“Pictured here is a rare plant that has responded spectacularly to the CZU Complex fire. Although known from Big Basin historically, it had not been seen in Santa Cruz County since 2003. While out scouting potential control lines for prescribed burns I bumped into this beautiful specimen and later found several hundred more in a chaparral stand between Upper China Grade and Hwy 236. This plant is fire dependent, and has hard, very long-lived seeds which were just waiting for this moment to germinate. It is found in only a few counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, south of the Golden Gate and is listed by the California Native Plant Society as rare, threatened or endangered in California.” - Tim Hyland, Senior Environmental Scientist
