I have travelled down the I-15 freeway many many times and always wondered what was in that area off to the east, so today I joined a CNPS wildflower tour hike led by Lorrae Fuentes and Arlee Montalvo at the Harford Springs Reserve in the Gavilan Hills of Riverside County. There are several entry points into the Reserve on Gavilan Road and Idaleona Road. I was hoping we might see chocolate lilies and Munz's onions which are both there, but alas not this year. There are other interesting things there, some disjunct desert species, a clay-soil grassland, some uncommon taxa such as Chorizanthe polygonoides and parryi var. parryi, Harpagonella palmeri, Hutchinsia procumbens, Frankenia salina, Tetrapteron graciliflorum, and Eriogonum thurberi, but this will have to remain as a place to come in a better year. We spent the morning in the southern part of the Reserve and then I spent the rest of the day in the northern part of the Reserve, which is somewhat drier. As always, the symbol ^ next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, and an asterisk is for a non-native taxon. Thanks to Hartmut Wisch and Bob Allen for the beetle IDs.

Bush sunflower
Encelia californica
Asteraceae

California goosefoot
Chenopodium californicum
Chenopodiaceae

Common fiddleneck
Amsinckia intermedia
Boraginaceae

Sun cups
Camissoniopsis bistorta
Onagraceae

Black-hair nettle
Hesperocnide tenella
Urticaceae