Thanks to the late rains, vernal pools -- the springtime pools and surrounding uplands that dot California's Central Valley -- are one full month behind their usual blooming schedule. Vernal pools are among California's most threatened landscapes. UC Davis plant ecologist Michael Barbour leads a team of experts assembling the first statewide classification of vernal-pool plant communities. He can discuss vernal pool ecosystems, including flowers, insects, fairy shrimp and tadpole shrimp, birds, bugs, beetles, frogs and toads, salamanders and snakes.