Field journal

Seed-mix wildflowers on bare ground

Woodland Hilltop

  • A small plant with deep blue, bell-shaped flowers and round, toothed gray-green leaves grows from bare reddish soil, with a shaded path behind it.

    A wildflower from the native wildflower mix, probably California bluebell (Phacelia campanularia), on bare soil at Woodland Hilltop Arbory.

One of the native wildflowers from the seed mix we sowed at Woodland Hilltop Arbory, in bloom on bare ground beside a path in mid-June. We sowed the mix in the old mine ditches (several times from January through March 2025), in the contour swales and on soil newly exposed by the fuel-reduction work. Whenever we do trail work, we spread some grass and flower seed afterward to help prevent erosion on the trails.

From the photo, this one looks like California bluebell (Phacelia campanularia, also called desert bluebell): deep blue, bell-shaped flowers over round, toothed leaves.

Project Woodland Hilltop restoration

Theme Ecological restoration

All field journal entries More from Woodland Hilltop More on Woodland Hilltop restoration More on Ecological restoration

More from Woodland Hilltop

  • At night, a black-and-white skunk with its bushy tail raised stands in short green grass beside a dirt track, lit by a bright beam, with its shadow on the track behind it. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Two skunks on a November night

    Two skunks crossed a grassy track on the hilltop at Woodland Hilltop Arbory at about 8:20 pm on November 21, 2025, caught in the beam of a…

  • Small yellow-and-white tidy tips and pale blue baby blue eyes flowers grow among flat stones lining a shallow swale. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Wildflowers in the swales

    Tidy tips (Layia platyglossa) and baby blue eyes (Nemophila menziesii) are blooming in one of the rock-lined contour swales at Woodland…

  • A single spike of deep blue-and-white lupine flowers rises from wood-chip mulch, with young lupine leaves at its base and blurred green shrubs and trees behind. +2 photos

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Lupine through the wood-chip mulch

    Lupine (Lupinus sp.) was flowering through the wood-chip mulch at Woodland Hilltop Arbory on April 6, 2025, among low, leafy shrubs, on…

  • Seen from a drone flying low over a hilltop, two tall pines and an oak stand at the edge of a slope of wood-chip mulch and low gray-green plants, with wooded ridges and wispy clouds beyond. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    A low drone pass over the mulched hilltop

    On the afternoon of March 23, 2025, we flew a small drone low over the top of Woodland Hilltop Arbory, skimming the masticated ground.…

  • A gloved hand holds a smooth brown acorn topped by a thick, golden, fuzzy cup, with yellow dust on the glove's fingers and leaf litter and wood chips on the ground below.

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Golden-cupped acorn on the hilltop

    An acorn with a thick, golden, felted cup, held in a work glove at Woodland Hilltop Arbory on October 28. Yellow dust, probably fuzz from…

  • The Milky Way runs up a starry night sky above dark silhouettes of oaks and pines, with a faint pale glow and a few small lights along the horizon. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    Milky Way over the hilltop

    On a clear night at Woodland Hilltop Arbory, around 9 pm on September 29, the Milky Way stood over the oaks and pines on the hilltop, with…

  • Aerial view across a hilltop slope of pale wood-chip mulch and dry grass dotted with small green shrubs, among gray-green pines and darker oaks, with forested hills and a distant ridge beyond. +1 photo

    · Woodland Hilltop

    The hilltop from the air in late summer

    We flew a drone over Woodland Hilltop Arbory on the afternoon of September 22, 2024, at the end of the dry season. From above,…