mariposa

We’d left him sitting by the riverbank, drying under a mulberry tree, the tiny mariposas clinging to his mouth and nostrils as if trying to resuscitate him.

There are native and nonnative plants all around the Bowl, but this area in particular is home to Plummer’s mariposa lily, a rare plant.

“Do any of you know what mariposa means?”

And the alkali mariposa lily and ash meadows blazing star are among the plants that grow only along this river.

Two endangered lilies — Green’s mariposa and Gentner’s fritillary — bloom purple and red each spring.