Plants

One weekend in April, for the last nine years, nature lovers like you and me have taken to the streets (and trails) to document wildlife in their cities for the City Nature Challenge.

If you venture into San Diego's parks and wildlands this time of year, you're likely to see what look like bright, white flames rising above the green scrub.

on August 16, an unusual "dry lightning" storm rolled across the region. I slept through the storm's 2500 lightning strikes, and awoke to more than 650 wildfires in its wake.

This month's creature feature is perhaps one of the most relevant plants to wildfire in California. Meet Chamise.

Pictured above is a wreath I made last week, with cuttings from the Point Loma Native Plant Garden.

Just in time for the holiday season, this month's creature feature is one of our most festive native plants: Toyon

Before going live with North Star Naturalist last spring, I needed to figure out my logo. For a long time, I considered the symbolism of the acorn.

Halloween is coming and pumpkin patches are popping up all over town. But did you know San Diego has a native pumpkin too?

These things are big. The caterpillars, also known as hornworms, are juicy chonkers. The chrysalis is the size of your entire thumb.

Meet fragrant sumac, also known as basket bush. This plant, along with its close relative, skunkbush sumac, are just two of several poison oak look-alikes in San Diego.

Is it coral? Fancy poop? A ball of worms? This month's creature is a fungus, feeding on a fungus, feeding on dead oak wood.