Spring Plant Sale - CSUDH Greenhouse - April 10th and 11th

Keckiella cordifolia

Last native plant sale of the season at CSU Dominguez Hills.  Great plants, including some that are hard to find.  For details: http://nativeplantscsudh.blogspot.com/2015/03/spring-native-plant-sale-april-10th-11th.html

Read More

California Gourmet: Berry Dream Bar Cookies

Berry Dream Bar Cookies

Spring
is a busy time for native plant enthusiasts. 
In addition to garden activities, there are the garden tours, plant
sales, Earth Day activities – the list goes on and on!   Many of the events call for California
Gourmet treats – appetizers or desserts that feature California native plant
flavors.   Needed are crowd pleasing
tidbits that are easy to make and serve; and here’s where native fruit syrups are
real a time-saver. Flavored syrups can be used to create a number of treats –
including bar cookies. For more on making flavored syrups see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2015/01/california-gourmet-flavored-syrups.html.
 

It’s
hard to beat bar cookies for simple. 
They are often made from a limited number of common ingredients.  The ingredients are assembled and baked in a
baking pan.  The cooled cookies are cut
into bars (whatever size is needed) and they’re ready to go.  Because they are flat and rectangular, bar
cookies also pack and travel well.  Bar
cookies are perfect for spring garden events and family desserts.

 

Brown Sugar Berry Dream Bars

We’ve
modified several classic bar cookie recipes to feature fruit syrups as their
key ingredient.  The Brown Sugar Berry
Dream Bars are made with brown sugar and have a hint of caramel flavor.  Syrups with a more robust flavor –
elderberry, blackberry, blueberry, grape, etc. – combine well with the other
flavors.  The cookies are golden brown
and contrast nicely with sugar cookies or the White Berry Dream Bars.   These are delicious cookies – everyone who’s
tried them loves them!

White Berry Dream Bar Cookies

The
White Berry Dream Bars are lighter in color and flavor.  They are reminiscent of tea parties and
garden socials.  These cookies are a
wonderful way to feature the more delicately flavored syrups: wild hawthorn;
rose hip; current/gooseberry; wild mint or other leaf flavors; elderflower;
etc.    We like to dust our White Berry
Dream Bars with powdered sugar to make them even more festive.  Once again, these are not just pretty – they
are truly scrumptious cookies. 



Preparing Brown Sugar Berry Dream Bar Cookies



 

Brown Sugar Berry Dream Bars

2/3 cup butter or margarine 1 cup brown sugar (packed) 2 cups white flour (+ additional 3-6 Tbsp for filling) 1 ¼ cup berry syrup*  Oven temperature: 375° F  Cream butter/margarine and brown sugar until well blended.  Using a pastry blender or two forks, blend in the flour until mixture is homogeneous and crumbly.   Spread 2/3 of the crust mixture into a greased  9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Press down firmly to make an even crust.  Bake at 375° F for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Combine berry syrup with enough white flour to form a thick syrup (like a very thick pancake syrup).  Usually 3-6 Tbsp. of flour are needed; stir until well-blended.   Spread the syrup mixture over the warm crust.   Crumble the remaining crust mixture evenly over the top.  Return to the oven and bake about 10-12 minutes (or until top crust is a light golden brown).  Don’t worry if the surface bubbles up – bubbles will deflate as the cookies cool.   Let cool to room temperature.   Cut in 1” x 2” rectangles (or whatever size suits your needs).   Store in an airtight container (if they don’t get eat right away).                                                         Makes about 24-30     *berry syrup is a simple syrup made with either prepared juice or a ‘tea’ made by infusing flavorful leaves.  For more on making berry syrups see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2015/01/california-gourmet-flavored-syrups.html

 

 

Preparing White Berry Dream Bar Cookies

 

