Wildflowers of Garland Park Exhibition

Garland Ranch Regional Park is one of my favorite places to hike in the Monterey Bay Area. The park has beautiful hilly oak forests, winding streams, and even a patch of redwoods. It is also home to a huge diversity of wildflowers that pop up in the springtime. 

To celebrate the grand opening of the park's newly remodeled visitor's center, the park is putting on a juried wildflower show featuring artwork by local artists. Two of my paintings will be part of the show! 

Stop by the new visitor's center on Earth Day, April 19th, for the grand re-opening and start of the show. The artwork will be up through August 10th, 2014.

Piperia transversa (left) and Piperia michaelii (right) are two species of native orchid that grow at Garland Ranch. Piperia orchids, or rein orchids, have tubers buried underground and very small inconspicuous leaves. The plants depend on symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizal fungi, which extract nutrients that would be otherwise unavailable to the orchids. These orchids are difficult to spot most of the year, with the exception of spring and summer when they send up a single spike of flowers to attract nocturnal moth pollinators.