Leopard Lily

Leopard lilies (Lilium pardalinum), are endemic to California, and grow by stream beds almost all over the state.  Though not rare per se, they're not a dime a dozen by any means, and their fist-sized blooms dangling from a 3 foot high stem are as impressive as any cultivated garden flower.  This one above was blooming among the thimbleberry and sedges on the banks of Flynn Creek, near where it feeds into the Navarro River. The other pictures are in the Albion River.

Photos taken on July 18 and 23.

Farewell to Spring

I'd been admiring the roadside patches of farewell-to-springs (Clarkia amoena) blooming along the Navarro grade lately, but it was further south along the 1 this weekend that I found a lovely patch nicely lit with a safe pullout.  

These gorgeous flowers grow in patches where the pink multitude stands out against the now-dry grass, and with their barely-visible narrow leaves, you hardly see green - just a nodding sea of pink petals.  Many have darker pink blotches on each petal that can be seen from the outside and the inside, but others either don't have the pattern or have lost it.  

The way the light was filling up these flowers like little cups was what inspired me to finally pull over to get some shots.

These photos were taken on July 17, somewhere between Manchester and Elk.

Woodland Madia

I like the name of this little yellow aster.  Anisocarpus madioides (formerly Madia madioidies) can be found in wooded places in the early summer all along the west coast.  This photo was from the same day as the mariposa lily (June 14), but I still see them blooming, so this post isn't entirely out of date.  I was lucky enough to come across a very lazy bee hanging out on this bloom.  Hardly moved an antenna as a photographed it.

Elegant Mariposa Lily

I'm using the common name on the USDA plant profiles here, because it sounds so nice, but it's got many names: elegant mariposa lily, elegant star tulip, cat's ears, pussy's ears...let's just call it Calochortus elegans. After all, that is the reason we bother with the hefty latin and greek names, right?  To reduce confusion?  Or should I say, to eschew obfuscation?  But I digress.  What can I say?  It's a lovely flower, as lilies pretty much universally are. And this one, the size of a quarter and accented with those little hairs (from which it gets the latter of the common names) is downright cute.  Keep your eyes peeled.

Yellow Bush Lupine - the yellow version

As promised in the last entry, here are some photos of yellow bush lupine that is actually yellow.  I cheated a bit though; these are from Sonoma county.  Not that there's any shortage of specimens in Mendo Co., I just happened to be working on the Sonoma coast and these were not only convenient but also bathed in that gorgeous evening summer sunlight.  We've been enjoying our ration of sunlight here on the coast this first week of summer, and I thought these lupines showed off theat summery glowing feeling pretty well.  

Fuzzy seed pods are developing even while the shrubs are full of fresh flowers.

And the obligatory shot of the flowers with the ocean backdrop...

Now it's time to play catch up.  I've got a bit of a back log to post, as I've been more busy with photographing than blogging, which I think is a positive thing all in all...stay tuned for adorable furry lilies, subjectively cute furry bumblebees, and more...

Yellow Bush Lupine

Huh? Yeah, that's what it's called, and what it is; except it's also purple, in fact mostly purple, here in Nor Cal.  Lupines are nice adornment to any sunny habitat, and this particular species of lupine shrub is abundant enough to paint a whole hillside purple.   I do see yellow individuals here and there, so I'll add a photo of those later...

Like most legumes, the lupines are colonizers that like to find disturbed areas and reproduce aggressively.  Yellow bush lupine (Lupinus arboreous) is especially good at what it does, so much so, it's considered a native invasive plant in certain sensitive areas, like dunes (Cal-IPC only rates it as moderate).  

Lupines are toxic to humans and cattle.  So, enjoy them for their looks.  Lupines make a good landscaping plant thanks to this toxicity, as the deer avoid them.

These are growing on the bluffs by the Noyo harbor in Fort Bragg.  Some of the "bluffs"around Noyo harbor are actually somewhat manmade, after years of piling up material dredged from the river mouth to keep the channel deep enough for boats.  It's the perfect place for a weed garden.  I like to think these lupines are pretty tough - standing their ground against the insidious pampas grass that dominates the area.

Lupines characteristically have palmate leaves (as shown above.)  The leaves of some lupines are adorned with tiny fuzzy hairs that lend a silvery quality to the leaves in the right light.  Another species of lupine - Lupinus albifrons, or silver lupine, is named for this quality.  L. albifrons, by the way, is host to an endangered butterfly called the Mission Blue.

Monkeyflowers

Monkey flower (Mimulus) is a pretty diverse genus formerly in the recently re-thunk snapdragon family (Scrophulariaceae), now in the lopseed family (Phrymaceae).  The genus is at home in western North America and Australia.  The two species pictured here are sticky monkey flower (M. aurantiacus - above) and seep monkey flower (M. guttatus - below). Note M. auriantiacus, seems to be moving to another genus: Diplacus.

Sticky monkey flower is a shrub that grows in dry slopes throughout California. The sticky is on the underside of the leaf.  It's a resin produced by the plant to discourage caterpillars from devouring the leaves.  Seep monkey flower is an herbaceous annual that grows in low lying ever-moist areas like springs and drainage ditches.

M. aurantiacus photos at top taken on May 20 at Alder Creek near Manchester.  M. guttatus photos above taken near Noyo Harbor in Fort Bragg, and M. guttatus photos below taken by the side of Orr Springs Road east of Comptche on May 1.

Poppies, part 2

Poppies close up for the night - presumably to protect the pollen.  The phenomenon of plant movement in response to day/night is called nyctinasty.  Poppies accomplish this with a change in turgor pressure caused by movement of fluid in and out of special cells at the base of the petals.

