R: Rosebud Cherry.
Today I did what I’m going to call Street Naturing.
For those of you following along my Naturing adventures, you may remember that I have a side project where I’m trying to ID and document the various blossoms in SF that I’m interested in. Using https://bsm.sfdpw.org/urbanforestry/ (fyi, it takes FOREVER to first load, in case you go there) as a guide to the street trees in the city (since iNat focuses on flora and fauna in the wild), I made maps of the variety of blossoms I wanted to know. It’s A LOT. It is DAUNTING how many there are. Primarily, due to all the cultivars out there.
So, I’m not interested in having them ALL in my Blossoms database. But, I hand-picked the ones I would like to recognize. Most are Prunus, but I also want to have some sense of how they compare to Malus and Pyrus and other blossoms. It may end up just being pretty difficult to tell them apart in the end, but if that’s what I learn then that’s what I learn.
I covered what I’d bookmarked in my various Google Maps in my neighborhood and environs: Inner Sunset, Forest Hill, UCSF. Confirmed the Purple-leaf Plum blossoms are pretty much gone. The Japanese Crabapple are almost devastatingly gorgeous right now. Evergreen Pear and Hollyleaf Cherry may already be done? Or still to come? Rosebud Cherry and Yoshino Cherry are going strong. Kanzan Cherry awaits. And, the rest on my list are for another day.
While investigating, I came upon some Elegant Clarkia in bloom up on Forest Hill. Always nice to see native flowers in folks’ gardens.
And, a bit of my time was spent marveling at the incredible houses in Forest Hill and near UCSF. I mean, that brick-centered street of Edgewood Avenue that ends at the Edgewood Trailhead of the Interior Greenbelt? What is that about?? If I hadn’t stumbled onto a naturalist’s path during the pandemic, I can easily see having dived into more SF architecture and history instead.
Other than a California Scrub-Jay on Forest Hill, that was about it for my Street Naturing today. But, I realized Street Naturing (or maybe Neighborhood Naturing is a better sounding activity) is a thing. If you have a good guide, you can see a lot!
The Afternoon Naturalist 