NE
NEWSLETTER OF THE DOROTHY KING YOUNG CHAPTER
CALIFORNIA NATIVE PLANT SOCIETY
PRESIDENT’S CORNER
Peg Frankel – 1919-2003
Peg Frankel died peacefully at her San Francisco
apartment on June 18, 2003 from complications of
lymphoma.
A longtime activist, Peg’s professional and
volunteer activities in the 1940s and 50s revolved
around health and welfare causes. She was one of
those all-too-rare people who easily perceive the
connection between human well being and
environmental issues.
After the death of her dentist husband, Peg kept
her coast home near Elk, while maintaining an
apartment in San Francisco. She became known in
both communities for her conservation work and
the determination that fuelled it. Her friends will
also remember Peg for her zestful sense of life and
her unique brand of quirky humor. A great
scavenger, she created a home where the line
between fine art and found objects blurred and
vanished. We can only hope that her “Marilyn
Monroe Chandelier” – an illuminated confection of
pink stiletto-heel shoes and faux pearls – has found
a good home.
Peg loved our coastal California poppy, a low-
growing perennial with bright yellow flowers. She
tried to keep Caltrans from obliterating it along
Highway One, and from replacing it with the
orange, inland version. I think of that yellow poppy
as “Peg’s flower” now, feeling that whenever I
share plants or seeds with someone, I am carrying
on Peg’s work. I hope all of you who knew and
treasured Peg Frankel will remember her whenever
you see the yellow headlands poppy, standing fast
in the face of opposition, just like Peg herself.
Wildflowers – Larkspur Follow-up, and
Paintbrush, too
The Hearn Gulch parcel purchased by the
Redwood Coast Land Conservancy, turns out to
harbor a few botanical treasures of its own. Among
them, a fine population of Delphinium hesperium!
They are growing on a steep slope, as they tend to
do, which saves them from the vehicle incursions
that happen