A reminiscence by Dick O’Donnell
Fremontodendron species first reported in Marin by Richard O’Donnell in December 1999 issue of The Four Seasons, the Journal of the Regional Parks Botanic Garden.*
Twenty-five years ago, I was following deer trails in the upper reaches of Cascade Canyon. I had hiked every trail around and on Mt. Tam and hiked the Water District’s main trails more than once, so I was looking for another way to stay connected to the most beautiful wild lands I’d ever experienced. I hadn’t fully explored the canyon of Cascade Creek much beyond the last trail crossing to Whites Hill, so I figured I’d go beyond and follow it up to its source. That was my destination, wherever it got me.
That part of the creek is full of pools, slides and fallen trees that have to be got around. The canyon sides are real steep, but creek drops in slow steps. Only the treetops are dense and leave lots of space between tree trunks. Space to wander under a sheltering canopy. The deer trails usually cross the creek then make a diagonal up slope to meet another deer trail, but the open forest makes following them an option I declined. Now and then, though, you have to get around a slide or fallen tree. Then any trail is handy. The lifeless light felt timeless; no sense of time passing but …
The crepuscular light began to soften and after a while the trees got shorter and farther between, and the light brightened and then the brambles, blackberries I suppose, and their thorns of course. Shorts are no protection but getting through the tangle was necessary, no going around. And then the ground was just bunch grass and stones, serpentine stones, manzanita and whatever they were, and the thorns were behind me, the sun shone warm and bright. So where had I got to and what was between? It had been a long day and a long hike, and I carried no water and nothing to eat but that was alright. I never did in those days. And then there were the bright yellow blossoms, kind of waxy and big.
Fremontodendron californicum ssp napense Hunter Breck
Well, I’ll be…fremontia (that’s the name they had then)…I had no idea that they grew here…I’d seen them nowhere else on all the mountain trails, and I’d been on all the mountain trails. I’d seen the Streptanthus that grew in only two places, and Ribes divaricata, the gooseberry that grew in only one place that I knew where the tailed copper flew in early July, and the Hystrix, the columbine, the lilies, the five kinds of Navarretia and the Collomia as well as the foxes and bobcats and the red larvae of elfins down by the pool on the Sedum. What a sight in midwinter! Now there were these fremontia…how many? And they had been there a good long time, lichen covered but scraggly and thin, not over 15 feet tall. Maybe a dozen I could see at once but maybe there were more scattered in the openings here abouts. And there’s White’s Hill I can see off a ways…a photo from here will give someone a good idea of where these shrubs are…and now how do I get back on the trail…??
* O’Donnell, R. (1999). Napa Fremontia in Marin. The Four Seasons (11( 1)). December 1999.