This is the list of plants Barbara Leitner prepared in 1995, when she was working for a company the Zoo hired to perform a botanical survey of the site of the Zoo expansion. It includes all the plants she observed in her survey, both native and exotic, and by my rough count comes to about 270 species, of which about 60 are included in the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society list of "Rare, Unusual, and Significant Plants of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties." Note that this is just a list from that season and within the Zoo expansion area; it does not include the rest of the park.
This second list is a link to a query at the Calflora web site for all plant observations that Calflora has record of that occur in Alameda county and that have "Knowland" in their location description:
This is a very different kind of list, and includes only a few observations other than those from the East Bay Chapter of the California Native Plant Society's list of "Rare, Unusual, and Significant Plants of Alameda and Contra Costa Counties," which Calflora hosts for CNPS. You can read more about this CNPS project on the EB CNPS web site Unusual Plants Project page.
The interesting thing about this list is that there are over 60 species of plants in Knowland Park that are special to the East Bay: Among them some plants that do not occur anywhere in the EB area except in the park (for example, "Footsteps of Spring") and others that are rare or just lovely, such as Oakland Star Tulip and a form of Coral Root Orchid.
"What Grows Here?" in the Knowland Park Region
This third list is another link, from Calflora's brand new "What Grows Here?" project.
This link is to a map that is the tightest zoom in to the Knowland Park location, followed by an illustrated table of all the plants Calflora has record of that occur on the map. Some of the plants in this list do not occur directly in the park, but all of them might be there, and in fact the difference is really a fun list to explore with, looking for new records of plants in the park.
Knowland Park's plants are lovely, some are rare, and many are wonderful garden subjects and would be a great palette for a locally derived landscape plan. Like the Zoo, CNPS relies on the most easily admired taxa to introduce folks to California's natural treasures. But we also care deeply about the intact and sometimes more subtle treasures in our local neighborhoods.
Last modified May 23, 2010.