NPS photo

Goldfields carpeting Coyote Ridge

Flowers are everywhere at Golden Gate in the spring and summer. Grasslands are usually the quickest to show color, with various forbs such as footsteps of spring, goldfields, and lomatium carpeting the fields with yellow and white. A few weeks later bulbs such as wild onion and brodea share their pinks and purple hues with lucky visitors. The park's scrublands may look scraggly and forbiding from a distance, but have many types of flowering shrubs. The sweet smell of coast blue blossom lets you know you have entered a chaparral area. The bright orange flowers of sticky monkey flower tip you off to bloom time on the coastal cliffs. Late summer bloomers include pearly everlasting and California aster. Cultivars of native plants have now become common in Bay area landscaping. You can see Douglas iris, California poppy, sea thrift, and seaside lavender gracing local flowerbeds. And don't forget the riparian species that grow along riparian forests such as the scarlet and seep monkey flowers, bleeding heart, and columbine. No matter where you are in the park, you will run into some wildflowers. And with the California floristic province being one of the most diverse in the country, you will have many new species to learn for years to come.