Daisy pedals droop when the temperature is cool or there is morning dew. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

All the colors of the rainbow were sprouting from the lush green grasses at Foothill Regional Park in Sonoma County last weekend.

Some were short, some were more than a foot tall, some were just starting to sprout, others were in full bloom. They all were spectacular.

Rusty popcorn lives up to its name based on how it looks. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Near the end of the guided hike on April 1 our leader Cricket with Sonoma County Regional Parks had the more than two dozen people on the hike name as many flowers as we could—I’m still one to say, “Oh, that’s a pretty purple one” without ever learning its name. The color data was good information to have when we tried to figure out if we had seen the entire spectrum of the rainbow.

A carpet of wildflowers at Foothill Regional Park in Sonoma County. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

We spent more than two hours walking about 1½ miles through this 211-acre park in Windsor. Clearly, on this paid ($10) outing we didn’t see all aspects of the park, but we sure saw a ton of flowers.

Adelinia grande are in the borage family and are also known as Pacific hound’s tongue. (Image: Kathryn Reed)

Cricket was the perfect guide as she dispersed information—like how the wild radish is not native, but it’s not one of the bad invasive species; or how leaves of the Pacific sanicle, aka snakeroot, can be made into a poultice to treat a snake bite; that the irises found in this park are the bold tube variety and will only be around a short time in the spring; and how the Johnny-tuck flower is also called butter and eggs.

With the abundance of rain this winter, it’s bound to be an epic wildflower season. It was clear that on this particular Saturday we are far from the peak—at least in Sonoma County. Once the temps start to rise and the sun is out more, the flora is bound to pop.