If you get lucky, you find Matilija poppies in late spring along a trail or canyon roadside in Southern California. Elegant with their stark white petals wrinkled like a fine linen suit, they also look a bit like an egg served sunny-side up. The flowers can reach seven inches across and the plants up to six feet. I shot this one on the trail up to Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside CA.
5 comments:
Oh boy, the fried egg flower gets blogged. I look forward to these on North Hill, a lesser companion of Mt. Rudioux. Does the Matilija come in pink? I could swear I saw some in the distance near Carpinteria, CA.
Pink? I only know those blindingly white flowers. Maybe you discovered a new breed. I remember the first time I saw them on a mountain road, I looked for the nearest pullout and ran back to see what they were. Ain't nature grander than we could make up?
Great photo, Pat! When I walk up Mt. Rubidoux, I sometimes try and imagine what it looked like before the city existed. Nearby, we know there was a Cahuilla Indian village. How did they see the Matilija? According to Temalpakh (the plants masterwork by Lowell Bean and Katherine Saubel), the Cahuilla called this flower Tewlavel Kulux'a ... which Bean and Saubel translate as Devil's Basket. I wish I could travel back in time to hear the story of how the plant got that name! — Pat Murkland.
Devil's Basket! In my wildest imaginings I can't figure that one out. Thanks for that bit of native history, Pat.
Anybody who tried making a basket from the prickly stems and pods might agree that the devil was involved.
I'm just back from the high desert--Pioneertown, CA--and the Matilijia were sprinkled all along the wash where we stayed. I'd never noticed them before.
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