Environment : Notes about your surroundings.

WILD BLOOMS: With spring on the way, wildflowers are starting to brighten the local hills. Following is a list of plants now in bloom at Santiago Oaks Regional Park in Orange. Many of these plants can also be spotted elsewhere in the county:

Baby blue eyes; black sage; blue-eyed grass; ceanothus; chickweed; common cryptantha; encelia; fillaree; ground pink; johnny jump-ups; Mariposa lily; miner’s lettuce; mustard; popcorn flower; snakeweed; western peony; wild cucumber; yellow sweet clover; fiesta flower; bush mallow;

Bindweed; blue dicks; California poppy; chia; coast four o’clock; deadly nightshade; fiddleneck; fuschia-flowering gooseberry; Indian paintbrush; lupine; matchweed; miniature lotus; oxalis; purple nightshade; tidy tips; wild buckwheat; wild radish; yellow yarrow; sticky-leaf monkey flower; gilia.

The bulletin reminds that wildflowers carry the seeds of next year’s plants--picking them can reduce the number of plants and flowers in future seasons.