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Foothill and Mountain Plant Photos |
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| Sierra Nevada Plants Foothill Plants Northern California Flowers Oak Trees | ||
| New photos here August 26 and here October 26, 2025 (captions in red) | ||
| Click photo for a larger view (pictures open in a new window) | ||
| Sierra Nevada | ||
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| A lone lodgepole pine | Corn lilies | Nature's rock garden |
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| Sierra junipers | Red Leaves | Gnarled roots |
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| Monster Tree | Dead Manzanita on carpet of live plants | Chinquapin |
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| Shooting Star | Sugar Pine Cones | Red leaves near Rock Creek |
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| Dogwood Leaves, Nelder Grove, Sierra National Forest | Lilly Pond, Old Wishon Road | Shooting Star in meadow near Stargazer Rock |
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| Mushroom, Sierra National Forest | Returning to the earth | Azalea in Nelder Grove |
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| Cattail, Sierra Nevada | Dead lodgepole pines near Mammoth Lakes CA | Life on a rock |
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| California's green and gold | Fiesta flowers | Rusty fern |
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| Lichen on granite creates rock art | These succulents are common in high rocky areas | Large fern by Lewis Creek |
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| "Just right" tangy apples in a mountain orchard (J. Neely) | Elderberries in Sequoia National Park | Snow
plants are so-called because they often emerge when snow is still on the ground |
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| Growth of a single plant, mid-June |
Bunched
together, they create a |
Up close |
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| Aspens reflected in Silver Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada | Mountain mahogany on Panum Crater near Mono Lake |
Dogwood
near California Creek, |
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| Close-up of dogwood leaves |
Inside a hollow redwood stump in Nelder Grove |
Big striped leaf thistle |
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| Wildflowers gone to seed | Ripening manzanita berries | Dried seeds near June Lake |
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Bear clover AKA Mountain Misery |
Bear Clover in bloom | Hillside above Mono Lake |
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| High desert plants near Mono Lake, eastern Sierra Nevada | ||
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| This
bush provides a spot of bright fall color near Kaiser Pass |
New
growth rising out of the destruction of the 2015 Rough Fire |
Gooseberries - ripe and juicy, but covered with stickers |
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Dogwood near California Creek |
Pine
needles carpet the Chimney |
Ferns fading away, with mossy log segments in front |
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The red trunks of a manzanita forest |
Late in the season, the bark peels off in curls |
Reeds add a bright spot to Chiquito Creek |
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| "Tuck and roll" moss in Nelder Grove | Even in fall, moss remains bright green | The last of the black oak leaves |
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| Fascinating fungus in Nelder Grove | A clump of grass and seed pods in a mountain creek | Colorful leaves carpet the ground in Nelder Grove |
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| Unique
succulents like this are found in many Sierra Nevada mountain locations |
Blossoms appear late in the summer | A rugged-looking fern |
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| Ancient mossy log and large ferns on the Lewis Creek Trail | How many of these seeds will germinate next year? | Big leaf maple in Feather River Canyon |
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| Ripe elderberries in Kings Canyon Park | A
perfect combination of sun and shadow on the Wawona Meadow Loop Trail |
Multiple
colored leaves carpet |
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| Ripe berries, awaiting a hungry bird or bear | Cliff side plant along the road from Black Rock to Wishon | Five
weeks into fall, big leaf maple changes from green to gold |
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| Dogwood in the woods... | ...and close-up | Dogwood branch on the forest floor |
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| Ferns turning yellow as fall arrives in Yosemite | A 6-inch dogwood leaf in Nelder Grove | Wild strawberry plants in Buffin Meadow (Wes Thiessen_ |
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| Bay leaf on a hilltop near Highway 168 in the Sierra | Bear clover surrounded by fallen black oak leaves | Fern in California Creek near Nelder Grove |
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| An unusual mushroom near Willow Creek | This
determined reed made its way out from under a big log |
An unusual chlorophyll-free plant |
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| Corn lilies, AKA skunk cabbage | Not sure
what it is, but it provides a nice contrast among the green |
"Fuzzy" fungus near Wawona Meadow (by Susan Crandall) |
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Brilliant red dogwood leaves by the meadow (by Wes Thiessen) |
Fungus by the Wawona Meadow Loop Trail | Drying grass near Auberry and Bald Mountain Roads |
| Foothills (Sierra & Coast Mountains) | ||
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| Yerba Santa, AKA wild peach | Lace pods | Buckeye in fall |
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| Yellow & orange lichen; spring grass | Thistle blossom | Thistle ready to re-seed |
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| Jennifer & the mullein from Star Trek (J. Neely photo) | Mullein seed head | Spring
grass at Sawmill Flat Camp above Pine Flat Reservoir, Fresno County CA |
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| Soft & fuzzy grass in Mariposa County | Wild cucumber | Beautiful
flowers, but their smell caused us to call this stinkweed |
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| Gnarled but still-living Manzanita above Napa Valley | Manzanita close-up | Fall berries near Hensley Reservoir, Madera County |
