Get out and view the wildflowers! According to East Bay Regional Park District Botanist Wilde Legard, the wildflowers will be here only for a short time. "March and most of April to date have been unusually dry in the Bay Area. In a few weeks, the hills might already be brown. There's a small window for the peak bloom this season."

Visitors at East Bay Regional Park District parks will have some online help this year with Wilde's new wildflower guides that can be downloaded from the District's website: www.ebparks.org/stewardship/plants/flowers. All guides have color photos of each wildflower. The wildflowers in these guides are sorted first by flower color, then within each color by plant family (flowers that look alike), and within each family by genus (flowers that look even more alike). Common names are emphasized.

Guides come in two flavors, one is a long (typically prints at 40 pages) District-wide comprehensive guide which includes all regional parks in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. The second is a series of shorter guides based on individual parks. For example, if you're heading to Las Trampas, Briones, or Sunol, download the guide for that park.

For more information about wildflowers in the East Bay, don't miss the Sunol Regional Wilderness Annual Wildflower Festival on Saturday, April 12, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the 30th annual sale of California native plants at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden on Saturday, April 19, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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