Slatsz' Wildflower Walks 2012 - two: June 20, 2012 – Prickly pear bud, needle leaf Navarretia in bloom

Two and a half hours, 187 photos, 62 keepers. 5 or 6 new blooms, 3 new buds. Only one new bloom, 2 new buds identified.

I worked three days on a blog of unidentified flowers. Too soon. Has to be redone with the new abundance.

A very good day for finding strange tiny flowers. One of my worst days for photography. Strong light seems to cause me problems. So does fatigue.

I made up a ‘want list’ that implied a pattern for my walk. I parked at the east end of the park in the shade. I would circle North Pond, on the north, return the main trail looking at places I saw plants this time last year, then go to the west end to check Opuntia fragilis, prickly pear.

I walked by the newly discovered patch of leaves with a few long stalked yellow blossoms on it to see if there might be fresh blossoms happening. There were none.

I headed down toward what was the east shore of North Pond when it was full of water hoping to find another of the plants with the strange purple seed-head for fresh photographs. I didn’t find one.

I had just got by the east-west line of boulders when something caught my eye. Another tiny fuzzy. I thought there might be blossoms in the fuzzy brush type head and there were.

A short distance beyond there were large patches of clover. I thought it might be a very short version of the tall clover I found over by South Pond, the colors were similar. When I got the photos into the computer I saw that the structures were similar but quite different.

A few steps beyond the clover there were yellow fuzzies that I suppose are very young or stunted Amsinckia lycopsoides, tarweed fiddleneck but that needs to be verified.

The next set of photographs I am calling ‘blue flower’. The blue doesn’t show up well in the photographs. I saw and did not identify this plant last year, on the other side of North Pond, but it had no blossoms by the time I found it last year. It did have bright red seed pods … if I remember correctly.

The grasses were getting taller and thicker as I approached the dry pond bottom. Almost lost in the grass was a small shrub with purple dangles that I suppose to be buds. I’ll watch it for blossoms.

I walked up and down the old shoreline but saw no sign of a plant like the one with the yellow blossoms and the purple seed-head.

I walked around the north side of North Pond to check on the flowering weeds and saw no action except some buds on Centaurea stoebe, spotted knapweed. [I drove down past Liberty Hole on the way across town, today. Spotted knapweed in full bloom lined the street in some areas. The blossoms disappeared with a small rise in elevation. The plants were everywhere but no blossoms.]

I checked the unidentified red-stemmed yellow flower. The blossoms were gone. The foliage looked like red wire. I photographed a stem with seed-pods.

I got all excited thinking I had finally found Gnaphalium palustre, marsh cudweed with the nice crown of petals I see in Burke. But no, it was petals on a single Plagiobothrys scouleri, popcorn flower in a patch of marsh cudweed.

Clouds shaped by high winds aloft decorated the sky. I tried several photos. Too many tilted trees. I never remember to deal with the default ‘wide angle’ that causes problems with tilting trees.

I don’t suppose there is anything to be done, really, except try to keep tall trees in the center or out of the image altogether.

I could do ‘panorama’ but that’s a mess. Yet another learning curve to climb.

I re-photographed another mudflat plant that I photographed earlier in the year. This one was also unidentified and it is no longer in bloom. I’m wondering if it can be Rumex salicifolius, willow dock. I see that Grant’s list has Rumex salicifolius. I just checked Burke and their photos seem to justify that guess. I need to look into it further. Their text description of the flower is not helpful.

I noticed the foliage of Geranium carolinianum, wild geranium and photographed it just because.

There are lots of Navarretia intertexta, needle leaf Navarretia on the mudflat but I saw no blossoms.

Walking the top end of the main path to check for plants I saw in bloom there, about this time of year, last year was part of today’s plan.

There’s an odd spot along the main path where I saw Castilleja tenuis, hairy owl’s clover first last year. There was a lot, later, down on the mudflat and Grant said it was a marsh plant.

I didn’t find the hairy owl’s clover but I did find another mudflat plant in that dry, rocky place, the needle leaf Navarretia, and it was in bloom.

There was a Madia exigua, small tarweed in bud nearby.

Another tiny plant with a strange long white trumpet near the Madia.

Last year there were a lot of the larger Madia, Madia glomerata a little farther north on The Main Trail. I looked for them but saw no sign of them at the moment. Actually I didn’t look hard at the foliage along the trail I just watched for blossoms and buds. The foliage should be there.

I walked over to South Pond to see if there was anything new. I didn’t see anything.

There was still a considerable sized … small pond … five days ago but it’s gone now.

I drove to the west end of the park to check on Opuntia fragilis, prickly pear cactus. It’s in bud. Handsome bud.

I looked again for Orobanche uniflora, naked broom rape and saw no sign of it what so ever. It bloomed three weeks earlier than this last year.

I was deceived by a ragged, deformed bachelor button. I thought I had made a major find, a gorgeous blue flower I’d never seen before. I got down to photograph it before I noticed the deception. I swore a lot.

The good thing that happened was that, sitting there, I saw the pea-like foliage Grant suggested I watch for pink blossoms. Nothing yet.

A couple of bugs landed on my black towel as I was trying to photograph something else. Both were too quick for me to get good images. I think the second is a flying ant but there are stripes on its abdomen that make me wonder. It ran like an ant even though it had wings.

Unidentified

unidentified clover

Probably a young Amsinckia lycopsoides, bugloss fiddleneck

unidentified blue flower herb
hard to see the blue in the photos
it will have bright red seed pods if I remember correctly from last year
there were no flowers when I first saw it last year