The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County co-created the planet-big challenge
1,270,000+ observations submitted by 52,000 participants worldwide; over 22,000 Southern California observations were submitted
That lizard, that bird, that plant, that weird bit of fungus? You may have spied one or all of these on a hike, ramble, or quick outing around Southern California. Download our mobile app for iOS or Android to get the latest breaking news and local stories.
For while our region is famous brimming with buildings, freeways, and the sorts of spaces that humans so regularly occupy, we also live next door to nature, from our canyons to our hilltops to the big blue span of water to our west.
MORE Mary Stein found these alligator lizards in a backyard in the town of Avalon on Catalina Island. When first found, there was a second male trying to interrupt these two but he wandered off. Photo by Mary Stein.
Pandemic or not, animals are going to find a way to get down and procreate. Whether it’s a mountain lion braving a Southern California freeway to find a mate or snails looking for love, creatures are mating in the wild.
In some cases, by using some non-traditional methods. “The common garden snail is a hermaphrodite, which means it has both male and female sex organs,” says Lila Higgins in her book Wild L.A.
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Merry almost Christmas. Southern California has its very own Christmas berry called toyon, or California holly (
Heteromeles arbutifolia, for people who know their plants). You’re sure to see it along hillsides and trails at this time of year: clusters of bright red berries dangling from a tall shrub with long oval green leaves. They’re not for eating, just admiring.
Supposedly, stands of toyon on local hills were mistaken for holly and attached to the name of L.A. s most famous neighborhood. “This idea of floral origins for Hollywood is romantic,” Lila Higgins of L.A. s Natural History Museum writes in “How Hollywood Didn’t Get Its Name.” “It’s also not true. Hollywood got its name for a much more mundane reason: Someone wealthy liked the sound of it.”
Toyon: California’s indigenous plant is festive, beautiful and edible MORE “Toyon is actually very edible, and it has been eaten by native folks up and down California,” says Lila Higgins from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Photo by John Rusk (CC BY 2.0).
The holly, with its prickly green leaves and bright red berries, is often used as decoration this time of year. There’s a similar native plant called the California holly, also known as Toyon. That’s what indigenous people named the plant before the Europeans showed up.
“Toyon is actually very edible, and it has been eaten by native folks up and down California,” says Lila Higgins, who works at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. In contrast, the European holly is poisonous.