Mojave and Lord's Candle yuccas

Yuccas of two varieties are in bloom in San Diego County from now through May. Year after year, the Mojave yucca Yucca schidigera sends up a blunt flower stalk of white, waxy blossoms from the same base — a rosette of daggerlike leaves. The shimmering white exclamation point that unfolds above “Our Lord’s Candle” Yucca whipplei, on the other hand, is a prelude to the plant’s imminent death. Mojave yucca is widely distributed along San Diego County’s coastal strip and throughout the higher elevations of the Anza-Borrego Desert. Our Lord’s Candle prefers the scrubby coastal foothills and the drier slopes of the Palomar, Cuyamaca, and Laguna mountains. The two yuccas coexist with each other in a few areas like Torrey Pines State Reserve and Anza-Borrego’s Culp Valley area.

The Sticky-Sweet Odor of citrus blossoms is wafting on the spring breezes this year, as it has in every year since the 1870s, when the county’s first commercially planted orange and lemon groves began to produce fruit. From early plantings in areas like National City and Lemon Grove, citrus groves spread east and north as urbanization encroached. Today, a car or bicycle trip through Rancho Santa Fe, Pauma Valley, and the outskirts of Escondido, Vista, and Fallbrook induces a pleasant reminiscence of San Diego County’s agricultural past.

Notable High Tides include a +5.94-foot tide at 8:03 am on Monday, March 29; a +5.92-foot tide at 8:47 am on Wednesday, March 30; and a +5.71-foot tide at 9:27 am also on Thursday, March 31. The lowest tides are -1.03 feet at 2:06 pm on Monday, March 28, and -1.00 feet at 2:41 pm on Tuesday, March 29. These tides are neither very high nor very low, which is consistent with a yearly pattern, driven by the seasonal paths of the sun and moon, that minimizes tidal extremes near the spring and fall equinoxes and maximizes the tidal extremes near the summer and winter equinoxes. The New Moon is on Friday, April 1.

The above comes from the Outdoors listings in the Reader compiled by Jerry Schad, author of Afoot & Afield in San Diego County. Schad died in 2011. Planet information from SkyandTelescope.org.