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Nakai spent time studying the Dudleya genus, succulents native to the West Coast, and contributed to its taxonomy, or scientific classification.

In a presentation recorded in 1992 at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, a younger Nakai flips through pictures and describes different species of Dudleya plants.

“It is thrilling to hike through the preserve with over 150 native plants and animals. Birds and other pollinators flock to salvia, buckwheat and yarrow. The dramatic silver-leafed Dudleya were blooming gloriously.”

Its rugged canyons, wrinkled slopes and waterfalls are home to 22 species of rare and endangered species of plants and animals including the San Gabriel River dudleya, Nelson’s bighorn sheep, mountain yellow-legged frogs, western pond turtles, Santa Ana suckers, tricolored blackbirds, and California condors.

Every inch of the perimeter is covered with plastic and ceramic pots brimming with buckwheat and verbena, dudleya, penstemon and black sage.