California's Native Plants: A Rich Diversity Quiz

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Rumors along Sunset Blvd. continue to report that a certain tall evergreen shrub in the rose family is how tinseltown got its name. Birds feasting on the bright red winter berries have no comment. Which infamous plant is it?

Answer: Toyon or Hollywood

Toyon, also known as Hollywood, gives a dramatic performance each November-December in the hills above Hollywood as well as throughout the state. It is grown in gardens here and Southern England as well as Hawaii. Its botanical name is Heteromeles arbutifolia. I made up the other choices.

This is my first quiz and I admit that I really like making up the fake answers. I feel bad about that.

2. As spring approaches in the golden state, the California lilacs seem to suddenly appear, bursting in a gloriously fragrant profusion of blue or white flowers on nearby hills. Mysteriously, until recently this shrub has been an almost unknown in California gardens. What is the botanical genus name?

Answer: Ceanothus

California's Ceanothus ("SEE-AN-OH-THUS") has been kept hidden in English gardens for over 100 years. But the secret is out. With striking cobalt to delicate pale blue flowers that have a sweet fresh fragrance attracting birds, bees and butterflies, it is making its way back into gardens in California and around the world. Varieties abound. Manzanita and Salvia are other California native plants. Syringa species is also known as lilac but it originally hails from the Balkans and many varieties have established themselves in the United States Northeast.

3. This intrepid rhizatomous plant in the Iridaceae family forms large patches preferring sunny glades and gentle hills in coastal areas of northern California. Named after a well-known botanical explorer of western North America, which plant is it?

Answer: Douglas Iris

Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana) is named after David Douglas, a Scottish botanist whose 19th century plant hunting expeditions in the United States Pacific Northwest are legendary. His introductions include the Douglas fir, noble fir, western white pine, sugar pine and lodgepole pine to name just a few. George Forrest was a Scottish botanist whose passion for plants led him to survey China where he introduced many species to the world, including a Chinese iris. Coulter was an Irish botanist and another West Coast U.S. explorer - however, I do not think he has an Iris named after him.

The Lewis poppy is also fictional but a very real Meriwether Lewis was one of the most famous plant hunters in America. Maybe I need to do a quiz on plant hunters...

4. If I am a native California bee, I stop for this bright yellow-orange wildflower in open sunny areas and grassy patches as well as roadsides in spring through late summer. What plant am I?

Answer: California Poppy

When bees pollinate California poppies they seem to roll around in the flower pollen as if they were intoxicated. The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is the official state flower of California.

5. The Matilija poppy can stand up to eight feet tall with flowers five to seven inches across. What is another name for this spectacular plant which sounds like a part of an American breakfast?

Answer: Fried Egg Plant - because its flowers have white petals and yellow centers

I understand that this one is tricky if you have never seen matilija poppy, also known as fried egg flowers or fried egg plant. It is also tricky if you do not eat fried eggs for your first meal of the day. I invented the other three choices which are various things also consumed for breakfast. Are you hungry now?

6. Muhlenbergia rigens, commonly called deer grass, is a graceful mounding grass with slender flower stalks which catch the light and move in the wind. Which of these is true?

Answer: All of these statements are true

Deer grass is food for deer as well as native butterflies.

Many ornamental grasses planted in California's gardens have escaped into wild areas causing great harm. Two of the worst culprits are the lovely Pampas Grass and Pennisetum species, which are so invasive that they threaten many coastal eco-systems by crowding out native plants. Deer grass is a great garden alternative to non-native invasive grass species.

7. Plants in the genus Arctostaphylos are shrubs or small trees which have striking dark reddish bark and often grow in picturesque gnarled shapes. What is the common name which means "Little Apple" in Spanish?

Answer: Manzanita

Like Ceanothus, manzanitas have a great many species in California which occur in chaparral areas. The small urn-shaped flowers indicative of the Heath family are frequented by hummingbirds and butterflies. Like many California native plants, seeds of the manzanita require exposure to fire before they will sprout. Bears love the berries. Arctostaphylos means "bear grapes", which comes from Greek arkto (bear) and staphyle (grape). Manzana means apple in Spanish. Agave is a cactus. Oso (Bear) Bush I invented.

8. Hummingbirds, bees and wasps rely on these pungently fragrant plants for nectar and feed from the small flowers which cluster in balls that hug the stems. To which group do these floriferous plants belong?

Answer: Sages

Hiking past sages in California chapparal is an aromatic feast. I saw a jogger in the middle of the city stop suddenly in his tracks to smell a sage and exclaim that it reminded him of his childhood camping in the California mountains. Sages are perennial shrubs found along the coast, in the mountains and even into the deserts. California's sage brush, another pungently fragrant plant which blankets much of the Western States is actually not a true sage but an Artemisia.

9. Naked and thinking about a sulphurous island, A grand red giant looks over mountains into the desert, Butterflies are seen coming for their first meal, Everything rusts eventually. Who am I?

Answer: ... The buckwheats

Okay I apologize for this one. I love Eriogonum species so much that I waxed poetic. Clues are some buckwheat common names: naked buckwheat, sulphur buckwheat, island buckwheat, giant buckwheat, red buckwheat and desert buckwheat. Butterflies love all the buckwheats. I also alluded to Eriogonum by serving up a line about the first meal, since a crop plant, Fagopyrum sp., also shares the common name of buckwheat and is often an ingredient in cereals and pancakes eaten for breakfast in the United States and Canada. Buckwheat flowers often turn shades of reddish rusty brown as they age.

10. California's coastal redwoods are the tallest living trees in the world, reaching heights of over 375 feet. What is the botanical name of this evergreen conifer?

Answer: Sequoia sempervirens

Bathed in the cool fog-laden coastal regions of California, the coastal redwoods or California redwoods (Sequoia sempervirens) are truly one of the most majestic trees in the world as well as being the tallest. Standing under them along with ferns, trillium flowers and mosses feels a bit like being transported into Tolkien's Lothlorien. S. giganteum is the Giant Sequoia. Metasequoia is the dawn redwood. S. semperfidelis is made up.

Source: Author webuffy

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor crisw before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

California's rich native flora boasts over 6,000 species making it one of the most diverse and interesting plant regions in the world. What do you know about ten of the most popular species?

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