24 July 8, 2016

Wildflower Walk 24, July 08, 2016

This is mostly the transcription of the recording I made, walking the wildflowers. I have not been careful to make evident the edits I made during the transcription.

Only 59 images, over two hours walking and photographing. Lots of searching, not much finding. About 20 keepers, not counting redundant cloud landscapes. I took too many cloud photos.

I’ve had a hard time getting out of this chair, in front of my computer. There’s a great world inside the computer. But I did get it done.

4:10, 75 degrees, at Riverfront Park. There was considerable rain, this morning. The streets are dry now but I suppose wading through deep grass will be unpleasant. It’s warm and rather dark, with overcast. 

I left my telephone behind so I don’t have an arrival time. The drive went well so it’s about 4:20. I’m at the east end of the park. I expect to do a quick check of Toxicondendron radicans, poison ivy.

The Holodiscus discolor, ocean spray, on the east end of the park looks very brown, very red-brown in the distance.

 No sign of buds or flowers on T. radicans. Annoying.

The dominant color in the park is Vicia villosa, winter vetch. There are lots of Centaurea cyanus, bachelor button or corn flower, not in good shape. I saw one lonely flower in the inflorescence of the Crepis capillaries, smooth hawks beard at the exit of the thicket east of south pond. The Cornus sericea, dogwood, north of south pond has a sprinkling of second flowering.

I walked the north shore and much of the west shore of south pond looking for Arctium minus, burdock … or so I believed. I checked Burke just now and they don’t have any Arctium west of the Cascades. Oh, well, whatever I was looking for, I didn’t find it. No new blossoming to be seen in the area.

I did pick a specimen of Chenopodium album, lamb’s quarters in bud.

Chenopodium album, lamb’s quarters

I walked back to the main trail. I see the unidentified foliage I photographed last outing is in bloom. I need a place to sit down and photograph them. I wonder if they are Madia glomerata, cluster tarweed. The photos in Burke don’t convince me. But these plants are not in full bloom, not fully mature. I need better and later, photos.

I tried to open the inflorescence with my thumbnail. It’s very aromatic. Seems familiar. Spearmint gum, perhaps?

The front and back of the leaves don’t look distinctive. The second photos will be the back.

Madia glomerata, cluster tar weed, maybe

I started seeing small, undernourished Perideridia gairdneri, yampah alongside the main trail not far from south pond. I was surprised to see it about everywhere I walked. I suppose the reason I have not seen them abundant in the past is that I didn’t go out much after June.

There is still lots of Grindelia squarrosa, curly cup gumweed everywhere.

The Lotus unifoilatus, American bird’s foot trefoil is still in bloom. The flowers are nearly invisibly small … for my weak eyes.

Speaking of invisibly small, the Polygonum douglasii, Austin’s knotweed is in fruit everywhere.

I found a moss cushioned basalt outcrop south of the main trail, maybe a hundred feet west of junction pine, to sit in to do the photographing. The Asclepias speciosa, showy milkweed is usually a huge patch stretching from here to north pond. If it’s here, the foliage is covered with Vicia villosa, totally hidden. The few plants along side the main trail are free of them.

I forgot to search my apartment for black velour to replace the piece I lost last outing. I didn’t find it. I did find some black cloth, rather shiny at the last minute.

The cloud cover has been almost complete. At the moment there is full sun.

I took cloud photos at various places throughout the outing. I’ve gathered them at the bottom of this document.

The camera is set on ‘program’, F. 4. Much of the time it’s about 1/250^th of a second. I shade the subject with my body when the sun is out. I do need to spend some time reading documentation. Hate it.

On down the main trail, the red leaved Prunus Virginia, chock cherry on one side of the trail the other P. Virginia on the other. There are lots and lots of yampah in bloom here. Lots of the assumed M. glomerata are in bloom alongside the trail.

I saw foliage that I thought might be Epilobium brachycarpum, autumn willow herb. I’m walking farther than I meant to, to see if I can find some in flower.

Once again, I see very few grasshoppers. It seems to me that there were a lot more of them, when I was young, than I have ever seen in the park, more grasshoppers and more varieties of them.

I saw no E. brachycarpum in the short walk across the scabrock where I have seen them in the past.

