Best worm bedding plants/material you can find in the wild? (Southern California)

I heard comfrey and stinging nettle are great bedding for worm bins, though I don't think any comfrey grows around here in southern California.

I've seen stinging nettle, but in very small patches, and I went to the place where it used to grow in the wild and I didn't see any.

Are there any other good bedding materials that can be collected in the wild, here in SoCal?

(In the mountains I've collected fallen oak leaves, those do take forever to break down, but they kinda mixed in with the soil and were sharp, and just seemed messy. Was wondering if there's anything better. Trying to keep it as natural as possible, and try to incorporate local bacterial life, I don't want to use newspapers, cardboard, etc).

Coconut coir not wild enough for you? I mean you could go and forage for ancient forest soil to add to your bin but recycled root balls are much the same thing. In my exp worms prefer rotted fruits and veggies over anything else. They also like canna leaves in large quantities…all natural stuff. Local compost contains local bacterial life …do you have access to a local farm?

Can you buy locally grown organic alfalfa? Or if you have access to any local meadows or fields they can be great sources of plant materials that are high in local bacteria. Just bring some grass shears or a battery powered weed eater and start harvesting.

There are plants that should not be collected because they contain/produce chemicals that are toxic to other organisms, black walnut for example.

Some plants produce chemicals that inhibit the growth of other plants, this is referred to as allelopathy and there are tons of lists that you can find online of allelopathic plants. Some of the info needs to be taken with a grain of salt though. Alfalfa is listed as an allelopathic plant and does contain an allelopathic chemical however the chemical it contains is not known to be toxic to other plants. The allelopathic chemical in alfalfa inhibits germination and seedling growth of alfalfa, i.e. it's toxic to itself. So although alfalfa is listed as an allelopathic plant it is non toxic to worms or plants and is super beneficial to everything in the garden except alfalfa sprouts.