The Little Wildlings

Thumbelina might find suitable accommodations in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, if a lugsoled hiking boot doesn't find her first.

There are no neon signs blazing "Watch Your Step!" to be found along trailsides except those that warn of treacherous conditions such as a trail that's been washed away. But the admonishment would be well taken as it applies to the little wildlings that edge trails or perversely decide to creep right into harm's way, harm being the footfalls of well-shod hikers and horses, balloon-tired bicycles, and the occasional outlaw dirt biker. (Motorized dirt bikes are forbidden on parkland.)

To be sure, there are members of our local tribe of wildflowers that could brush the chin of a basketball star. These would include bush poppy, scarlet delphinium and Humboldt lily, a showy trio that would give neck strain to a diminutive admirer. With masses of buttery yellow flowers borne on silver-green foliage, bush poppy is a conspicuous sight, and it is fond

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers LOVELY LUPINE-Lupine bloom in a meadow at Rancho Sierra Vista/Satwiwa, a unit of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in Newbury Park. of growing openly on roadsides along Mulholland Highway in Calabasas, forming a bit of a distraction for passing motorists.

Scarlet delphinium spends most of the winter and spring months sprouting its handsome red-tinged bronzy-green foliage. Then by June it sends up a thin, towering flowerstalk. It is an amazingly hardy plant, coming into incandescent bloom when trails are dry and dusty and most outdoorsmen have traded their hiking shorts for swim trunks.

Humboldt lilies are particularly fond of stream courses, but deer and a disfiguring blight are fond of the lilies' foliage. However, they can have strong years, and are among the Santa Monica Mountains' most stunning native flora, growing on stalks that can reach about 6 feet, with distinctive whorls of glossy foliage, and crimson-speckled orange flowers with prominent rust-colored anthers. A single plant can bear more than 20 buds. To come upon one abloom in a sun-dappled oak grove above a rippling stream is one of the sweetest moments for a flora-fancying adventurer.

With a cool, damp March, and last year's regenerating wildfires, there should be a splendidly satisfying wildflower season in the Santa Monica Mountains later this spring. While homeowners hosed down roofs and watched with high anxiety as flames licked at hills above their homes, the wildlands that were blazing took it in stride as part of the natural cycle.

"Fire in wildlands is not a disaster; it is a renewal," according to the Southern California Botanists organization. The term "fire-follower" in these parts does not refer to a groupie who tags after big red trucks. Numerous plant species' seed casings are quite impregnable until seared open by the heat of a wildfire.

Burned areas in Oak Park, Calabasa,Old Agoura,Topanga, Simi Valley and Moorpark will not be blackened, denuded wastelands this season but will probably appear as paisley print scenes flecked with vibrant color.

Flower species will vary depending on soil type but among the most robust (dominant) fire-followers are bleeding heart, large-flowered phacelia and other phacelia species (they also thrive in disturbed soils), California poppy, globe gilia, foothill lupine, twining snapdragon, popcorn flower and the aptly-named fire poppy.

That's the tip of the botanical iceberg. A post-fire wildflower season in Southern California rivals the best that the world of organized ornamental horticulturists could ever dream of staging.

But it takes the sensibility of Thumbelina to discover and enjoy the little wildlings. . . those ground-hugging plants that turn up in the "darndest" places: in the middle of a meadow, in some dry pebbled area, hiding under a shrub. Their wee dabs of color might catch one's eye but the observer is likely to think, "Oh, that's nothing but a tattered piece of chewing gum wrapper" and stride on. Of course, to someone all of 1 inch tall, these are not bits of errant confetti at all but living things:

Danny's skullcap: Quick, look sharply, there it is, with violet-blue tubular flowers; "skullcap" is adapted from Scutellaria tuberose;

Ground pink: If the term "adorable" can apply to a plant, here's a leading candidate. With whiteshading-to-pink fringed petals around a maroon-rimmed golden eye, it would lend itself as a very nice prom gown for Thumbelina;

Squaw spurge: Think mini-peppermint candy drops;

Pineapple weed: The name says it all, in both appearance and scent;

Sapphire wool star: A pretty little thing infrequently encountered and often overlooked, bearing a name that describes it better than anything this admirer could come up with.

The non-native scarlet pimpernel (we found a blue-flowered variety near Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park in Agoura last year) bears fluorescent coral or salmon flowers with a lipstick red eye; the blue variety is the color of a Hollywood starlet's evening gown, a "simply gorgeous" shade.

These plants may not require a magnifying glass to be observed but dropping to a crouching or kneeling position may provide maximal viewing of these teeny-weeny charmers.

Guided wildflower walks are offered by local chapters of the Sierra Club and California Native Plant Society, and the National Park Service (visit their respective

With its stunning canyon setting and innovatively landscaped acres dedicated to showcasing native plants, the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden is worth a visit to help "budding" botanists in plant identification.

In addition to the aforementioned burn areas, some of the most flowerful local sites include the Pentachaeta Trail in Westlake Village, Charmlee Park in Malibu and Wildwood Park in Thousand Oaks.