I’m fairly close to the place where I must have dropped my velour backing cloth last outing, near the west shore of north pond. I’ll make an effort to find it.

I continue to be amazed by the plethora of yampah.

No sign of the velour. I’ll take a different route back to watch for the autumn willow herb. I continue to see bits of foliage.

I did a couple of cloudscapes to the east.

I messed up the recording device again and had to listen to minutes of rustling. walking noises in my pocket.

I saw some very tall Austin’s knotweed, maybe a foot and a half high. Knee high, whatever that is.

I’m sitting on slatsz’ stump and right beside me is a luxurious autumn willow herb … yeah, yeah, I’ve got lazy with the long Latin/Greek names. It might be in bud.

I don’t want to pull it. I’ll try to photograph some of it without too much damage.

Epilobium brachycarpum, autumn willow herb

There were two gorgeous bits of yellow-green lichen on the charred black stump, shining in the sun. I meant to photograph them and forgot.

The plan was that I would move the car to a couple of different areas of the park for particular searches. But I’m so far west, now that I might as well walk it.

The Apocynum androsaemifolium, dog bane is still in flower and abundantly. The nature lovers poisoned it even though it is a native plant but it seems to have ignored them. The patch may be reduced in size but it’s hard to tell. Once again, Vicia villosa is covering much of the area. Vicia villosa should be poisoned but, of course, that’s too hard.

There are two patches of Eriogonum heracleoides, parsnip flowered buckwheat with a couple of flowerheads each.

I see one very unhappy Gaillardia aristata, blanket flower in bloom.

I’m beside the three ponderosa, last of the pine on the north side, near the trail, where I saw the Trifolium arvense, rabbit foot clover in the past. Not sign of them, here. I have seen them on the south side of the trail nearer the west entrance but I’m too tired to walk down there today.

I turned on the recorder to listen to the crows, so they quieted. But they can still be heard. A bit of company.

Here are a couple of Scutellaria angustifolia, skull cap, in bloom.

Strange sound. My fanny pack popped open and stuff fell out.

I spent a lot of walking, looking for the location of a very strange flower that I have seen in the past. I couldn’t even find the landmarks, apparently because of the deep, thick grasses. The landmark was a certain ‘pool’ of broken rock. In retrospect I wonder if it was the ‘pool’ where I saw the S. angustifolia. Next time.

Getting back to the car was very difficult. I was walking really, really slow by the time I got there. I carried water with me, but it’s hard to get out of my pocket. Strangely, I am aware of my thirst when I am walking and I am not aware of it when I am sitting, photographing, when getting at my water bottle [recycled vitamin bottle] is easier. It happens over and over. Even if I can get the bottle out, taking a drink standing is … unpleasant … if there is nothing to lean against.

I drank a lot of water in the car and my strength returned.

I’ll get out of the car one more time and check for the 2 late fleabane … Erigeron.

No sign of the Erigeron. I think the nature lovers have destroyed them. I’ve seen only these two plants in the park. One was probably E. speciosus, the other E. pumilus. There were lots of E. pumilus in Riverside State Park and some that might have been E. speciosus.

I saw some foliage that I thought might have been E. specious but there are lots of curly cup gumweed in the area. This was probably just a young plant, a rosette.

I don’t trust me to come back soon. I’ll make one more effort to find the interesting unidentified plant.

I drove to the little ‘pull off’ near the dead end of Euclid, near the ‘hole in the ground’ that might have been a receding waterfall during the Pleistocene floods.

The little parking area has a faint trail leading north, joining a more used trail leading to the main trail close to long ridge rock. Right near the junction of the two south access trails I found two Trifolium arvense, rabbit foot clover. There was a convenient mossy cushion on the south end of long rock ridge. I sat and made my photographs.

Trifolium arvense, rabbit foot clover

I did a wide circle and retraced my steps but failed to find the plant. I found locator photos when I got home and I was definitely in the right place. The tall grasses just deceived me.

I saw a lot more of the willow herb foliage. The effort was worth it for the T. arvense.

Collected landscapes, clouds

I feel sure, now, that dehydration … and over heating … was a major contributor to the weakness earlier. I’m doing well, now.

6:32 in my chair, in front of my computer monitors.