White Berry Dream Bars

1 cup butter or margarine ½ cup granulated sugar 2 cups flour (+ additional 3-6 Tbsp for filling) 1 ¼ cup prepared berry syrup* Powdered sugar (optional)  Oven temperature: 375° F  Cream butter/margarine and sugar until well blended.  Using a pastry blender or two forks, blend in the 2 cups of flour until mixture is homogeneous and crumbly.   Spread  crust mixture into a greased  9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Press down firmly to make an even crust.   Bake crust at 350° F for 15-20 minutes (or until lightly browned).  Remove from oven and let cool slightly.  Prepare topping by combining berry syrup with enough white flour to form a thick syrup (like a very thick pancake syrup).  Usually 3-6 Tbsp. of flour are needed; stir until well-blended.   Spread the syrup mixture over the crust.   Bake an additional 15-20 minutes (or until topping is bubbly).  Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.  Sprinkle powdered sugar over cooled cookies if desired.    Cut into 1” x 2” rectangles (or whatever size suits your needs).   Store in an airtight container.                                                                                     Makes about 24-30    *berry syrup is a simple syrup made with either prepared juice or a ‘tea’ made by infusing flavorful leaves.  For more on making berry syrups see: http://mother-natures-backyard.blogspot.com/2015/01/california-gourmet-flavored-syrups.html

 

 

 

____________________________________________________

We encourage you to
send us your questions, comments and recipes (either comment below or e-mail to
us at : mothernaturesbackyard10@gmail.com

 

Read More

Plant of the Month (March) : Dotseed plantain – Plantago erecta

Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) in Mother Nature's Backyard

Spring
has definitely arrived in local gardens. 
Precipitation has been below average and the rains erratic; but some
annual wildflowers are more than happy with the intense bouts of rain and
subsequent heat.  Among them is a sweet
little annual  known as Dotseed
plantain.  It’s blooming profusely in
gardens throughout the South Bay, including Mother Nature’s Backyard.

Dotseed
plantain, also known as California plantain, Foothill plantain, Dwarf plantain
and Annual plantain, is native to the California Floristic Province (the area
of California west of the Sierra Nevada mountain range) into Oregon and south
into Baja California, Mexico.  It was
once very common in lower elevation parts of Los Angeles County from the
coastal bluffs and prairies to the desert. 
It can sometimes still be found on grassy beaches, coastal dunes, in vernal
pools and other places that are wet in winter and dry out in spring.  It also occurs on grassy, open slopes in
coastal sage scrub, valley grassland and chaparral plant communities.

Dotseed
plantain is a member of the genus Plantago
(the Plantains), a genus with about 200 species world-wide.  Most are small herbaceous plants of moist
places; some (like the Common plantain, Plantago
major and English plantain, Plantago
lanceolata) are
common roadside weeds.  But many are used
as larval food for certain species of butterfly (more on that below) and as
medicinal plants.

Southern
California is home to four other native plantains: the Coastal plantain (Plantago elongata) which occurs in
Orange and San Diego counties; the Desert (Wooly) plantain (Plantago ovata) which once grew near the
Los Angeles county coast as well as in the desert; Patagonia
plantain (Plantago patagonica) primarily in the
San Bernardino and desert mountains; and the Mexican plantain (Plantago subnuda) mostly from the Orange
county and Northern California coasts. 
According to the USDA PLANTS database, the following are synonyms for Plantago erecta: Plantago erecta Morris
ssp. rigidior Pilg.;
Plantago hookeriana Fisch.
& C.A. Mey. var. californica
(Greene) Poe; and Plantago
patagonica Jacq. var. californica
Greene.



Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta) : plant

 

Dotseed
plantain is a small herbaceous annual, less than 12 inches (30 cm) tall and slender.  It has narrow, sometimes needle-like, leaves growing
from a basal rosette.   The height of
individual plants depends on light and soil conditions, at least one of which
is soil moisture.  In fact you sometimes
see marked variation in height within a patch, with shorter (sometimes only 2-3
inch) plants along the drier margins.  The
entire plant is pale green and sparsely hairy with long, silky hairs visible
with the naked eye.    When growing densely, the plants look like a patch
of small soft grass (see below).

