Blooming from late spring to early summer, the Tiburon Mariposa lily is a rare flower. Growing atop acidic serpentine soils, this small plant is endemic to Ring Mountain in Marin County, meaning that a small outcropping of rock north of the San Francisco Bay is the only place on earth where this marvel exists.
However, the fact that it only thrives on this particular outcropping of rock may be the reason it still exists at all today. As European colonization ran rampant across North America, colonizers brought with them plants for crops, such as milky oats which turn California hills gold in the summer. Because of this many native California species have been outcompeted by, or lost entirely, to newly-introduced species.
However, the Tiburon Mariposa lily has been, as far as we know, left mostly unscathed. Due to its particular affinity for serpentine soils, which are often nutrient poor for plants, it had a natural protection from the onslaught of introduced species during westward expansion. However, this does not mean that their future is safe. Because they live in such a small area, which is also a local hotspot for hikers, the plant still lives in precarity.
While it is protected both federally and by the state of California, this flower is one not only to marvel at but to look out for carefully, to walk gently past as you admire its peculiar, almost other-worldly, beauty. I see it both as a survivor of a transformed California, and a reminder of how delicate our world is.
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Cole Hersey is a writer based in Oakland, California. His work focuses on environmental topics and the arts. His work has been featured in Bay Nature, Earth Island Journal, and elsewhere.
Caron Creighton's camera captures the vibrant and organized unhoused community of the Wood Street Commons in West Oakland, and the trials they must endure to fight for the right to survive in the face of a looming eviction.