This photo made me fall in love with California poppies all over again (double click the photo for a better view).  Out for a drive on a Sunday morning to take some landscape pictures, I was disappointed that the poppies along the way were still all closed up from the night.  But when I saw this lone flower by the road as I stepped out to take a photo of a field of buttercups, I realized that the closed-up poppies had an elegance all their own.  The petals gracefully enclosed each other in a neat little hug and the morning light showed off the color and curve of the petals sublimely.

Canyon Larkspur

Larkspur (Delphinium) are in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae), and are easily recognizable by their pointy spurs, formed by fused petal-like sepals.   Like all Ranunculaceae, the leaves are palmately lobed and toothed.

As the name implies, the canyon larkspur grows on steep slopes.  This season I've seen it on highway cutbanks (as in these photos taken near Orr Springs on Orr Springs road), and on steep coastal bluffs.

On my Flickr page, I titled this photo "goldfish in a green sea."  The canyon larkspur, with their characteristic spurs set horizontally on their stems, and growing in patches of hundreds of red flowers, looked just like a school of fish swimming amongst the green grass on the steep grassy slope they grew on.  Or, as Mary Elizabeth Parsons says in her 1921 field guide, "it would require no great stretch of the imagination to fancy these blossoms a company of pert little red-coated elves clambering over the loose, slender stems."  (I think Ms. Parsons was the original bloom-blogger!)

The photos are from May 1, taken near Orr Springs.

Spotted Coralroot

One of my favorite parts of the flora of shady forests are the achlorophyllous plants, such as coralroot (Corallorhyza sp.) and other plants that lack chlorophyll. Since they can't photosynthesize, they borrow nutrients from other organisms.  Coralroot gets nutrients from the soil by parasitizing the fungi in the forest floor.

Coralroot, like skunks, come in two species: spotted and striped (C. maculata and C. striata).   The flowers are borne in a raceme, with several flowers per stem.  Before they open, they look like purple asparagus, about a foot tall, sticking out of the duff.

Coralroot aren't an everyday sight in the woods, but often when you do see them, they'll grow in a dense little patch, each single stem sprouting from an underground coral-like rhizome.  The lack of green leaves cause the flowers to blend in to the leaf litter, but once you spot them, their peachy color and the interesting red and white patterns of the flowers distinguish them.

Coralroot are found in shady conifer forests of North America.  You can easily tell them from C. striata by the spots on the labellum.  In C. striata, all the petals have red and white stripes parallel to the long edge of the petal.  There is one more species, C. mertensiana, which has a striped labellum, too, but the pattern is less vibrant and distinct.

These photos of C. maculata were taken May 4, in the Middle Fork Albion River area, South of Mendocino, Ca.

Dogwood

Dogwood (Cornus sp) is often associated with the south. In fact, flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) is the state flower of both North Carolina and Virginia. But we have several species here in the western states, including this one that resembles the magnolia-esque southern belles - Pacific dogwood (Cornus nuttallii).  Incidentally, it's the provincial flower of British Columbia.   

The flowers are actually the compact inconspicuous cluster in the middle (in the picture above only one has opened), while 4 to 8 large, cream-colored petal-like bracts are the show.  Most of the other Cornus species in California lack the showy bracts and instead have sort-of showy clusters of small flowers with white petals.   The fruits are large, brightly colored compound drupes.

This dogwood shrub was tall enough to call a tree, and was growing on a stream bank by Orr Springs Road, not far from Montgomery woods.  I don't see them here on the coast very often, so its was a nice sight to see on my drive inland.

I can't find a straight answer on the origin of the name dogwood.  Apparently there are dogwood in the new and the old world, and the word seems to have been around since the 1500s, leaving plenty of time for various theories to develop: one is that the name alludes to Hecate's hounds of Greek mythology, and another that it comes from dagwood, as in dagger (dog wood has very hard wood, good for that sort of thing). 

Photos from April 30.

Poppies, part 1

The California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) is kind of California's flower mascot. It's an iconic image: wide golden California poppies nodding in the foreground on a grassy bluff over-looking the rocky coast and crashing waves.

Poppies are so obvious this time of year. They're not only stunningly beautiful, but they seem to be able to grow anywhere. In the gravel the side of the road, on the dirt built up on an old train trestle, through the cracks in the sidewalk. As long as there is sun, they thive. The petals come in shades of yellow to deep orange. I've even seen a plant with white flowers this year (in Sonoma co.).

As the state flower, they're protected, so you're not meant to pick them in the wild! (In fact picking native wildflowers is something I tend to avoid in general.) Cultivated varieties are available for the garden.

The first two photos taken on April 27, outside the historic Ukiah depot building. The last two on April 1 in front of the Mousse Cafe in Mendocino.

Indian Warrior

I see these flowers growing in patches by the side of the road, especially in the Pygmy forest. With sun-bronzed feathery leaves and deep red flowers, these patches are conspicuous mats of color amidst the gravel and grass.

Indan warrior (Pedicularis densiflora) are found all over the western states. They're root parasites (they can link up with other plants' roots to "borrow" nutrients and water) that specialize in shrubs in the heath family (Ericaceae - i.e. huckleberry, salal, manzanita), though they can also survive without using that technique.

As far as classification goes, it seems to be in transition. I'd always thought of these plants as being in the figwort family (Scrophulariaceae). But now the genus Pedicularis (AKA lousewort) has been moved, along with Castilleja (paintbrush), to the broomrape family (Orobanchaceae), a family of fellow root parasites.

The leaves of the plants growing in the shade remain green. The ones below are growing in the shade of huckleberry bushes.

And then there's this: Click here

These photos taken on April 23, on Rd. 409 near Caspar, Ca.