Landscape & Nature Photographer — Lightroom Expert & Tutor
San Diego County is a biodiversity hot-spot within California (a biodiversity hot-spot itself). In the county's varied topography, botanists recognize 26 different vegetation patterns. San Diego County is the most biodiverse county in the United States! About 1700 native plants are growing here — more than in Hawaii, either of the Dakotas, or the entire state of Alaska! (yes, Alaska is cold, but also roughly 145 times larger in land than San Diego County).
Obviously, attempting to photograph San Diego County's native plants is a silly effort that no person in their right mind should take on. But since I do like to photograph plants, why not at least organize the results of that passion a little bit better? And that's what you're looking at. This archive is sorted in the chronological order in which I've added the individual entries, newest one first.
In February, while hiking for the first time on the lovely Fry-Koegel Trail, and not far from the starting point either, I came upon an unknown shrub — given its close proximity to houses I was skeptical that it was a native of course, but the “Seek” app spit out the name Ribes aureum aka Golden Currant almost immediately, and confirmed that it was indeed a native.
Photographic plant portrait for Sambucus cerulea, commonly known as Blue Elder (with alternative scientific names Sambucus mexicana and Sambucus nigra ssp. caerulea).
Photographic plant portrait for Allium praecox (Early Onion), a perennial herb that grows in Southern California’s chaparral and sage scrub plant communities.
Photographic plant portrait for Scuttelaria tuberosa, a small herb in the mint family known by the common name Danny’s Skullcap.
Weed’s Mariposa Lily (Calochortus weedii) is among the more stunning species in the Calochortus genus, if you ask me. The complexity of these flowers is quite striking. In San Diego County we only have the varierty weedii.
Photographic plant portrait for Platystemon californicus, commonly known as Creamcups — a pretty little flower in the poppy family that will show in surprisingly large numbers!