Slatsz' Wildflower Walks 2012 - two: August 06, 2012 - Polygonum douglasii, Douglas' knotweed

Only out about one hour. A little over a hundred photos. 35 keepers.

The temperatures continue hot. Maximums are to be in the 90’s all week. I decided to drag old bodkins out of bed mornings for both the YMCA workouts and walking the wildflowers in the cool of the morning.

I’m including a photo from my window made that morning. Removing some mid-tones darkens it and adds drama but not much. It really was a fiery dawn.

My only objective for the walk was to improve the photos from the previous walk. I was not completely successful. There’s still work to be done.

The good success was accomplished at home.

I had, last year, scoured the internet for photos of the plants on the evolved plant-list that I didn’t find and photograph. I referred to the photo-list and decided that the plant I thought must be related to the Epilobium brachycarpum, autumn willow herb was not related. It seems to be in the family with the buckwheats. My current guess is Polygonum douglasii, Douglas’ knotweed. Polygonum douglasii is one of the plants on the evolved plant-list. Either Grant or his predecessor had identified it.

Burke let me down. Neither the photo of the blossom nor the textual description was convincing. Carr didn’t have Polygonum douglasii listed. He did have photos of Polygonum majus, no common name. His photos seemed closer but not very close.

Turner’s photos and text description were convincing, especially those of P. douglasii subspecies majus.

I continued the search in Google. That resulted in the discovery of another interesting ‘local’ botany resource, E-Flora BC from the University of British Columbia.

http://www.geog.ubc.ca/biodiversity/eflora/

Naming issue – this from Burke: “Five taxa that were once considered as separate species are now regarded as varieties of P. douglasii (P. austiniae, P. majus, P. nuttallii, P. sawatchense and P. spergulariforme).

This from Wikipedia: Polygonum douglasii

“This plant species is known as a species complex, as there are many subspecies that may be better treated as species in their own right.^[1][2]

The plant is variable in morphology and the subspecies are often difficult to distinguish. In general, plants in this complex are annual herbs growing erect to maximum heights anywhere between 3 and 80 centimeters with thin, angular stems.”

I don’t have the source but I believe I read that P. douglasii comes up from a rhizome. The photo of the root suggests a rhizome to me.

In looking for photos of Polygonum douglasii I noticed that the photos of Polygonum fowleri looked like my unidentified green-stemmed ground-hugger. But Burke placed it only in coastal counties and Okanagan County saying that its habitat is ‘Coastal salt marshes.’ Yes. The coastal salt marshes of Okanagan County, for instance.

But botanical websites from all over the country had the photo of the plant for their region. Unfortunately, they didn’t have text descriptions.

Again I stumbled into an interesting resource: Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center, the University of Texas at Austin. Butterflies and Moths of North America related to plants.

http://www.wildflower.org/collections/collection.php?start=0&collection=bamona&pagecount=10

I drove right to the north access of the park and walked the north trail to the point where it crosses the north-south line of boulders. That’s where I found Polygonum douglasii in the past. But I didn’t notice in the past that there is a forest of them … an almost invisible forest of wiry stems, presumably connected, underground, by rhizomes.

I felt it was important that I get out looking for their blossoms that morning because I feared the long hot spell would dry them up. I found only one blossom. There seem to be hundreds of buds so perhaps I can continue improving my photos, heat or no.

I walked toward the junction of the main trail with north access trail where I find Madia glomerata, stinking tarweed [Burke has: ‘clustered tarweed’. Better name. Suggestive of it’s appearance.].

When I passed through the east-west line of boulders I noticed one of the green-stemmed ground-huggers [now Polygonum fowleri, no common name] with branches reaching for the sky. So both of the ‘ground-huggers’, red-stemmed and green-stemmed sometimes reach for the sky.

I need to continue to research the Polygonaceae family for the red-stemmed ground-hugger.

I saw the wasp feeding on the Grindelia squarrosa, curly-cup gum-weed. It didn’t seem to mind my attempts at portraits. I think this must be the best image of a wasp I’ve ever managed.

I was right by the large willow of north pond. I saw, down near the willow, a patch of Lythrum salicaria, purple loosestrife. So there’s at least one patch in each pond. As I have said elsewhere, some consider it an aggressive noxious weed.

I commented last time that I didn’t think the blossoms on Madia glomerata were ‘inconspicuous’. I changed my mind. The ‘commentator’ that said they are inconspicuous is … sufficiently correct. You can see bits of yellow but telling that the bits of yellow are actually blossoms not just buds with a bit of color showing is a problem.