To recap (it might help solve the puzzle):
- We normally had a normal, green, suburban lawn.
- We got hit with a three-year drought, the worst on record.
- Water restrictions got put into place and about 99% of the grass died.
- We’ve now had one of the wettest winters on record.
- Some grass is growing back, but most of what is now covering the dirt is some clover-like green stuff, with heavily shaded areas getting covered in a dense, bright green carpet of moss
Are we caught up?
Today I spotted something odd growing out there. “Odd,” you say? Well, for starters, it’s bright red…
The whole area is maybe 8×11 inches, the size of a piece of paper. Red stems, red leaves.
It’s ground hugging, not sticking up at all (yet??), so probably not red yucca, which does grow in these parts.
I spent a couple hours tonight trying to google what it might be. I downloaded a couple of “plant identification” apps and they all came up with no matches.
Maybe it’s a moss of some sort? “Red moss” or “red rock moss” pictures look a bit like this. Sorta?
I’m open to suggestions.
Maybe I’ve been watching too much “The Last of Us,” but I’m half expecting to go out in the morning and find a junco or squirrel caught up in those red branches and stems and tendrils, slowly being digested…
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 
I think your squirrels are safe enough. It looks like a creeping succulent that we’d have as a houseplant. If only I could remember its name! But it would be fine in California, below the snowline đŸ™‚
Glad the native ground cover is making a bid for freedom from the grass. Unless of course, it’s grown out of the bird seed mix.
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The bird seed is very opportunistic with the grass being gone. I should
drop some in some potting soil and see what comes up!
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