Santa Cruz County’s North Coast is awash in picturesque yellow blooms of oxalis while attracting onlookers and nature lovers
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Santa Clara University students Angel Lin and Maddy Javier take some time off from their studies to revel in the brilliant buttercup beauty that currently blankets fields along Highway 1 south of Davenport. See more photos from the fields on page
This photo page features the work of award-winning Sentinel photographer Shmuel Thaler. ‘Photographer’s eye’ showcases Thaler’s photos from around Santa Cruz County.
SHMUEL THALER — SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL
Towers of the shuttered cement plant in Davenport rise in the background as a family takes in the yellow super bloom of oxalis currently blanketing fields on Santa Cruz County’s North Coast on Tuesday. The yellow oxalis pes-caprae is an invasive species from South Africa that is currently in the midst of blooming on the Central Coast and elsewhere in California. People are flocking to the fields of yellow to enjoy the splendor and take photos. The plant doesn’t spread by seeds, but rather through small bulbils that develop on the stem beneath the leaves and by new bulbs that form underground along the rhizome. Each plant produces around 12 bulbils, so each year the buttercup crop significantly expands.
Nikki Shoemaker powers her Elliptigo standup elliptical bicycle through a field of oxalis as she and many others flock to the colorful bloom near Davenport.
Ederlyn Suriaga brings her 93-yearold father Prudencio
to visit the oxalis super bloom along Highway
1 near Davenport.
Carmen Bryant, of Aptos, grabs a selfie as she gets immersed in a sea of yellow.
Angel Lin and Maddy Javier sit in the expanse of oxalis of the North Coast.