Heat brings on the blooms

Deep inside the halls of IBM's Almaden Research Center, where some of Silicon Valley's biggest brains mull over lasers and nanotubes, a few scientists can't help but consider some of this spring's more pressing questions:

Are the goldfields and popcorn flower popping up in yellow and white bursts on the hills nearby? Lots of them? Already?

The San Jose research center sits amid green slopes and open space, where signs of the Bay Area's sudden spring are in full bloom. All around IBM, wildflowers are dotting hillsides more thickly than they usually would in March.

Those bright specks of native flora are putting on a similar show at parks all over the region, where the blast of hot weather over the last two weeks has brought patches of wildflowers out quickly. Flower watchers, such as IBM materials scientist Charlie Rettner, are busy taking them in.

But floral enthusiasts may not have much time to see the blooms in their prime. The record-setting temperatures may have coaxed many stems of red maids and owl's clover out of the ground this month, but could also fade this spring's wildflowers fast.

``Wherever you look, there's a lot going on,'' said Rettner, walking along a grassland trail near IBM Almaden dotted with birdseye gilia, popcorn flower and California poppy. ``You see something different every day.''

Wildflowers are the bloom of any wild or uncultivated plant. While some may sprout from seeds that escape from gardens or cultivated landscapes, it is the native wildflowers that mark the arrival of spring in the Bay Area.

The region has hundreds of kinds of wildflowers -- at Henry W. Coe State Park alone, just south of San Jose, more than 100 types have been identified. The flowers appear most often from late winter to late spring. Some emerge in March, with the peak season usually in April.

To flourish, the flowers' seeds need winter rains, followed by spring sun. Often, that sun is mixed with spring showers. But not this year. The heat wave has been steady, enticing many blooms to arrive more densely about a month earlier in the season, plant experts said.

``Out there in the natural world, timing really is everything,'' said independent environmental scientist Stuart Weiss. ``Some of the hottest slopes around the Santa Clara Valley are really experiencing a peak bloom.''

Good wildflower spots from Edgewood County Park and Natural Preserve near Redwood City to Almaden Quicksilver County Park near South San Jose are drawing crowds of visitors. Popular wildflower trails in the hills of Marin and Alameda counties are also showing their colors.

``The suddenness of it is what is so stunning,'' said Georgia Stigall, president of the Santa Clara Valley chapter of the California Native Plant Society. ``It's very fun.''

At IBM Almaden, Rettner and a dozen other scientists have been so taken by the annual flower show on the facility's 690 acres that they created a Web site (www.almaden.ibm.com/almaden/almaden/

environs/wildflowers) dedicated to the IBM wildflowers. Rettner, 50, who became interested in wildflowers about 10 years ago, launched the site in 1996. The project has won awards and praise from other wildflower fans.

The site ``has a wonderful display,'' said Arvind Kumar, a San Jose software engineer and flower photographer who doesn't work at IBM Almaden but knows its floral fame.

Thursday, with the mercury topping 80 degrees, Rettner scanned a hillside above an IBM parking lot for new blooms. Two fellow flower watchers, publicist Mike Ross and Robert Payne, a longtime IBM engineer who now works for Hitachi, also took an afternoon stroll to see what was out.

``The little goldfields seem to know its their job to be pretty right now,'' said Rettner, pointing out a wide splash of yellow that marked thousands of tiny blossoms clustered together. ``I'll bet we could spot up to 20 species if we made an effort.''

No one can be sure, however, how long this year's outdoor flower shows will endure. Wildflowers, though hardy, are not always easy to predict and might fade early.

``They can sense the ground drying out, and they know their life is fairly limited,'' said Paul Heiple, flower scientist for the local chapter of the Native Plant Society.

Rettner plans to enjoy the blooms for as long as they'll last. An avid hiker, he has created another Web site tracking his floral finds at Quicksilver County Park. When this spring's flowers die back, he says, he'll be ready to see what summer brings.

``Peppergrass, milkweed, all the berries,'' he said. ``There is always something interesting coming along.''