Wildflowers

of the

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area





Flower Finder

(Long version: with notes)

[ Flower Finder - Compact version ]

Create a flower search by clicking one of the radio buttons in each of the six different plant characteristics.
Once you have made your choices click the "Submit Search" button.







What color is the flower?

Doesn't matter (select all).
White.
Yellow.
Green.
Red.
Blue.
Flowers that can bloom in more than one color will appear in the search results for each of the their possible colors (although we may not have pictures that show all of these possibilities.) This can lead to a picture of a yellow flower showing up with the search results for the white flowers. This is by design and is not an error. Similarly, the deliberate overlap in the color designations means both the Red search and the Blue search will show flowers with the intermediate color of purple.

In each case the "Doesn't matter" choice means that this particular characteristic will not be used in the search. For example, in the color characteristic the "Doesn't matter" choice means that flowers of all colors will be included in the search results. Choose this if you don't know or don't care about the characteristic.

What size is the flower?

Doesn't matter (select all).
Small (less than about 1/4 inch.)
Medium (less than about 3/4 inch.)
Large (greater than 3/4 inch.)
These size groupings are approximate with flowers near the borderlines being included in both size groups for the purpose of the search.

Is the flower solitary or clustered ?

Doesn't matter (select both).
Flowers are solitary.
Flowers appear in clusters.
Is the flower on a long stalk of its own or is it part of a larger grouping of flowers.

Is the flower simply or oddly shaped?

Doesn't matter (select both).
Flowers are simply shaped.
Flowers are oddly shaped.
Here we define simply shaped to mean the flower has a rotational symmetry. This describes flowers with an over-all shape which is round, wheel, tubular, urn, cup, or bell like.

Here we define oddly shaped to mean the flower has a mirror symmetry or no obvious symmetry at all. Many flowers may look superficially simple but a closer examination would reveal that they actually have a mirror symmetry. These flowers will show up in both searches.

Show me some examples of this

Is the plant woody or herbaceous?

Doesn't matter (select both).
The plants are herbaceous.
The plants are woody.
The woody plants are trees, shrubs, and some vines. Woody plants are always perennial. A herbaceous plant does not produce woody, persistent tissue and generally dies back at the end of each growing season. Annual plants are always herbaceous. However, herbaceous plants can be either perennial or annual. The first year's growth of a woody plant is often herbaceous.

Is the plant native or non-native?

Doesn't matter (select both).
Native.
Non-Native.
It is unlikely you will know if a flower is a native or non-native unless you are already familiar with it. Choose "Doesn't matter" if you don't know.








It can be quite slow to open a search result page with many flowers shown on it.
The default choice of "Doesn't matter" for all search criteria will match all flower species on this site.
This web page will have over five hundred flower pictures on it and may take a significant amount of time to open.

If nothing happens when you click the "Submit Search" button it may be necessary for you to enable JavaScript in your browser.

Note: Firefox seems to display massive web pages with many pictures significantly faster than Internet Explorer (although it can not speed up the downloading of such pages.)






Quick Links to a few of the searches

(in case JavaScript is not enabled in your browser)


[ Color=white ] [ Color=yellow ] [ Color=green ] [ Color=red ] [ Color=blue ]


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