What a great common name! This plant is very feathery and soft. And it just glows! Totally love it! It is the the Rhamnaceae, the same family as Ceanothus, but it doesn't look anything like ceanothus.
It looks like it is covered in flowers, but those are actually the bracts of flower cluster that you see. The very small flowers are hidden inside.
The flowers can be used fresh or dried in bouquets. In bloom now at the UC Botanical Garden.
As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, I studied Conservation of Natural Resources. I took a couple of entomology classes and became very interested in insects. After I graduated, I held several jobs working with bugs: in the fields of central California, the forests of Connecticut and Idaho, and the labs of Berkeley. Then I went to grad school and studied entomology at UC Riverside and UC Berkeley (back in the olden days when UCB had an entomology department). When my kids were little, I wanted to share my love of insects with them, so I started a butterfly garden before butterfly gardens were popular. Then of course, their teachers asked me to bring caterpillars into the classroom and I started doing classroom presentations. I do presentations in elementary schools, provide teacher trainings, teach adult school classes, and bring live insect specimens to garden fairs. My book is perfect for helping elementary school kids learn about butterflies.
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