Shrubby narrow-leaved gumplant (Grindelia stricta var. angustifolia) blooms just above high tides almost everywhere in San Francisco Bay, including Aquatic Park. Its glossy green and gold rows are a haven for bees and butterflies.Tiny succulent Jaumea (Jaumea carnosa) carpets much of the narrow band of salt marsh on Aquatic Park shorelines. It is one of the few flowers that seems to have increased over decades. Flourishing foot of steep banks helps protect it from mowing. Volunteers help by removing smothering ice plant and Salsola soda — salt-marsh cousin of tumbleweed. Telegraph weed (Heterotheca grandiflora), erect and angular, pioneers in poor, salty soils. Yellow flowers become glossy wind-blown seed heads. It would draw bees and butterflies and feed small birds, but is mowed mercilessly. Sticky or golden monkeyflower (Diplacus aurantiacus) was planted high on shorelines with grant funds, one of the few results of the multi-year APIP restoration program. It flourished for years but was mowed down.Tall evening primrose (Oenothera elata), flourished after seeding as part of two restorationd but has nearly all been mowed.Big shrubs of Yellow bush lupine (Lupinus arboreus) flourished high on shorelines after the APIP restoration. Short lived, they may have died out naturally or been mowed.Goldfields (Lasthenia californica) covered wide swaths after being seeded in 2023 where dredged Australian tubeworm debris had been stored. This standard state requirement for bare areas near the Bay almost always quickly fails. Bright patches recurred in spring 2024 (above), but flowers, along with seeded native grasses, were almost entirely displaced by weeds by 2025 (documented on Calflora.org).
