Simply wild about flowers

To find the wildflowers in Edgewood County Park's natural preserve requires a complete change of expectations. What turns out to be an outstanding display of native plants in a 467-acre park also turns out to be small.

Take the scarlet pimpernel -- its five salmon-colored petals, crimson at the flower's heart, are spread just a quarter-inch across. Or the purple sanicle, whose dark purple bloom is not much bigger than a pea. Or even the popcorn flower, a member of the forget-me-not family, whose cottony white bloom could pass for a Q-tip top.

Nestle these delicate, low-growing botanical treasures here and there through the brushy chaparral and leafy woodlands of Edgewood, off Interstate 280 in San Mateo County, and it's a good bet that a keen-eyed docent could come in handy.

Saturday, as happens for several weekends each spring, docents from the Friends of Edgewood led walks to help visitors appreciate the diversity of this park's natural inhabitants, where eight rare and endangered plants share soil with more than 50 other varieties of wildflower.

Without their help, how would one know that the wild cucumber, sprawling over vegetation next to the trail, doesn't bear fruit like its domesticated cousin but instead produces a spiky seed pod filled with bitter juice? And that inside the pod are four lima-bean-sized seeds that will eventually emerge with a force so powerful a bystander could be injured? Or that it has a tuberous root the size of a man's torso?

Toni Corelli, the author of the only book ever written with a complete list of the park's flora, loves to come upon a plant like this in the park, so she can share her knowledge. Edgewood is an old friend of hers -- and she's grateful that supporters of its natural inhabitants saved it from a county plan to make it a golf course.

As a child, she lived next to the park and found her way there frequently. Until she learned the scientific names, she created her own nomenclature. The madrone, its peeling bark revealing a smooth, bronzed trunk, she called the chocolate tree.

With a botany degree from San Jose State University, and many hours of further study in other San Mateo and Santa Clara county parks and wild lands, she's an environmental consultant as well as senior docent with the Edgewood Park Friends group. ``It's a dream come true,'' she said.

At each turn, she points out another variety and adds something extra. ``Oh, that's a yarrow,'' she said after one turn of the trail. ``If you plant it, and never let it bloom -- mow it, it makes a great lawn, and when you lie on it, it smells wonderful!''

Some of her comments are more practical. ``Low hanging poison oak!'' she calls as a branch approaches.

The beauty of this park is its combination of creek- and spring-fed woodlands, sun-baked swaths of scrubby chaparral and, cruising along its upper reaches, bands of serpentine rock. California's state rock -- perhaps because it is squeezed up through the edges of the Earth's mantle at fault lines -- has large amounts of iron and magnesium that make it very inhospitable for anything other than native plants.

In Edgewood, those natives spring out of the rocky soil. Sprinkled through the grass-covered serpentine are California poppies, the daisy-like tidy tips, and goldfields, a very miniaturized sunflower family bloom.

As the trails pass through the woodlands, scores of bay, live oak, blue oak and coastal oak trees bunch together in lush profusion.

This walk ends with the sweet smell of the blooms of a Fat Solomon's Seal, a plant whose root is said to make a good cough syrup ingredient or field remedy for another one of Edgewood's inhabitants -- poison oak.

``I love the smell of this part of the trail,'' Corelli said, and insists all her walkers take a sniff.

Then, it's off again for more: plants whose names enchant by sound alone -- the California polypody, virgin bower, succulent lupine, blue-eyed grass, cat's ears. The wildflowers display is at its peak, but Corelli saw one blossom, the four-spotted Clarkia, that gave her pause.

``It's a flower I'm sorry to see,'' she said. ``It's also called, `farewell-to-spring.' ''

IF YOU'RE INTERESTED

The docent-guided walks continue every Saturday until June 13. Call (866) GO-EDGEWOOD, or check http://www.friendsofedgewood.org/. The park's trails are open all year.