Someone Beheaded Blooms in Big Sur’s Calla Lily Valley

Tourists hoping to photograph Calla Lily Valley, one of California’s most Instagram-famous floral blooms, last week were instead greeted by an unusual scene. Rather than walking through brilliant white petals, they were met with the stalks of decapitated lilies, apparently chopped down under the cover of night.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that on February 25, someone cut the blooming heads off all the flowers in Calla Lily Valley. Kevin, who declined to give his last name, told the publication that he was visiting the area on February 26 when he noticed the flattened vegetation.

The social media-famous ravine, typically stuffed full of white lilies, sits in Garrapata State Park, just off coastal Highway 1 north of Big Sur.

Mike Dippel, the head ranger for the Monterey State Park District, told SF Gate that visitors to the park notified officials on March 2 that the white flowers usually seen in the valley were nowhere to be found.

“It looks like somebody took scissors or some sort of gardening tool and got rid of the flowering parts of all the lilies,” Dippel told SF Gate. “They didn’t dig into the ground and rip the whole plant out. They just cut the tops off.”

The calla lilies typically begin blooming in early January and flower through the end of April. Greg Tyner, who works at a nearby nursery, told local news outlet The Tribune that because the plants’ bulbs weren’t removed, they’ll likely survive and re-bloom next year.

Rangers are still searching for a motive, but Dippel suspects the removal could be tied to the plant’s ecological status. Calla lilies are a non-native, invasive species in California. The Department of Agriculture states on its website that the flowers are native to southern Africa and were introduced to the United States in the 19th century.

Alternatively, Dippel said the destruction could be a symptom of local frustration with overtourism. The picturesque valley has exploded in popularity on social media, dramatically increasing traffic, parking issues, and environmental degradation along that specific stretch of the coast.

“It’s just a whole lot of visitation coming in there, and I don’t know if that was a motivation for cutting down the flowers,” Dippel said to SF Gate. “I did run into quite a few park visitors that were pretty upset. There was a couple from Oregon that had driven down to see the valley, and they were pretty bummed to walk into it and find that the whole thing had been cut down.”

Dippel said that whatever the cause, he was sad to see the lilies were gone and wished those involved had voiced their complaints to the state park first, whatever they were.

“Maybe we could have come to some resolution other than just having them go down there, whoever it was, and cut these down,” he told SF Gate.

Cutting down flowers or other plants in California state parks without permission is against state law. The crime is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail, a $1,000 fine, or both.