What are all these wildflowers? A guide to 13 blooms you’re likely to see in SLO County

Have you been out to see the wildflower superbloom coloring California’s fields and hills?

Look closely and you’ll find a variety of blossoms bursting in purple, yellow, orange and blue hues.

Last week, Tribune photographer David Middlecamp and editor Joe Tarica went out to Shell Creek Road off Highway 58, the Carrizo Plain National Monument and elsewhere in San Luis Obispo County to check out what flowers have come out in full force this spring.

Here’s a brief photo guide to 13 common flowers we saw, with information from the California Native Plants Society:

Common goldfields

Common goldfields, or lasthenia gracilis, is a common, bright-yellow flower that shows up in small blooms no larger than a quarter. Its blooms typically carpet the ground in huge swaths, giving areas a luminescent look when goldfields are plentiful.

California desert dandelion

California desert dandelion, or malacothrix californica, is found blooming in dry mountain, desert and valley habitats throughout the state. It can grow up to 1.5 feet tall with yellow and white flowers.

Tidytips

Whitedaisy tidytips, or layia glandulosa, are hardy plants in the daisy family with white and yellow petals. They can reach up to 3 feet tall and typically found only in California’s southwestern mountain ranges.

Coastal tidytips

Coastal tidytips, or layia platyglossa, have a distinctive yellow center with white-tipped petals. It can be found in grassy areas along the coast of California.

Fiddlenecks

Fiddlenecks, or amsinckia, are commonly referred to as a weed throughout California. It produces flowers with colors ranging from yellow-orange and orange to dark yellow.

California poppies

The California poppy, or eschscholzia californica, is the state’s official flower. Growing up to 2 feet tall, its blooms feature delicate, bright orange petals that are easy to spot anywhere.

Purple owl’s clover

Purple owl’s clover, or castilleja exserta, has a distinctive bloom of clusters of shaggy and small lavender, pink, purple and white petals. The flower is a hemiparasite, meaning it derives some of its nutrients from the roots of other plants.

Lupine

Lupine, or lupinus, is a distinctive flowering plant with many varieties native to California. In the Carrizo Plain National Monument, you may find silver, succulent, sky, chick, miniature, elegant, spider and valley lupine. Each variety grows in a shrub-like manner with flowers ranging in color from blue, lavender and purple, to pink and white.

Douglas’ phacelia

Douglas’ phacelia, or phacelia douglasii, grows along the coastal and inland mountains and foothills of California, as well as the Central Valley and deserts. It can grow up to 1.3 feet tall with pale, pinkish purple flowers.

Blue dicks

Blue dicks, wild hyacinth, purplehead and bordiaea, or dipterostemon capitatus, are small, lavender or blue flowers. They can grow up to 2 feet tall and are found throughout the central and western areas of California.

Great Valley phacelia

Great Valley phacelia, or phacelia cilata, is typically found in the coastal mountain ranges, the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills. Its blooms of wide, bell-shaped flowers are pinkish purple.

Baby blue eyes

Baby blue eyes, or nemophila menziesii, are a splendid sight of bright blue flowers that can coat the ground in big numbers. The small plant grows up to 6 inches tall and can be found from sea level up to nearly 6,500 feet throughout California.

Variable linanthus

Variable linanthus, or leptosiphon parviflorus, blooms with tiny flowers that are typically pink and yellow. You’ll find these in the coastal ranges and Sierra Nevada, with sprouts up to 9.8 inches tall.