5/14/2016
18:00
Wildflower Walk 16, Friday the thirteenth of May, my 84.5
birthday.
3:44 out of my chair, here. 4:10 at the west end of the
park.
My photos are bleached and are often badly out of focus and
I don’t know why. Perhaps the battery is low and too weak for the work. Perhaps
I have screwed up the camera settings. I have done the best I can with the
images in the computer to make them useful but … well … they are what they are.
Some photos are not so badly bleached so the problem is intermittent. Maybe the
camera is broken … old and tired like the operator.
The circular patch of Eriogonum, buckwheat is abundant with
buds, no flowers.
Eriogonum species,
round patch buckwheat
The leaves are broad, compared to other buckwheat in the park
There must be several buckwheat species in this area. I see
others that look distinctive.
I photographed a patch on the northwest corner of white
bitterroot rock with many red petals mixed with white petals.
Eriogonum species,
red petal buckwheat
I pulled a plant that I know but can’t remember the name for
and made photographs. It will have nice little yellow flowers, square tipped if
I remember correctly. It looked like a single plant but it was many flower
stalks in a tuft.
Chondrilla juncea,
rush skeleton weed, maybe
One white bitterroot is beginning to bloom.
Lewisia rediviva,
white, bitterroot
Many pink bitterroot are still in bud and the buds don’t
look healthy.
There are lots of Balsamorhiza sagittata, balsamroot in the
west end. Very few still have blossoms.
Cutleaf fleabane have dry flowers.
The troublesome wind is from the east. East wind brings heat
and cold off the Canadian plains.
I pulled a plant that I thought was the healthiest Lomatium
macrocarpum of a group. Now I wonder if it is L. macrocarpum.
The single root has several flower stalks. The flower stalks
are branched.
Lomatium species for
comparison
I wonder if they are male flowers but they may be perfect flowers that
didn’t develop
two fruit did develop in this
umbel
The yellow buckwheat on the southeast corner of the rock are
in bloom.
Eriogonum species
yellow buckwheat
The wind is annoying and my camera is annoying. It seems to
say there isn’t enough light, in bright sun. [Many bleached photos. I see that
the battery runs down rapidly. There must be a short circuit or something of
the kind.]
There is a loose patch of Allium acuminatum, tapper tipped
onion, on the east edge of white bitterroot rock, toward the north.
Allium acuminatum,
taper tipped onion
I was fooled by a small, young corn flower, thick with
cauline leaves, with a bit of white bud showing at the tip. I thought I had
found a new species in flower.
I see tufted phlox in bloom, here and there. Phlox gracilis,
slender phlox is still in bloom.
50 yards up the main trail from the west end there are
several Balsamorhiza sagittata with blossoms but most have gone to seed.
Balsamorhiza
sagittata, balsamroot, last flowers
There is ocean spray
in bud.
Holodiscus discolor,
ocean spray
I walked across to the north trail hoping to find Antennaria
in bloom. I couldn’t even find them.
I checked the little U shaped basalt outcrop where I find
the cute little parasite. No sign of them, again. But I see a Microseris
gracilis remnant. The parasite didn’t kill it.
I see a patch of larkspur to the north side of the north
trail, maybe half way from the main trail to the U shaped outcrop.
There’s a patch of Potentilla gracilis a little farther west
on the north trail. Only one bloom.
I see a single blossom of winter vetch. First I’ve seen
inside the park. I saw one across Euclid
last outing.
I see a dozen or twenty cornflowers in bloom on a little
hillock.
Centaurea cyanus,
cornflower, bachelor button
Quick chat with a lady, probably older than I am, walking
with a nicely carved walking stick.
Sedum lanceolatum are in bloom on the north side of white
bitterroot rock. There was a patch a the east end of the park but I’m sure they
have been plowed under. There were also some across Ash Place .
Sedum lanceolatum,
spear-leaf stonecrop
I’ll get photos of the leaves of the unknown Eriogonum of
the circular patch for comparison with other yellow buckwheat. The leaves in
the circular patch are quite broad.
I’m tired. How bad do I want to walk the other end of the
park?
5:33 parked beyond the fireplug in fractured shade.
The domestic hawthorn looks brown. Its inflorescence is
drying.
The cranberry tree has the large flowers I remember from the
past. Larger than those I photographed earlier.
Viburnum opulus,
cranberry tree
The reproductive organs are tiny and perhaps non-functional
They are well developed on the small inner flowers, below
There are a very few camas in bloom. There are lots of Phlox
gracilis and some Lithophragma parviflora in the dense foliage in the damp west
of south pond, lots of the nasty little Lithospermum arvense [Another changed name.
Burke says now it’s Bugossoides arvensis]. I searched for forget me nots and
Ranunculus arvense, corn buttercup, again and found no sign of either. As said,
the foliage was dense, they could be there.
I noticed some C. quamash leaves that seemed huge with a
huge flower stalk in fruit. Sorry about the crappy photo. The light was very
weak.
Camassia quamash,
large leaves
Lots of the Vicia villosa, winter vetch coming on. I think I
see some white buds. Maybe not. I see white and purple in the buds.
I see a bunch of tiny white flowers close to the trail that
passes near south pond, that might be miner’s lettuce but don’t have it’s
succulent look. [I decided they were Plagiobothrys scouleri, popcorn flower
after I got home. And I decided that the white flowers in abundance in the mud
flats west of north pond where P.scouleri, not miner’s lettuce.
Plagiobothrys
scouleri, popcorn flower
South pond might be dry but I’m tired enough that I’m not
going to walk over there and find out.
Six o’clock, sitting on the rock outcrop close to south
pond. A big Labrador came over and tried to
give me a kiss.
I boiled my velour back sheet for a long time …
accidentally. I hoped it would boil away any chemicals resident in the cloth … chemicals
causing white spots on my photos. It might have helped but it is not a real
solution to the problem. I wonder if the problem is something like reflection …
reflection … rather than bits and pieces of white chemicals.
There’s a curly cup gumweed just park-side of the curb on Euclid showing a little
color and a plant growing up through the asphalt next to the curb that is in
full bloom.
Grindelia squarrosa,
curly cup gum weed
I ran the mid-tones way down,
to pick up detail in the washed out area of the blossom
and noticed the altered color in the ligules
There’s an alfalfa plant with purple blossoms in the crack.
I need to see if the plants with yellow blossoms have the same foliage. Burke
says alfalfa has both purple and yellow blossoms. Burke doesn’t have M. sativa
in Spokane
country or any of the surrounding counties but it’s the only alfalfa they list
with purple flowers … in the photos. The only Medicago they list in Spokane county is M.
lupuina and it has yellow flowers. But one may suppose farmers buy all kinds of
alfalfa seed … maybe.
Medicago sativa,
alfalfa, purple
I picked another tiny white flower along the path near south
pond and photographed it sitting on the curb. I can’t even guess an
identification for it.
Unidentified white
flower
6:15 ready in the car, ready to go home.
6:29 in my parking place.
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