. The bees loved it.
DeleteWhat a lovely collection of plants!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't a manicured space and the disorder characteristic of many native plant gardens would make me crazy but the display still argues for the value of including these plants in local gardens.
DeleteA lovely space. Nice to see native things in their own space. Look forward to seeing your post on the marsh itself.
ReplyDeleteThe native plant garden surrounding the Nature Center was packed with flowering plants - the preserve itself is more about the overall landscape and the birds. I should have brought my telephoto lens.
DeleteHello Kris and thank you so much for dropping by my "no cheating-memory keeper" ? of a blog .. LOL .. I too suffer the "oh oh" .. digging where possible bulbs are .. I try to make notes but some how they don't tell the whole story.
ReplyDeleteThis place is amazing .. again so foreign with plants we don't see here, and that is always interesting to me . Great photos !
Some of those plants weren't familiar to me either, CGJ, and I live just 9 miles away!
DeleteSo many great natives, a good place to get ideas for well-adapted flora. I'm glad more public gardens are featuring more natives, spreading the word.
ReplyDeleteI like the way the Nature Center's garden made a point of featuring the range of different ecosystems prevalent in Southern California. The local botanic garden's California plant section doesn't offer anything that comprehensive.
DeleteSo wonderful to see so much in bloom! Up here, we're covered in snow, and the ground is frozen. I had hired some help to dig a few things up tomorrow, but unless we get a major thaw, I think we're going to have to reschedule. It's so weird to have winter when normally things would be exploding into bloom. That bug house is just fabulous!
ReplyDeleteAlthough we haven't been hit with the winter weather overload you have, we're also experiencing weather whiplash, Anna. It had been feeling like spring here but that shifted soon after I visited the marsh. Clouds, high winds and colder temperatures moved in Tuesday afternoon.
DeleteI love finding out about these islands of nature that still exist in urban areas. Lots of cool plants. Encelia californica is criminally underused in gardens.
ReplyDeleteEncelia californica is a fabulous plant, although the breadth of its spread within the Preserve was somewhat intimidating. I'm tempted to find some seeds and try it on my back slope, though.
DeleteThis garden looks much more rewarding, with interesting plants.
ReplyDeleteUnlike the marsh itself, the area surrounding the nature center is densely planted and more closely tended but it does a good job of highlighting the more decorative species of California native plants.
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