Sanborn Roadsides: Potential Pocket Preserves

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Before we can even say hello, Saumitra (Sáw-mit-truh) Kelkar disappears behind a tree to examine a half-eaten mushroom I didn't even notice was there. This becomes the theme of our Sanborn Road walk, a deeply tracked conversation with constant interruptions when something would catch his eye and he'd climb up to take a closer look.

Purple Needle Grass! Amanita Velosa! Mariposa Lily! 

Saumitra's Instagram, oakland.bio is blowing up, and I'm a huge fan. This now-freelance biology teacher posts about native plants right that grow in sidewalk cracks and on empty lots—I couldn't wait to see what he knew about Joaquin Miller Park.

Since he's someone who can find nature anywhere, Saumitra doesn't need to "go to the woods" like the rest of us—we're both amazed he's never really hiked here. Our 2 hour walk is a mutual info dump as we weave together what he knows —the secret life of all of the plants—and what I know—the people behind the scenes, then and now.

I point out the trees Miller planted—the Lebanon Cedars and European Elders and Ashes. They're interspersed with the Oak trees that grew themselves. I tell him the story of Miller's triumph in Italy where the Eucalyptus he suggested helped the country eradicate malaria by draining the swamps. He admires Old Sentinel, the truly beautiful old Euc on Bishop's Walk, not one of "the bad ones."

There is such delight in his voice when Saumitra spies a species he doesn't often see, and I feel the joy, too, learning to spot hairy gum daisy (Grindelia hirsutula), and yellow mariposa lily (Calochortus luteus), and the tiny native bees that seek them. As I gaze into their shining faces I recognize them as reaching through time to be in this moment, telling a story of resilience.

He spies mushrooms under leaves, which I don't see at first, then spot a lot of them. I learn how Amanita Velosa (delicious, not deadly) need the oak trees but the trees don't need them. I learn that the pretty purple flowers are blue vetch, which I recognize as a nitrogen-fixing fallow crop from farming, and that the extra nitrogen has changed the chemistry of the land.




Someone rushes up to him as we pass the Friends of Sausal Creek nursery and gushes about a volunteer who used to be his high school student. Then we fall deep into a conversation about Oat Grass vs. Goat Grass. 

Saumitra is leading a workshop about grasses on Saturday, info below.


Walking with someone who can read a landscape is a unique treat. When we pass a cluster of small purple blooms, his teaching spins me into wonder. This is a species with edible bulbs the Ohlone used to cultivate, called Ithuriel's spear (Triteleia laxa), so this was likely a garden they maintained. How appropriate, then, for the bathroom on this slope to have been painted with an Indigenous Land mural! 

The blooms continue across the road where the California Writers Circle now stands. I tell him how so many California Writers who are honored in the Memorial Grove were researchers, documenting the lives and cultures of Native people with a passion for their preservation. This is a perfect place for an explainer sign!

Farther down the hill I learn all about the Serpentine formation, which occurred when one techtonic plate folded back over another. Its endemic plants (evolved in this place) like purple spot gilia (Gilia clivorum) have extremely specific needs in terms of nutrition, moisture, and sun exposure. Saumitra lights up at the idea of turning this natural spring area (badly designed with a road running insensibly through it) into a restoration habitat. He's heading to grad school soon to get a Conservation degree, and would love to give back to Oakland, which he says has more botanical and biological diversity than pretty much any other city in the country outside of the Bay. 


If you're not following Oakland Bio on Instagram yet, sign up today and get eco-locally educated! 



Native Grasses Walk and Talk with Saumitra Kelkar - RSVP Here

DateSat, May 30, 2026
Time10:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Ranger Station, 3540 Sanborn Dr, Oakland, CA 94602, USA

Location: Sanborn Dr, Oakland, CA, USA

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