1:50 walking the wildflowers carrying my portable stump – 196 photos, 69 keepers

I was unsatisfied on the previous outing that I had not checked Philadelphus lewisii, syringa or mock orange, Gnaphalium palustre, marsh cudweed and the other mudflat plants. So I went out a couple of days early.

I parked near the fireplug on Euclid but I drove by some Medicago sativa, alfalfa, coming around the park, stopped and picked one to photograph later.

The huge domestic rose that climbs up into Tall Pine Grove was in bloom.

I walked around to the north side of Tall Pine Grove to record the Viburnum edule foliage coming back. The shrub was apparently burned last fall but it’s showing vigor. It had a very interesting blossom in 2011. There was only one left when I noticed it. I looked forward to photographing it this year. I thought it had been destroyed but I see that it is coming back.

A mock orange was in full bloom on the little hillock with the earliest Ribes aureum, golden currant. I saw one more on the hillock with the burgundy leaved Prunus virginiana, chock cherry but it was not as well developed. So the earliest golden currant and the earliest mock orange are on the same little hillock.

The Sambucus cerulea, blue elderberry was looking good in the sunshine so I photographed it.

Many, but not all, photographs in bright light failed … again. Almost everything I did of the domestic rose, everything thing I did of the syringa from a distance and most of the attempts at the blue elderberry failed.

I haven’t seen Lewisia rediviva for awhile but there was a very nice mature blossom near The Main Trail.

Asclepias speciosa, showy milkweed was in bud. I wonder if this is a species of milkweed that attracts monarch butterflies? I don’t remember seeing any monarchs in the park. But I don’t know when to look for them. I don’t know when their migration comes through.

I pulled a Rumex crispus, curly dock that was small enough to photograph on my black towel. Tough little bugger. Blossoms nearly impossible for me to photograph.

I keep looking for Rumex acetosella, common sheep sorrel but I haven’t seen it this year. I saw some near the dogbane patch last year. It is even more difficult to photograph.

I checked the mud flats but found nothing new. I re-photographed Plagiobothrys scouleri, popcorn flower. It’s a thick cover every where on the mudflat. I should get a ‘patch’ shot of the popcorn flower. I’ll try to remember to do that.

I thought I might have a new plant when I was searching the Gnaphalium palustre, marsh cudweed patch on the west end of the low rock outcrop near North Pond for blossoms but now I’m sure it was just a young cudweed. It seemed to lack the hairiness of cudweed but I saw some when it was blown-up in the computer.

I walked around North Pond on the way back to the car and found a very interesting unidentified plant in the deep grass near the big willow. I knocked off at least one of the petals trying to get it photographed. Fatigue caused crappy photos of its very fancy seed-head. I hope I can find another specimen sometime.

I walked through the deep grass of the seep west of South Pond on the way to the car. I found a Trifolium longipes, long-stalked clover in the grass.

I wasted a bunch of photos trying to capture individual florets, trying, in effect to see with my camera what I cannot see with my not very good eyeballs.

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

I’ve been reading a little botany on various internet sites, trying to make sense of the keys to plant families.

I picked up a couple of new words, ‘stipule’, and ‘hypanthium’.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stipule

“In botany, stipule (Latin stipula: straw, stalk^[1]) is a term coined by Linnaeus^[1] which refers to outgrowths borne on either side (sometimes just one side) of the base of a leafstalk (the petiole). A pair of stipules is considered part of the anatomy of the leaf of a typical flowering plant, although in many species the stipules are inconspicuous or entirely absent (and the leaf is then termed exstipulate).”

…

“Stipules are morphologically variable and might appear as glands, scales, hairs, spines, or laminar (leaf-like) structures. A relationship exists between the anatomy of the stem node and the presence or absence of stipules. Most plants with trilacunar nodes have stipules; species with unilacunar nodes lack stipules …”

[[Does that mean that all spines or plants are stipules? Probably not. I spent a little time chasing information about triacunar nodes and unilacunar nodes but what I found was too vague, usually a mention of the terms in articles on some other subject.]]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypanthium

“A hypanthium is a floral structure consisting of the bases of the sepals, petals, and stamens fused together. Its presence is diagnostic of many families, including the Rosaceae, Grossulariaceae, and Fabaceae. In some cases, it can be so deep, with such a narrow top, that the flower can appear to have an inferior ovary.”
[There is some disagreement on the source of the hypanthium, what it is made up of.]

I gave some small attention to the concept of fused flower parts and ‘sets’ of flower parts. The calyx of the blanket flower of the previous outing seemed complex. The calyx of the clovers seem to be fused.

I wish I had done more with the florets of the black locust when it was in bloom, just because they are large.

Yeah, I know. ‘Floret’ is probable not quite the right term, but … it’s handy.

***************

THIS IN MY MAILBOX FROM ‘MILITARY.COM’:

http://www.military.com/daily-news/2012/06/15/marine-is-2000th-us-death-in-afghan-war.html?ESRC=dod.nl

Marine 2,000th US Death in Afghan War.

Taylor Baune became the 2,000th American to die in Operation Enduring Freedom, the name for what the Bush administration characterized as the "war on terror" …

Giant domestic rose in
Tall Pine Grove

The green splotches are holes in the petals

Last year's rose hip

Hypanthium, this year's rose hip
The apple is also rose family and it's fruit, 'a pome' is also an hypanthium

A leaf-like stipule

What is this structure?
The giant rose is full of them

Medicago sativa, alfafa

Leaf-like stipule

The calyx is fuxed

Vibrum edule, highbush cranberry
I am not at all confident of this identification
This shrub was burned last fall
It has a very interesting white blossom