As the rains soak in and the sun shines, the early bloomers will begin to splash Orange County’s wild hillsides with color. One likely candidate is prickly phlox, a three-foot shrub that explodes with pinkish flowers.

The phlox can bloom as early as February, one wildflower authority says, and can be found in open portions of the county’s chaparral habitat. It favors dry hillsides.

The word “prickly” suits this native plant. Its leaves are pointy and sharp, despite the inviting blossoms. It even has something of a prickly nature: the plants, which thrive in decomposed granite, often grow alone.

Look for rosy-pink flowers 1 to 11/2 inches across, with a white center and a long tube.

The plant grows year-round but blooms only from mid-winter through summer. One local expert says the phlox flowers should become more visible within the next month; once it starts, their blooming season can be lengthy.

Orange County’s wildflower watchers say there are already a few early blooms of a variety of species in the coastal sage scrub and chaparral plant communities. Wild cucumber and milkmaids are opening at Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; Carbon Canyon Regional Park has monkeyflower; a few California poppies can be seen at O’Neill Regional Park; at Riley Wilderness Park, shooting stars are showing leaves but not yet flowering, according to county park rangers.

Experts are hopeful for a showy wildflower year because of recent rains, but they say it’s a bit early yet. The hillsides are greening up but not yet bursting with the smells and colors that signal wildflower season in full force.

Scientific name: Leptodactylon californicum
Sources: Biology professor Bob Allen, Irvine Valley College and Santa Ana College; “Flowering Plants: the Santa Monica Mountains, Coastal & Chaparral Regions of Southern California,” by Nancy Dale.
Next week: Bufflehead
Illustration by: Cindy O’Dell

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