Sunshine's Flowers: One is Not Like the Other

Will the native yellow flower please stand up? 

Even as summer approaches, the estuary is bathed in swatches of yellow. Small daisy-like flowers dot pathways with intense color, contrasting beautifully with more muted sea grass tones. But one yellow flower is not like the other.

Meet the encelia californica, more commonly referred to as the bush sunflower. It blooms most vibrantly during the rainy season but it can still be seen near the visitor center this time of year. It has a dark brown center with canary yellow petals and, as the name indicates, is often seen in California coastal areas. 

Yes, this flower is indigenous. 

Surprisingly, each bush sunflower is a bouquet of many individual flowers or florets, making the plant a pollinating machine.   

Most likely, however, while admiring those patches of sunshine-like flowers in the grass, you are not admiring the bush sunflower. 

Now meet the garland chrysanthemum. Some are yellow, others white and yellow. Instead of a dark brown center, their interior disc is as gold as their petals, which are smaller than it’s native doppelganger. And technically speaking, they don't belong in the estuary.

Not an indigenous plant, the chrysanthemum is an invasive species hailing from Asia. Many patrons of the park have expressed the beauty and abundance of the plant, only to discover from a docent or educational coordinator they are trespassers.

And it's beautiful exterior masks a much more insidious quality ---- phytochemicals. 

Similar to the tannins produced by Eucalyptus trees, inborn phytochemicals in the chrysanthemum stave off neighboring plant growth. Combine this with their large seed bank, a pollinating season that conflicts with bird nesting seasons, and limited man power to haul them away, and it is likely our foreign visitor is going nowhere fast.

Indigenous or no, the colorful clusters will slowly shrink in the hot summer heat ---- so catch them while you can.