CALIFORNIA'S NATURAL TREASURES

Mary Olson-Friedman is an explorer. She and a small group of like-minded friends regularly explore the many natural and human-made treasures of Southern California. Fortunately, this Woodland Hills resident, takes along her camera. Here Mary takes a close up look at a California liveoak and other marvels in the Santa Barbara Botanical Gardens
(click on images to enlarge)
There are over 1000 species of lichens in California. These wonderful plants are part alga and part fungus.

The native mosses and lichens in better watered canyons of Southern California provided our Native Peoples with splendid dyes for clothing, basket designs and colors for paints.

Bark of a California live oak. (click to enlarge)
Mary warns us that before one looks for lichens from which to make natural dyes, it's a good idea to know what poison oak looks like.

The San Fernando Valley deserves a great Museum of history and culture.