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| Yerba Santa is taking over this rarely used pavement | Rural Madera County garden | More gnarly manzanita |
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| Buckeyes near Oakhurst CA | Miner's lettuce near Hensley Lake | Wild grass seed near Millerton Lake |
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| Buckeye near Millerton | Remains
of manzanita killed in 1981 fire at San Joaquin Gorge |
Close up of the base |
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| Fremontia, also known as Flannel Bush | Waves of wild grain |
Miner's lettuce after seed formation |
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| Nature's artistry - South Fork, Merced River | Don't be tempted to pick these pretty poison oak leaves | Buckeye blossoms along Trimmer Road, Fresno County |
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Typical "candle" shape of buckeye |
A variety of buckwheat |
Jalapeños in the Neely garden, Summer, 2014 |
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| The bones of a long dead bush |
Buckeye adds some color to the fall palette |
Lots of tall dead grass |
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New shoots of an elderberry bush |
Rare white shooting stars | Poppies next to Pine Flat Lake |
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This rocky hill top is covered with flowers |
Dead plants have beauty too |
This
spectacular 4-inch flower near |
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Redbud along the Merced River Canyon |
Redbud close-up | Redbud and ponderosa pine |
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| Redbud in the Merced River canyon near the confluence with the South Fork | ||
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| Mushroom near Hensley Lake |
Lone lupine at Hensley Lake, February 2015 |
Popcorn flowers near Pine Flat |
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| Wild oats going to seed near Pine Flat Reservoir | Spring scene near Pine Flat | As a kid I thought of these as miniature orange trees |
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Another mutant mullein, near Oakhurst |
An ancient, upside-down tree stump |
Germinating buckeye seed |
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| Lupines
and fiddlenecks between Trimmer Springs Road and the Kings River (by Wes Thiessen) |
A
perfectly designed scene at Edison Point by Pine Flat Lake (Thiessen) |
Leafless tree and poppies at Pine Flat Lake (Thiessen) |
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| Poppies up close |
Along the Edison Point Trail at Pine Flat |
Blue Dicks, one of the most common flowers in the foothills |
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Filaree blossoms and seed pods |
Wind-blown bush lupine on Pincushion Peak |
Lupines and poppies on the steep side of the peak |
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| A massive
field of fiddlenecks near Dry Creek in Tulare County |
Another patch of poppies |
Poppies and fallen bull pine branch |
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| A fine example of miner's lettuce | New leaf buds on buckeye bush | An interesting orange mushroom |
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| Nature's planter box | Massive crop of lace pods, Spring 2016 | Brilliant orange field of fiddlenecks |
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| Wild cucumber seed pod | Grass at Pine Flat Lake, Spring 2016 | Strikingly beautiful mushrooms at the San Joaquin Gorge |
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| Succulent
in the moss on a rocky bank near the San Joaquin Gorge bridge |
Old dead limbs and new green grass make a nice picture | Dramatic dead manzanita on the San Joaquin River Trail |
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| Mushrooms on a rotting log | Dried wild cucumber seed pods | Dead plant stands out against the gray of Pine Flat Reservoir |
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Last year's tall grass, beaten down by heavy rainfall |
Dramatic
old sycamore by |
The
brilliant red of poison oak leaves |
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| View into the San Joaquin River Gorge | Redbud above the San Joaquin | Along the Bridge Trail at the San Joaquin Gorge |
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| Milkweed seed pod and guests | Dry mullein stalks by Old Yosemite Road | Mullein, bent but unbroken |
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| Giant
puffball mushrooms, above Road 620 in Madera County |
Big enough to use as a football | My favorite foothill tree, the manzanita |
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Wild oats at Hensley |
A lot of buckeye seeds, all lined up |
Sycamore
tree near the Bear Wallow |
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| Poison oak leafing out | A huge sycamore by the Kings River | Sycamore near the Upper Kings River |
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| Colorful blue oak near the upper Kings River | A forest of leafless buckeye trees | Hanging garden above Mill Flat Creek |
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| An excellent mullein near Oakhurst | Roots of a very determined manzanita | Muted fall colors near Sky Harbor on Millerton Lake |
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| Buckeye by Old Yosemite Road near Oakhurst | New leaves on sycamores | Last year's thistle blossom |
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| Golden leaves | Dew on new grass at San Joaquin Gorge, February 2023 | Filaree,
gone to seed; you can see why this plant is sometimes called storkbill |
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| Fern above Pine Flat Lake | Fluffy grass at Lake Millerton | Grass, pounded down by a hard rain storm the night before |
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| I've heard this called a caterpillar plant | Buckeye at Pine Flat Reservoir | Elderberries near Mile High off Auberry Road |
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| Last summer's wild flowers | ||
| Northern California | ||
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| Probably some type of maple, in McArthur-Burney State Park | A very thorny sticker bush in Lava Beds National Monument | Another unidentified plant in the Monument |
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| Spider webs in a tree in McArther-Burney | ||
