2 hours. 122 photos. 47 keepers, Hot. About 4:30 to 6:30. 65 views of blog 2, 2012.
I parked at the north entrance of the Park to check on the Chondrilla juncea, rush skeleton weed and the Centaurea diffusa, spotted knapweed along the north trail east of north pond.
There was one spotted knapweed plant in bloom right by my parking place. I didn’t see another in the park.
I’ve been watching for spotted knapweed as I drive around the city. I noticed it in full bloom down in Liberty Hole some time ago. Later I saw some not far up Crestline from Indiana
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I walked the east mudflat of north pond. I photographed what I thought was the unidentified ‘blue flower’ of a previous outing, now in seed. I expected it to have the red seed pods I photographed last year on a similar unidentified plant. It didn’t.
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It was so hot that I always looked for shade to stop and make photographs in.
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The rush skeleton weed along the north trail may be in bud, it’s hard to tell. I am supposing, for the moment, that the messy looking structures at the nodes are flower buds or are somehow flower bud related.
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I plowed through a nasty little trail from the little stand of pruned fir trees down into the pond bottom. The pond bottom, there, is thick with Amsinckia lycopsoides, fiddleheads, with their tiny transparent stickers. I plowed through them and seemed to get away with it. Perhaps they haven’t hardened yet. I attempted several ‘patch’ photos.
A little later I attempted several ‘patch photos’ of Castilleja tenuis, hairy owl’s clover.
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I was amazed to see the Erigeron compositus, cut-leaf fleabane in bloom. It was fairly clearly a second blossoming this year. This is the only plant I saw in full bloom. I saw another with blossoms at the end of the walk. The ray flowers were missing but the disk flowers were there. I was more interested in getting back to the car than photographing broken flowers by that time.
I had set the shutter speed for 1/400th of a second because it was a bright day. That was too fast for the macro photos in the shade. I slowed it to 1/100th of a second.
It didn’t occur to me to increase the shutter speed shooting white flowers in bright sunlight. Damn.
But it might not have helped.
I was hot and tired. That’s all the excuse I can come up with.
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Having got down to photograph the cut-leaf fleabane I noticed the Epilobium brachicarpum, autumn willow-herb foliage. It was only a few inches high. It will be a foot and a half tall later. I was surprised to notice what I believe to be a single bud on one plant. Later I saw plants with several buds on them.
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I had pulled a strange Lepidium sp from what I believe were a patch of similar plants along side the North Access Trail. I finally got around to photographing it. I need to check more of them to see if the low branching is characteristic. It might just be an accident of growing along side the trail, being broken off by walkers but I don’t see a break on the stem.
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One of my objectives was Perideridia gairdneri, Yampah. I didn’t see a sign of it anywhere. It looks a little like Achillea millifolium, yarrow, from a distance so that cost me a lot of extra steps.
The similarity with Lomatium triternatum, 9 leaf biscuitroot in seed is not as strong but still cost a few steps. There’s a little similarity before and after yampah blooms.
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I was very uncomfortable by this time but I couldn’t leave without checking for the very, very strange blossom April found last year down below L. gormanii rock. I thought I remembered the place exactly but when I saw no sign of it, I lost confidence in my imperfect memory and wandered all around the area searching.
I’m going to attempt to insert a photo of this strange plant from last year into this text file to see if I can email it that way. For some reason I can’t ‘copy & paste’ graphics into this email program. I used to do it with Outlook Express.
[[Failure. Looks good in the word processor. The email program rejects the photos.]]
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As a result of the futile search I stumbled into a bank-side patch of Jovibarba globifera, hen & chicks. I know of two other patches in the park but this one looks healthiest.
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I had gone back through the July photos from 2011 the previous week to develop ‘a hunt list’. I saw that it was only time now for the Erigeron speciosus, showy fleabane to bloom. So I hiked east to the corner of Ash place and Euclid
I drove to the west end of the park in the vain hope that two structures on the Opuntia fragilis, brittle prickly pear that I thought might be buds would have bloomed.
It seems that they have bloomed and the petals withered already. Perhaps no one picked the blossom of the bud I had been watching. Perhaps the blossoming is very brief.
The other patch of prickly pear had a blossom in fine condition. I shaded it with my body but the light was still too hot. I had to do a lot of repair on the bleaching. No. It didn’t occur to me to reset the shutter speed.
Maybe I’ll remember to reset the camera next time.
I doubt it.
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I’ve been reading a little, here and there on the internet, about plant families. Burke’s treatment is so poor it is really, not at all, a mere list.
is a UK
The good thing is that they write English, not a skill of botanists [or geologists … I was reading geology last winter] in general.
The bad thing is that they don’t treat very many of the plant families. I suppose, from their name, ‘The Seed Site’ that they are commercial and are most interested in domesticated plants.
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My great question is not answered. I would like to find a site that tells me, for any given plant why it is placed in its family. The description of the Rosaceae family sounds like ‘miscellaneous’. The descriptions of some other families are somewhat more specific but all families [I’ve read about] seem to have a lot of room for plants that are not very much alike.
[In reading about ‘Rosa ’ I discovered that roses do not have thorns, they have prickles. Thorns are, in effect, stems. Prickles are modified epidermal structures. The prickles are thought to help defend against browsing but deer browse them anyway. The prickles of roses that grow on sand dunes might catch sand in the wind to protect their roots. ]
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One thing leads to another, always, especially in libraries or on the internet. I’ve been watching some biology videos out of Bozeman , Montana
Mr. [Paul, if I remember correctly] Anderson
PLANTS, SPECIFICALLY, LAND PLANTS
7 minutes 47 seconds
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| Centaurea diffusa, spotted knapweed |
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| I think this unideitified plant is the same plant as the one I called 'unidentified blue flower' earlier now in seed |
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| I thought 'blue flower' was the same unidentified plant I photographed last year with red seed pods but as you see, no red seed pods |
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| Chondrilla juncea, rush skeleton weed |
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| These must be prickles They are hard on the hand at the base but the stem is smooth above |
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| It would be interesting to know who was responsible for the decoration and why they did the decoration |
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| Amsinckia lycopsoides patch I associated these with dry environments but I see that they flourish in the pond bottom |
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| Castilleja tenuis, hairy owl's clover These surround the pond now They are also prolific along side the main trail |
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| Erigeron compositus, cutleaf fleabane This must be a second blossoming of this plant this year I saw only one other plant in bloom this outing |
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| Just to prove to myself that it is cutleaf fleabane |
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| Epilobium brachicarpum, autumn willowherb |
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| Jovbarba globifera, hen & chicks |
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| Holodiscus discolor, oceanspray bright in the sun |
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| Eriogonum umbellatum, sulfur buckwheat There are two patches of buckwheat with yellow blossoms close together The blossoms look different. Are they different species? An ongoing study |
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| As you see, few flowers are in full bloom in this patch |
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| From the shabby patch |
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| From the round patch |
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| Notice the stem nearly enclosed on the globe of blossoms Perhaps the blossoms from the shabby patch will 'fill out' later |
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| Opuntia fragilis, brittle prickly pear patch |
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| I think the brown tissue must be faded petals What do you think? What are these structures? |
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