Scoliopus bigelovii has two strange common names - Fetid Adder's Tongue and Slink Pod. They are our earliest blooming wildflowers and they are found on the forest floor. The tiny, exquisite blooms come up first, with the stem barely cupped by the emerging leaves. The blooms are only about an inch or so high, so they are quite hard to spot. I recently showed photographer Craig Tooley where they were blooming on a neighbor's property.

They are members of the Lily family. The flowers will be long gone when the leaves fully emerge. If you find the large mottled leaves in the spring, note where they are growing so you can look for the flowers next winter. Rick and I always started looking for them on Christmas Day, and this year I found the first one on Dec. 26th.

Thanks to Craig for allowing me to share his photo with you here. To see much more of Craig's nature photography, here is the link to his website: http://www.ruffimage.com

Much of the Mendonoma Coast has no power. The towns of Gualala, Anchor Bay and Point Arena are without power since yesterday's storm. I am posting this with the help of a backup generator. We had a wild and very windy storm, which was the culprit for the power outages. Many trees are down. It will be several days before power is restored. The rain totals for yesterday's storm was 2.45 inches, 29.95 season to date.