Pagodas in the Patchwork
Small pale-white flowers of Collinsia occupy the foreground of a broad horizontal landscape layered with Adonis lupines, owl’s clover, California poppies, goldfields and goldenbush. Their tiered flower structure resembles miniature pagodas or Chinese houses while successive bands of color create a mosaic across the Tejon Ranch foothills.
The small pale-white flowers in the foreground immediately caught my attention. Viewed closely, their tiered blossoms resemble the architecture of Chinese pagodas, giving members of the genus Collinsia their familiar “Chinese houses” name.
These particular plants were growing in full sun on the Tehachapi foothills. They may have been Collinsia tinctoria, but the exact species was never confirmed. I never encountered these plants blooming on the ranch again.
Beyond them, the landscape opened into a broad horizontal patchwork of Adonis lupines, owl’s clover, California poppies, goldfields and goldenbush. The attraction was not simply any one species but the way the different colors and flower communities formed successive layers across the terrain.