Indian tobacco is a blast from the past in Redding

An exciting population of native tobacco plant has emerged from its seed bank in Redding. It's difficult to know how long it has been waiting there for the right conditions to grow, but the bloom hints at some profoundly interesting American Indian history.

As a professional botanist who conducts plant surveys in the North State, it's nearly impossible for me to turn off my perpetual plant-identification scanning and curiosity for identifying plants anywhere I am. Which is why, while driving home from work, I noticed some tall, showy white wildflowers on a very overcast day.

The area only recently has been disturbed. I grew up in the immediate area, riding my bike through the woods and along the locally known tricky bike-trail jumps with my siblings almost every summer day. This particular area was always very dense with a wall of manzanita and nearly impossible to pass through. It hasn't been disturbed since at least 1980 at the most recent, when my parents first moved to the area.

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