A.V.'S HUE AND CRY POPPIES, OTHER WILDFLOWERS PUTTING ON A SPECIAL SHOW.Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer LANCASTER - The best wildflowers in years have created fields of orange poppies, yellow goldfields n. 1. A small slender woolly annual (Lasthenia chrysostoma) with very narrow opposite leaves and branches bearing solitary golden-yellow flower heads; it grows from Southwestern Oregon to Baja California and Arizona; - it is often cultivated. , blue lupine lupine or lupin (l  `pĭn), any species of the genus Lupinus, annual or perennial herbs or shrubs of the family Leguminosae (pulse family). and lavender davy gillea from west Lancaster to Llano lla·no n. pl. lla·nos A large, grassy, almost treeless plain, especially one in Latin America. [Spanish, plain, from Latin pl . Fed by winter rains that were little more than average but which came in three torrential storms at the right time, Antelope Valley's wildflowers are being described as the best since 1998, or maybe 1995, or even 1991. ``It is superb,'' said Milt Stark, Antelope Valley's pre-emininent wildflower wildflower Any flowering plant that grows without intentional human aid. Wildflowers are the source of all cultivated garden varieties of flowers. A wildflower growing where it is unwanted is considered a weed. expert. Poppies have formed wide plains of orange in the western valley and on south-facing hillsides. They are even showing up in fields among subdivisions around Palmdale, Lancaster and Quartz Hill. Stark, an 81-year-old retired Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County probation officer, in 1991 published a local wildflower guide that is the best reference for people with no botanical knowledge. Stark said he visited the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve The Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve is a California wildlife reserve located in the rural westside of the Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County. Constitutionally, it is a state park. Its namesake is the state flower, the California Poppy. on Monday morning and pronounced the blooms ``awesome.'' ``They are fabulous,'' he said. ``It's worth a trip out there.'' Poppies began blooming in March, a little earlier than usual. When the blooms will peak isn't known. If rain arrives as predicted this week, it could extend a healthy display through Lancaster's California Poppy California poppy: see poppy. California poppy Annual garden plant (Eschscholzia californica) in the poppy family, native to the western coast of North America and naturalized in parts of southern Europe, Asia, and Australia. Festival April 26-27. Rancher Terry Munz, whose grandfather began farming the area around what is now the poppy reserve in 1906, said more poppies are continuing to bloom. ``The poppies are all over the place, that's for sure,'' said Munz. ``It's just fields of them - for miles, too.'' Munz's grandmother sold the state 900 acres for the reserve more than 30 years ago. Wildflower watchers note that the blooms that appear differ each year, depending on the amount of rain or snow, when it falls and temperatures. Owl's clover, for example, usually blooms in bunches, but this year is sparse. ``It seems like every year it's a little bit different,'' Munz said. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) Photographer and painter Steve Wang takes advantage of the summerlike weather Monday to photograph poppies. (2 -- color) The heavy rains and warm days have made this year's show of poppies the most beautiful in years, say experts. Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News |
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