Upper Newport Bay is an Ecological Reserve created in 1975 to secure this area as a home for native plants and animals that live here and as a resting place for migrating birds on the Pacific Flyway.  The Reserve exists today due to the efforts of a dedicated group of individuals, led by Frank and Francis Robinson, who started the interpretive programs and saved the Bay from development.

Upper Newport Bay is managed jointly by the California Department of Fish and Game and the County of Orange Department of Harbors, Beaches and Parks in cooperation with the California Coastal Commission, the City of Newport Beach and the US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends organization coordinates the efforts of volunteer Naturalists with programs to educate the public about the importance of the Bay and coordinate programs to preserve and restore native habitat.

As a recent graduate of the Upper Newport Bay Naturalist program one of the tasks I was faced with was that of learning to identify the plants found  here, their characteristics and uses.  This document is a result of that effort.

The purchase of a Nikon Coolpix 995 digital camera in early 2002 and later a Canon G3 and Canon Xti allowed me to collect pictures of the plants in many stages of development thought out the year. The pictures in this document are taken from that collection.  Most of the images have no processing done except to reduce them to an image size of 640 x 480 and were taken at the Bay with few exceptions.

This document is a guide to Upper Newport Bay plant identification for naturalists and the general public, rather than a scientific treatise. In most cases the descriptions use common terminology in the  descriptions instead of the scientific terms. Although less accurate hopefully this will lead to better understanding for the general public.

This version of "Common Plants of Upper Newport Bay" has additional plants with numerous pictures added to existing pages and some corrections to the data.  An index of all common names and an index from common family name  to scientific family name are included.

Thanks to all Friends and Naturalists of upper Newport Bay for their continuing support for the preservation of this Gem in the midst of urban Orange County.

Special thanks go to Roger Reinke and Bob De Ruff for their long term study of the plants of the Bay and their generosity in sharing this information in numerous public and private tours.

Special special thanks to Dick Newell for many hours of research in identifying the plants and many pleasant hours of field work and especially for being such a good friend.

If the CD-Rom does not autostart, open the file '1TitlePage.html' in your Internet Browser (Double Click on the file name).  This will display a page with a list of links to various indexes which allow access to the various plant descriptions.  Selecting a link, by clicking on it, will display the corresponding index which contains links to the individual plant pages.  Use the browser back button to return to the previous pages.  Each individual page has descriptions and pictures of the plant, its flower, leaf, seed pod and other interesting features. Clicking on the small picture of the individual plant or its name link will display an enlarged version of the picture.  This page also lists the date and place the specific picture was taken.  The plant locations are shown on the map found in the link labeled Location Map.

There is no warranty expressed or implied as to the accuracy,  reliability or completeness of the furnished data or pictures.