Slatsz' Wildflower Walks 2012 - two: May 19, 2012

May 19, 2012 – Bitterroot in bloom

About 2 hours and 40 minutes. 308 photos. 132 keepers.

292 page-views so far. Sometimes it counts me and sometimes it doesn’t. The long blogs have reduced the page-views.

Full sun. Filmy overcast. Light, gusty wind. A few mosquitoes.

I made three stops. Drove to the west end to check the mountain mahogany, drove to the east end to check the common bugloss. Drove to the fireplug to check the Crataegus monogyna.

11 new bloom. 5 new buds.

New blossom

Agoseris glauca

Anchusa officinalis common bugloss

Apple sp – past bloom [maybe Prunus]

Cercocarpus ledifolius mountain mahogany

Crataegus monogyna English hawthorn, thornapple

Delphinium nuttallianum

Eriogonum heracleoides parsnip flowered buckwheat

Lewisia rediviva bitterroot

Tragopogon dubius goat’s beard, salsify

Unidentified shrub – east end

Zigadenus venenosus death camas

New buds

Achillea millifolium yarrow, milfoil

Antennaria sp.

Arnica fulgens shining leopardbane

Eriogonum umbellatum sulfur buckwheat

Lewisia rediviva white bitterroot white

Camera trouble, as usual. Hot light, bleached photos. I set the camera for ‘shutter preferred’ and 1/200^th of a second, thinking I would pay attention and change it as required. I didn’t pay attention.

I have figured out an alibi. I was too focused on the hunt. I failed to focus on the camera. I must have needed at least 1/400^th of a second.

I did shade the flowers with my body when I thought about it.

I don’t ordinarily get out early enough to photograph the flowers that close in the heat of the day. Walking in to the west end of the park I noticed the deformed Tragopogon dubius, salsify or goat’s beard, and photographed it. A few steps further was the strange circle of Eriogonum umbellatum, sulfur buckwheat. Lots of buds present. Later I saw bright yellow buds on a buckwheat plant south of White Bitterroot Rock and photographed it. Looking at it in the computer I am wondering if the leaves are … different. The buds were certainly very different. Probably a memory failure.

The Cercocarpus ledifolius, mountain mahogany was in bloom.

I decided to hike up to check the Agoseris glauca. On the way I noticed that the small shrub all by itself in the open area east of Import Corner is Cercocarpus ledifolius.

I thought I was seeing Lomatium dissectum along the way and photographed them but I was wrong.

There were some patches of an Antennaria sp. with buds I thought were too white to be Antennaria luzuloides, woodrush pussy-toes. Other than the color of the buds they were pretty much the same as A. luzuloides.

I noticed the large tree on the north edge of the park was past bloom. I wonder if it is an apple. I didn’t think to look around on the ground for last year’s apples. And when I looked at the leaves in the computer I thought they looked like cherry leaves.

Behind the possible Apple tree was a very large Cornus sericea, red osier dogwood. I wondered about it being away from water. The others are out in the water of South Pond. Burke says its habitat is: “Moist soil, especially along streams, low to mid-elevations.” Maybe the watered lawns behind it keep it wet enough.

North-side Trail seems little used, this far down. I remembered a lot of Agoseris glauca or Microsteris nutans and Zigadenus venenosus alongside the trail last year. I saw none on this walk.

The Agoseris glauca was closed but it is probably still blooming, mornings.

I decided that I couldn’t leave the area without checking White Bitterroot Rock for early bitterroot. I had seen Grindella nana foliage everywhere. I checked some on the walk across the park. I thought I was looking at flower buds in the crown but now I think they are leaf buds.

The other plant I thought was sulfur buckwheat is at the south end of White Bitterroot Rock. Just beyond it I found Eriogonum heracleoides, parsnip flowered buckwheat in bloom.

And there were a lot of Lewisia rediviva, bitterroot, in bloom on the north end of the rock. These were the only parsnip flowered buckwheat and bitterroot I saw in bloom anywhere in the park.

I drove to the east end of the park to check Anchusa officinalis, common bugloss. It was blooming. I should call its location Bugloss Hill. They will be thick, there, again, if Grant doesn’t get after them.

There is a large Prunus mahaleb bordering a grove on edge of the east end of the park.

I buggered my hand somewhere, somehow. I thought you needed a photo of it.

I burrowed into the thicket east of South Pond intending to photograph the trunk of the large Crataegus douglasii, black hawthorn, there. But I found nothing like the giant trunk in Tall Pine Grove.

I did photograph the trunk of the giant willow east of South Pond.

On the way back to the car I noticed a small shrub in bloom that is not familiar to me. I hope you can identify it for me. Yeah. I know. I need better photographs.

More alibi time.

I’m trying to do more than I did last year with the timing and the location of early bloomers.

I collect ‘life history’ photos when I have the energy for it … and the inclination to do it. But the work this year is to find and photograph as many plants as possible.

This year’s work can be a foundation for life history project photos in future. With good luck I will know when and where to look for the plants whose history I need to fill out.

I drove over to the fireplug to check the Crataegus monogyna, English hawthorn or thornberry, for blossoms and thorns. Ken Swedberg identified it for me but when I checked Burke they said it would have thorns. I hadn’t seen any thorns.

I checked the front of the plant twice and found no thorns. Then it occurred to me to check older branches. The shape of the shrub is such that you can get in behind it conveniently. And there they were. Short, very sharp thorns.

I walked over to get the ‘plant photo’ of the Physocarpus malvaceus, mallow 9 bark that I failed to get last outing.

I walked north into the park trying to remember where I had seen a lonely, early Zigadenus venenosus, death camas last year.

On the way I checked Besseya Rubra hollow for Delphinium nuttallianum for blossoms, and there they were. I also checked for Arnica fulgens, shining leopard-bane. It is in bud.

I did some life history photos of Besseya rubra, red coral-drops.

Out in the park I noticed a short stump, a little too short for a comfortable sit-down but probably better than sitting on the ground.

I found a lonely death camas in what must have been a seep earlier in the year.

On the way back to the car I saw what I presume are two more death camas in the patch of Camassia quamash in the seep west of South Pond. But they had a blue cast to their petals. Most are brilliant white. I wonder if death camas cross breed with common camas.