 



A patch of Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta)

Like
other annual wildflowers, Plantago erecta
germinates with the winter rains.  In our
experience, seeds don’t germinate until the ground is well-saturated, often in
January. Don’t count on lots of plants every year. Like other wildflowers, some
years are better suited than others.  New
seedlings look like small, soft grass seedlings – in fact they may be difficult
to tell apart.  If you grow Dotseed
plantain, refrain from pulling those ‘grass seedlings’ in winter until you’re
certain they aren’t young Plantago.



Plantago erecta (Dotseed plantain) seedlings

 

Dotseed
plantain has interesting flowers, but you’ll have to look closely.  The flowers themselves are very small – less than
5 mm (1/4 inch) across – and not particularly colorful.   The
flowers are closely spaced along flowering stalks slightly longer than the
leaves; these stalks give the plants their characteristic appearance this time
of year.  There may be as few as 5-6 to
as many as 50+ flowers on each stem (see below).   The
flowering portion covers less than 1/5 of the flowering stalk in this species.



Flowering stalks, Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta)

 

The
flowers are mostly bisexual and in parts of four (see below). Petals are rounded
with pointed tips and are almost transparent except at their base. The petals
are spread back (reflexed) from the sexual organs.   The
stamens (male sexual organs) are difficult to see without magnification; they are
relatively short compared to some plantain species.   The plantains with showy, extended stamens
are wind pollinated (similar to grasses); Dotseed plantain is pollinated by
small insects.

Close-up of Dotseed plantain flower

 

Dotseed
plantain is an annual, and an early one at that.  It usually blooms in March in our area.  The flowering season lasts only a few weeks in
most years, and the plants themselves die back – or are masked by the
later-blooming annuals – by mid-April.  The
dried flower stalks remain on the plant until the seeds mature and are released
– often not until early summer.  The
dried stalks are pretty in their own right, but are often hidden by other
plants.   The small dry seed capsules
open from the top, releasing several seeds.

 

Dried flower stalks, Dotseed plantain (Plantago erecta)

 

Like
many native wildflowers, Dotseed plantain is easy to grow.  It likes full sun but may appreciate afternoon
shade in inland gardens.  It’s not
particular about soil type.  All it
really needs is moist soil from January through March.  After flowering ceases, plants should be
allowed to dry out, completing the seed development process.  Once Plantago
erecta is established it will re-seed on bare ground (or thin mulch) and
will even expand its original range if happy. 



Dotseed plantain (foreground) with taller Purple Clarkia  (not yet in bloom);

 Madrona Nature Center garden - Torrance  CA

 

Dotseed
plantain is a perfect annual to fill in around shrubs.  It does brilliantly along walkways and mixes
well with native grasses and other annual wildflowers, California poppies and
perennials.   It gives an early touch of
green in winter – a first hint of spring. 
Many of us look forward to seeing it each year.

Dotseed
plantain has greater importance in the wilds than one might expect.  Further North it is host to the larvae of two endangered
sub-species of Checkerspot butterfly, the Bay checkerspot, Euphydryas editha bayensis and the Quino checkerspot, Euphydryas editha quino.     Plantago
species are eaten by larvae of the Common Buckeye butterfly, Junonia coenia, and Dotseed plantain is
sometimes planted for this butterfly. 



Dotseed plantain with Carex (left) and Linum lewisii;

  home garden, Redondo Beach  CA

 

Seeds
of Plantago erecta were formerly
harvested in great quantities by Native Californians.  It fact, it was considered an important grain
plant.   It's not clear whether this species was used in
traditional medicine, as introduced plantains were in later years.   But whether you eat the seeds or not,
Dotseed plantain is a charming little plant; it deserves a place in more home
gardens.

 

For more
information on Dotseed plantain see: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/publications/beyers/psw_2010_beyers017(montalvo)plantagoerecta.pdf
  

 

For a
gardening information sheet see: http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/gardening-sheet-plantago-erecta

 

For more
pictures of this plant see: http://www.slideshare.net/cvadheim/plantago-erecta-web-show

 

For plant
information sheets on other native plants see: http://nativeplantscsudh.blogspot.com/p/gallery-of-native-plants_17.html

 

 

 

We
welcome your comments (below).  You can
also send your questions to: mothernaturesbackyard10@gmail.com

 

Read More