By: Christian Chingcuangco

By: Christian Chingcuangco Sources [1] Pacific Poison Oak, Toxicodendron diversilobum | Native Plants PNW [2] Poison Oak: Identification...

In this installment of Nature in your Neighborhood, we look closer at a small pink flower and its role within the ecosystem with a small...

Hummingbird Sage (Salvia spathacea) is a favorite of hummingbirds or “flower kissers” as the Portuguese refer to them. This California...

We are Edith and Paul Bourbin and we have been volunteering with Sutro Stewards for a number of years. You may have seen us in the...

When I was deciding on what my final project would be as a Sutro Stewards intern, the plant that kept going through my mind was a fern....

Growing up in the fifties through the seventies, my experience with roses was of the cultivated variety. Famously large delicate blooms...

Franciscan wallflower or San Francisco wallflower (Erysimum franciscanum), a rare and endemic plant to California, can be seen growing in...

​​Soaproot: A Multi-use Marvel (Chlorogalum pomeridianum) It’s a cold and rainy November afternoon and winter is tugging at my too-thin...

As far back as 1775 and likely much earlier, yerba buena, a California native herb was thriving on the San Francisco peninsula. It was...

Columbine (Aquilegia Formosa): A Flower of Meanings Plant lore associates the columbine with at least as many meanings as the petals on...

California is widely known as the home to some of the largest trees in the world. Among them is the native California redwood (Sequoia...

In India as here, the rainy season is followed by a huge amount of green plants that respond to the water and are available for only a...

For the last two seasons, I’ve noticed a pretty green hummingbird; I’ll call him Al (the Allen hummingbird is a common species in...

During recent walks atop Mt. Sutro, I found a fair amount of native Cow Parsnip (Heracleum maximum, syn. H. lanatum). With its large...

Lately, it’s hard not to notice shrubs with bright red berries blooming just about everywhere in the City. But look more closely as only...

San Francisco is a city of sand. When I arrived here over 35 years ago my first garden was in a flat in the Sunset District. I recall...

Summer in San Francisco is in full swing. While the sun shines and the fog rolls in, there’s no better time to take a walk up on Mt....

All seasons must reach their zenith, and spring is no exception. To prove it, I was sitting chewing on a pencil in the Sutro Stewards’...

Since early January, I had been watching this cute little vine weave its tendrils around plants on Mt. Sutro, sometimes overwhelming...