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Santa Teresa Park Wildflower Hike, 2/25/22 by Ronald Horii
This has been a strange winter. We had heavy rain in December, then no rain in January and February, with some unusually warm days. Some of the wildflowers are starting to come out early. On 2/25/22, I went on a hike on one of the best wildflower routes in Santa Teresa County Park. I started on the Mine Trail below the Pueblo Area, took it to the Fortini Trail, climbed up the Stile Ranch Trail, and retuned on the Mine Trail. These trails pass through hillsides covered with serpentine rocks. Serpentine produces a soil that is toxic to many invasive non-native plants, but support the growth of native plants that have evolved to tolerate it. That's why serpentine areas are some of the best places to see native plants. These are some of the wildflowers I saw.
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CNPS (California Native Plant Society) has a plant list for the Stile Ranch Trail: https://www.cnps-scv.org/images/plant-lists/StileRanchPlantList2016.pdf
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CNPS had a hike on the trail on 3/8/20 (just before the pandemic shutdown): https://tinyurl.com/y5jgez35
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I scouted out the trail just prior to that on 3/6/20: https://tinyurl.com/vbje2qn
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For more about serpentine and the plants it supports, see: https://parks.sccgov.org/endemics-and-serpentine-specialists
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Here's the County Parks' guide to serpentine and wildflowers: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Wildflowers-of-the-Serpentine-Realm.pdf
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For more on Santa Teresa Park and maps, see: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/santa-teresa-county-park
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Here's the County Parks' wildflower guide: https://parks.sccgov.org/Whats-Happening/Documents/WildflowerHikes.pdf
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Here are more of my pictures of Santa Teresa Park: http://www.stpfriends.org/#newpictures
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The Bay Area Ridge Trail runs through Santa Teresa Park. It includes the Stile Ranch and Mine Trails. Here's the map: https://ridgetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2020_SantaClara_SantaTeresaandCaleroLosAlamitosCreeks.pdf
This has been a strange winter. We had heavy rain in December, then no rain in January and February, with some unusually warm days. Some of the wildflowers are starting to come out early. On 2/25/22, I went on a hike on one of the best wildflower routes in Santa Teresa County Park. I started on the Mine Trail below the Pueblo Area, took it to the Fortini Trail, climbed up the Stile Ranch Trail, and retuned on the Mine Trail. These trails pass through hillsides covered with serpentine rocks. Serpentine produces a soil that is toxic to many invasive non-native plants, but support the growth of native plants that have evolved to tolerate it. That's why serpentine areas are some of the best places to see native plants. These are some of the wildflowers I saw.
....................................
CNPS (California Native Plant Society) has a plant list for the Stile Ranch Trail: https://www.cnps-scv.org/images/plant-lists/StileRanchPlantList2016.pdf
....................................
CNPS had a hike on the trail on 3/8/20 (just before the pandemic shutdown): https://tinyurl.com/y5jgez35
....................................
I scouted out the trail just prior to that on 3/6/20: https://tinyurl.com/vbje2qn
....................................
For more about serpentine and the plants it supports, see: https://parks.sccgov.org/endemics-and-serpentine-specialists
....................................
Here's the County Parks' guide to serpentine and wildflowers: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Documents/Wildflowers-of-the-Serpentine-Realm.pdf
....................................
For more on Santa Teresa Park and maps, see: https://parks.sccgov.org/santa-clara-county-parks/santa-teresa-county-park
....................................
Here's the County Parks' wildflower guide: https://parks.sccgov.org/Whats-Happening/Documents/WildflowerHikes.pdf
....................................
Here are more of my pictures of Santa Teresa Park: http://www.stpfriends.org/#newpictures
....................................
The Bay Area Ridge Trail runs through Santa Teresa Park. It includes the Stile Ranch and Mine Trails. Here's the map: https://ridgetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/2020_SantaClara_SantaTeresaandCaleroLosAlamitosCreeks.pdf
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