Sour Grass Spring Sign

Um, yeah it is just 80% into the first month of the year.  But in this southern California backyard it looks and feels a lot like spring.  The Celtic calendar has spring beginning February 1, and this reckoning makes complete sense in my garden.

There are plenty of plants in bloom right now: rhaphiolepis, geranium, acacias, salvias, phlomis.  But this Oxalis pes-caprae being visited by a honeybee whispered spring to me on a recent morning.  Also known as sourgrass or Bermuda buttercup, this is an early blooming weed that arises from perennial corms left behind when the top growth is pulled or dies down in late spring.  An invasive weed, I never have the heart to attempt eradication precisely due to scenes like these on a bright January day.