Flowers, a Mushroom, and a Bird.

January 6th, 2026

Lately I’ve been frequenting a local hiking trail near my house, well lately is an understatement, I’ve been going there since about May of last year at which point it was a complete desert like most of the rest of Southern California. Cactus lined the trail, dead plants, a few living ones here and there, still very beautiful.

Now, though, with a surprisingly large amount of rain this winter, the entire trail has been brought to life, with greenery pretty much everywhere, countless flowers all along the trail and its sides, and the cactuses have become something of an afterthought. It’s truly amazing what a little bit of water can do.

Today on my hike I took various photos of some of the things that have sprouted up with this rain, the first of which, and my favorite is this flower. It’s called a Smallseed Sandmat, or by its science name Euphorbia polycarpa it’s this absolutely TINY flower, about the size of Lincoln's head on the penny. I think that it’s my favorite that I found today as it reminds me of this type of coral called Zoanthids, and I’ve always felt like flowers are just the “land version” of corals.

The Smallseed Sandmat’s have just such an interesting color combination, and despite their small size feel just as detailed and beautiful as any other larger flower. Even the leaves that the flower grows off of are interesting as well, with a red border around your classical green leaf.

This next flower is actually a very interesting one, known as Oxalis pes-caprae or the Bermuda Buttercup, it is a very vibrant yellow, and I just absolutely love the “cup” look that it’s got going. They even grow on very tall stalks making these flowers pretty easy to spot and look at, unlike the previous ones.

The interesting part about them is that they are incredibly invasive, and native to South Africa. It’s probably bad that it’s out here in California for some reason, but I can think of many worse invasive things, because at least flowers like these are bringing people joy, or at least me, cause I like them.

This is a flower called the California Buckwheat, the scientific name is really long and boring so I’m not even going to bother. Unlike the other two flowers this can grow off of a bush, but also can grow from the floor, and is slightly larger than the Smallseed Sandmats, and I’m going to say it I feel like this is the perfect flower, because not only is it non-invasive and very beautiful, but it also is very much important to the California ecosystem, as numerous different species of animals use it for a food source- and it can even increase crop yields when planted nearby other plants! What a treasure.

I found some other flowers but I don’t really care about them as much, but this is a Mushroom. I truthfully do not know what type of mushroom it is, but I like this photo of it with my feet.

Cactus Wren Video

This here is a photo of a Cactus Wren, which I did not take and stole directly from Wikipedia. The link beneath leads to a video which I did take, of a cactus wren.

Not only is it the Arizona State bird, and the largest Wren in the United States, the Cactus Wren is a pretty damn cool bird. Well, they are a pretty normal bird I guess, but they build their nests inside of cacti (photo above), which is pretty dang cool, and they build fake nests in other cacti to deter predators.

I mean even though these birds are just brown and whatever it is still just so interesting how they have adapted to their environment, what a special thing. I mean heck, I just went for a hike pretty much and saw all of these things that look so normal, but when you really stop, look, and think about them there are so many awesome things you probably have overlooked every single day.

If you don’t keep an eye on the fauna how are you going to know what it’s up to?

That’s it!

James