San Luis Obispo

The history of this California mission from its founding in 1772, through its development and use in serving the Chumash Indians, and its secularization and function today.

California Plants is an essential resource for outdoor enthusiasts. With his vibrant photographs and lively writing, Matt Ritter takes the reader on a journey through the Golden State's iconic landscapes and abundant plant life. This definitive guide features more than 500 species, along with detailed descriptions, fascinating natural history stories, and handy tree and wildflower color identification charts.

Learn about the rich history of Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa: how it started, the people who ran it, the indigenous population, and its legacy today.

"This field guide displays wildflowers that grow within about five miles of the City of San Luis Obispo... contains over 290 plant species."--P. 3.

San Luis Obispo was founded in 1772 as a mission in the foothills of the Santa Lucia Mountains on California's Central Coast. The city that grew from a rustic pueblo, with its scattering of adobe buildings, today has a wealth of architectural styles. From the simple barns of the outlying farm community, to the grand hotels and lively saloons kept busy by the Southern Pacific Railroad depot, and back full circle to the Mission Revival style edifices of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo's architecture has echoed its history. Motor travel brought the world's first motel to this half-way point on California's historic Highway 101, and the famously zany tourist attraction, the Madonna Inn.

This educational and interactive picture book immerses the reader in the strange and interwoven lifecycles of a tropical fig tree in the rainforest, and the tiny insects and colorful creatures that call it home. Following the growth of a seed dropped into the canopy of a rainforest tree by a flying toucan, Something Wonderful teaches the interdependence of rainforest ecology in an easy-to-follow, captivating story. Flip the beautifully illustrated pages and experience the journey of the fig seedling making roots and leaves, growing strong, eventually replacing the giant tree that was its host, making figs, attracting pollinators, and developing its life-giving seeds.Something Wonderful happens next. The delectable fig fruit is hungrily eaten by a passing toucan who, upon flight, aimlessly drops a seed from its poop into the treetops below, beginning the fig's lifecycle once again. Discover additional scientific information about the pollination process, insects, and animals found in the story in an illustrated section at the end of the book. Readers can play a "seek and find" game of locating the elusive red-eyed tree frog on each page of the story. Take a journey, from the tiny to the grand, while making your way through the tropical rainforest on the path to uncover Something Wonderful...