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Begun in Sonoma County in 2025 and continuing as an evolving collection, this series follows the tradition of early botanical illustrators who meticulously documented plant species with scientific precision and artistic reverence. By isolating each specimen against a neutral background, I highlight structural details that have gone largely unseen—an apt metaphor for our collective blindness toward native plants.
As Charles Saunders wrote in 1919, "A humiliating fact in connection with our California wildflowers, is the average Californian's own indifference to them. Not only does he not know their names, he does not even see them." This observation remains tragically relevant a century later. What we now travel miles to witness as rare "superblooms"—those Instagram-worthy carpets of color appearing in select locations during exceptional years—were once the seasonal norm across California's landscape. Where "vast acres of spectacular, heart-lifting display" once covered pre-contact California, invasive species have steadily displaced native plants, transforming what was once commonplace into something we now chase as an occasional spectacle in distant preserves.
The 2020 Walbridge Fire in Sonoma County became my unexpected window into this reality. As our burned land began to recover, I witnessed the struggle between resilient natives and aggressive invasives competing for the scarred earth. Each plant in this series represents not just a species, but an ecological contributor with specific functions—from supporting specialized pollinators to fixing nitrogen, improving soil structure, facilitating decomposition, or providing crucial habitat. These seemingly fragile organisms—from delicate baby blue eyes once called "fish eyes" by the Choinumne Yokuts to the golden California poppy that early settlers marveled at stretching "a mile or more across"—form the irreplaceable foundation of our local biodiversity.
Through these intimate portraits, I invite viewers to truly see these plants, perhaps for the first time, and recognize their quiet persistence against overwhelming odds—a persistence that offers hope for ecological renewal if we choose to notice, protect, and restore what remains of California's botanical heritage.
Botanica Californica
