Slatsz' Wildflower Walks 2012 - two: June 26, 2012

Two hours fifteen minutes. 204 photos. Bad light. 70 keepers.

Cold, some wind, occasional fine sprinkling rain. Shorts and short sleeve shirt yesterday. Long pants, sweatshirt, insulated vest and wool scarf, today.

It was about 5 by the time I got out there. It was very dark. I set the camera on aperture preferred, 2.8 and hoped for the best. I hoped I could, at least some of the time hold the camera steady enough to get usable images at what would be very slow shutter speeds.

I started from the north entrance to the park intending to re-photograph the tiny plants I saw last outing. I was hoping for more blossoms on the ‘bottle brush’ plant. There were some but it was probably not yet in full bloom.

There was a single blossom on a very slender, rather wiry herb nearby. The blossom, the wiry character of the stem and the few leaves looked familiar but the familiar plant would sprawl on the ground. This plant was quite vertical.

I saw a lot of Geranium carolinianum, wild geranium foliage and one plant seemed to have a bud. But when I got the image into the computer it seemed it had seed pods. I saw no sign of blossoms even though I saw lots of wild geranium foliage both east and west of North Pond.

I re-photographed the Trifolium microcephalum, small head clover. Burke says it’s native.

I especially wanted a good image of the distinctive hairy, toothed leaves. Only one image of the leaves was even barely usable.

There were lots of Castilleja tenuis, hairy owl’s clover, on both sides of the pond and along the trail in the little area that seems to breed mudflat plants even though it is quite dry. Those along the trail look to the eye to have grey foliage but the green shows up in the computer. The blossoms might be a little different. They seem very white not at all yellow.

I think, this time, there were a few petals on the Gnaphalium palustre, marsh cudweed. I’m calling it ‘in bloom’ … with a question mark. I’ll keep watching for the nice crown of petals I see in Burke.

It just occurred to me to check Carr and Turner. Carr’s photos are best, as usual. Both Carr and Turner have the nice crowns of petals on G. palustre.

Navarretia intertexta, needle leaf navarretia had scattered blossoms on its large round heads of green needles. I found a large branched plant.

The unidentified red-stem yellow-flower plant grows rather like a hedge row on the mudflat. There is a new plant at its base that sprawls. I wonder if the sprawling ‘limbs’ will rise later like Lomatium macrocarpum.

Plagiobothrys scouleri, popcorn flower blanketed the mudflat for a considerable time. Now there are only occasional plants to be seen. These were quite tall.

I dug out a measuring tape for this trip. I didn’t always remember to use it.

Madia exigua, small tarweed, is in bloom alongside the main trail. I’m calling it M. exigua because it is relatively short.

Carr has three Madia, M. exigua, M. glomerata and M. gracillis. Burke has all three ranging up from 4 inches. But M. glomerata and M. gracillis range up to 30 and 40 inches. M. exigua only reaches 12 inches.

I saw the pink Lotus unifoliolatus, American bird’s foot trefoil east of north pond. Burke has it “ … pale yellow or cream, usually reddish-tinged …”

The clouds were fun.

Eriogonum niveum, snow buckwheat is probably in bud. I didn’t slow down to get images I could blow up. These are some of the many patches at the west end of the park. There are others on the trail from the fireplug to the main trail.

I was wrong about their being only one extensive patch of Opuntia fragilis, brittle prickly pear. There are two. One was out of sight behind a tall snow buckwheat patch from where I searched last time.

I hope there are buds on both of them. I think I see the remnant of the blossom that should have been.

Holodiscus discolor, ocean spray is just beginning to blossom.