Glen Canyon Glorious

Last February, I was celebrating the brilliant oxalis flowers on Twin Peaks…

If San Francisco were to have its own version of Napa’s mustard festival, surely ours would be the Fair Oxalis. These flowers herald our spring more clearly than the daffodil (which are also starting to bloom) and mark the sunshine months (or month!) before summer arrives with its cooling fog. It may be a weed, and spread easily (though I’ve heard say that it doesn’t set seed in San Francisco). But it is undeniably gorgeous.

[ETA: I got a friendly email saying, “it sure feels like spring, but actually the first day of spring isn’t til march 20…”

Oh, I know… but no one told the flowers! That’s why I called it “our spring.” My East Coast friends assure me their spring is still someplace else.]

Right now, the place to go is Glen Canyon. The meadow areas are golden with Bermuda Buttercup (alias oxalis) and wild mustard.

If you want to see this wild flower spectacle, the place is the eastern slope at the north end of the park — easily accessed from Turquoise Way (or the parking lot of the nearby Diamond Heights shopping center).

Go soon on any sunny day (oxalis furl their bells in shade), before the Natural Areas Program decides to spray this invasive non-native weed with toxins.  They’re already at work on Twin Peaks.

[ETA2: Someone told us the spraying of Garlon 4 Ultra in Glen Canyon will start 18 Feb 2011.

ETA3: It’s been further postponed, we hear; apparently parents of preschoolers who play and hike in the canyon oppose the use of toxic chemicals there. Or it may have been the weather.]