Slatsz' Wildflower Walks 2012 - two: May 29, 2012 - walk with Grant

Grant Cummings called and left a message saying he had seen a couple of plants he had never seen before.

That led to an hour forty-five minutes walking the wildflowers. Only 61 photos but 19 different plants. Only snapshots so Grant didn’t have to stand around waiting for me to do what I usually do. The photos were only to remind me to improve them later.

We put on lots of miles, back and forth across the park a couple of times and up and down the length of the park. He showed me plants in bloom that I had not seen and we came upon plants in bloom neither of us had seen.

9 new blooms

I could hardly walk when we finished.

I photographed Robinia pseudoacacia, black locust on the way to meet Grant.

We walked over to Besseya rubra hollow to see one of the plants unfamiliar to Grant. He thinks it’s a variety of Delphinium.

The Arnica fulgens is near by and it is in bloom. I forgot to look for the Achillea millifolium, yarrow I had seen in bud, there.

A few steps away, on the rock above the hollow Grant saw Scutellaria angustifolia, narrow-leaf skullcap in bloom. We saw others, later.

We started east toward North Pond to see the other new find. Grant pointed out Lupinus sericeus, silky lupine in bloom. We saw several around the park.

A little further on he showed me the Potentilla with compound pinnate leaves, in bloom.

I saw a familiar tiny white flower from last year on the dried mud flat of North Pond. I have to search for an identification. [Plagiobothrys scouleri, popcorn flower.]

The plant new to Grant is quite unusual. Yellow flowers, red stems. It, too, was on the mud flat.

There was a sedge in bloom.

I looked for the Asparagus officinalis, asparagus plant that I had seen on the edge of the tall grass of the dry pond bottom last year. I didn’t find it. We saw Asparagus in bud in several locations later.

I routed us north of North Pond to look for the Amsinckia retrorsa, fiddle neck that I had seen there in plenty last year but it was not to be seen.

We rounded North Pond on the way to show Grant the unidentified shrub at the east end of the park and saw a Rosa woodsii, Wood’s rose with a little red showing in a bud and, nearby, an asparagus plant in bud.

Grant didn’t have an identification for the shrub at the east end of the park.

He took me into the thicket at the east end of South Pond to show me the Toxicodendron rydbergii, poison Ivy. It was bearing fruit.

He showed me the foliage of a strange little plant without identification.

Iris were in bloom in the abandoned homesteads along the south side of the park, south of South Pond.

I saw a Grindelia squarrosa in bud in the street. Later we saw one in bloom.

I wanted to check for the little patch of Orobanche uniflora, naked broomrape so we crossed the park again. There was no sign of them.

We talked about some of the difficulties of identifying the various Eriogonum, buckwheat. We walked down to the west end to check three patches. The ‘round’ patch does have different looking foliage from that of the other yellow flowered buckwheat at the south end of White Bitterroot Rock.

Grant showed me a patch of strange little plants, in foliage now, that he says will have pink flowers later. Maybe pea family.

The Spokane Tribe takes some responsibility for upkeep of the park. They burned some brush last winter, or so it seems. In the process they seemed to have destroyed a shrub I think was Viburnum edule, high-bush cranberry, the only one in the park. I showed it to Grant and was delighted to see that there are leaves coming back at its base.

I didn’t try to photograph them. I need to remember to do that. It won’t be easy.

Forgive the quality of the ‘hurry-up’ photographs. I will improve them when I can.