MATILIJA
Matilija Creek and Matilija Springs, in Ventura County, derive their name from an Indian village, one of those mentioned in the mission archives. The name is best known as applied to the Matilija poppy, that flower of the gods which has its native habitat along the banks of the creek. This giant poppy, by reason of its extraordinary size and delicate beauty, has a just claim to be called “queen of all California’s wild flowers,” as the Sequoia is king of her trees. It is a perennial plant, of shrubby character, and grows wild in the southern part of the state, from the Santa María River southward, extending into Lower California, where it spreads over large areas. It flourishes in particular luxuriance in the Matilija canyon, but the popular idea that that spot was its only habitat is erroneous. The shrub reaches a height of eight or ten feet, has gray-green foliage, and bears splendid, six-petaled white flowers, often six or seven inches in diameter, “of a crepe-like texture, pure glistening white, with bright yellow centers.” “It not only grows in fertile valleys, but seeks the seclusion of remote canyons, and nothing more magnificent could be imagined than a steep canyon-side covered with the great bushy plants, thickly covered with the enormous white flowers.”—(Miss Parsons, quoted by J. Burt Davy, in Bailey’s Cyclopedia of American Horticulture.)