Wildflowers

[Turtle]

okaly dokaly; a last flower from the gillette lake trip with racoon san. found this covering an acre or more of rocky hillside at ~500 feet elevation.

 

Sedum spathulifolium - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

broad-leaved stonecrop - Sedum spathulifolium

april 16, 2010

gillette lake area

skamania county washington - native

bloom:

 

whole-plant view:

[Turtle]

i have at least one other vetch/peavine come volunteer in my garden; it with small leaves & tiny whitish flowers. the flowers are so small in fact, that i have yet to get a clear photo of them. :) no worries; i'm workin' it. :offtopic:

 

done, and per se, done. appropriately enough, this flower is called tiny vetch. since i was having so much trouble getting a shot outside, i pulled off a hunk & brought it into the lab. the pencil tip is a pencil tip scale, and the coin is a nickel nickel. :) now that i have id'd it as an invader, well...you know... :)

 

Vicia hirsuta - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

tiny vetch - Vicia hirsuta

april 28, 2010

clark county washington - introduced

 

blooms:

 

whole-plant view:

[JMJones0424]

Invader or not, hairy vetch is an awesome nitrogen fixing green manure for the garden. I personally use dutch white clover, but only because I get the seed free from my neighbor.

 

Just the first thing that popped up on a google search.

A no-tillage tomato production system using hairy vetch and subterranean Clover mulches. (SA Winter 1995 (v7n1))

 

EDIT: It appears that what I was referring to as "hairy vetch" is actually Vicia villosa. Please excuse the common name mix-up.

[Turtle]

Invader or not, hairy vetch is an awesome nitrogen fixing green manure for the garden. I personally use dutch white clover, but only because I get the seed free from my neighbor.

 

Just the first thing that popped up on a google search.

A no-tillage tomato production system using hairy vetch and subterranean Clover mulches. (SA Winter 1995 (v7n1))

 

EDIT: It appears that what I was referring to as "hairy vetch" is actually Vicia villosa. Please excuse the common name mix-up.

 

B) one of the challenges i have run up against as my little flower obsession has bloomed, is the variable use of synonyms. while in this case it is the common name, the confussion extends to the "scientific" names as well. :phones: i'll remove "hairy vetch" as a synonym to "tiny vetch", as clearly they are 2 different speices. :naughty:

 

:rainumbrella:with a little luck the rain will subside by the weekend & i can get back afield. a new Flora of the Pacific Northwest key is winging its way my way, & as much as i have worked to get rid of my books, i'm looking forward to this new acquisition. :bouquet:

[freeztar]

There are other good nitrogen fixers that are not also invasive. Other members of the Fabaceae family come to mind.

 

Turtle, I think you will enjoy that book a lot. :phones:

It's a true taxonomic key and will yield all kinds of goodies for the thorough-minded, such as yourself.

[Turtle]

...Turtle, I think you will enjoy that book a lot. :(

It's a true taxonomic key and will yield all kinds of goodies for the thorough-minded, such as yourself.

 

B) it's not here yet. :) won't be long now though. :D in the mean time, i have one of your favorites, and another native lily, growing in my garden. :naughty:

 

Camas

...How important is camas? Noted botanist Leslie Haskin went so far as to write in 1934: “There is more romance and adventure clustered about the camas root and flower than about almost any other American plant.” Tribal wars and family feuds erupted over disputes about ownership of camas fields, which were so extensive they were described as looking like large, deep-blue “lakes.” Native people had a set of sophisticated management techniques to tend the wild fields. These included inherited ownership and responsibility for particular camas beds; clearing rocks and brush and burning weeds; cultivating the soil to keep it loose; transplanting the best bulbs; practicing sustainable harvesting methods, including selective gathering; and removing death-camas bulbs (Zigadenus venenosus) so they wouldn’t be mistaken for the edible variety. ...

Camassia quamash - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

common camas - Camassia quamash

april 27, 2010

clark county washington - native

 

blooms:

 

whole-plants view:

[freeztar]

The GA Botanical Society has a monthly name that plant contest. Here are this months plants for those that like to ID plants.

 

Georgia Botanical Society » Name that plant contest

 

Any guesses? B)

[Turtle]

The GA Botanical Society has a monthly name that plant contest. Here are this months plants for those that like to ID plants.

 

Georgia Botanical Society » Name that plant contest

 

Any guesses? :)

 

:shrug: (highlight to read) #1 Arisaema triphyllum #2 Asarum canadense

[freeztar]

Good job Turtle, you are correct! :shrug:

[Turtle]

Good job Turtle, you are correct! :)

 

that's why they pay me the big bucks. :shrug: :D so i went walkabout for a couple hours this morning along the lacamas heritage trail & surrounds. shot over 100 photos of a dozen or so species, so will take a while to get it all id'd & logged. this first one i think i have the species correct, but there is little doubt that the genus is Lomatium. i saw it up the gorge by gillette lake as well, or another species perhaps, but the photos were crap so i threw them out. :D seems this is a complicated set for even the experts according to my lone pine field guide to wildflowers of washington. will of course double check when my flora of the pacific northwest arrives. it is prolific over several acres just west of the trail where also blooming is camas, buttercups, lupine, trailing blackberry, et al. will get to the rest soon enough. . . . .:D :)

 

 

Lomatium utriculatum - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

common lomatium - Lomatium utriculatum (aka spring gold)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

blooms:

 

whole-plant:

[Turtle]

. . . . . . . . . :shrug: :)

 

Maianthemum stellatum - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

star-flowered false solomon's-seal - Smilacina stellata (aka starry false lily-of-the-valley: taxonomic synonyms; Maianthemum stellatum and many others. see link above. ↑)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

bloom:

 

whole-plant:

[freeztar]

I know I sound like a broken record, but did you get a good shot of the leaves? :)

 

Skimming through that Burke link, the species name you posted seems to be the only one that makes sense geographically. :shrug:

 

I'll dig a little deeper later, when I have some more time.

[Turtle]

I know I sound like a broken record, but did you get a good shot of the leaves? :)

 

Skimming through that Burke link, the species name you posted seems to be the only one that makes sense geographically. :D

 

I'll dig a little deeper later, when I have some more time.

 

that whole-plant view is the best i got of the leaves. :) i think i have at least one more different Lomatium, but it has me reluctant now to commit. :D :lol: i'll prolly be going back soon & will collect the necessary data. :shrug:

 

i was surprised at how many folk were up & on the trail so early on a damp grey sunday. near a score passed by going one way or another, or both, and more than a few seemed confused at what i might be doing crouched into the shrubage & asked outright what i was doing. "flowers!", said i. "oh!!", said they, with a little relief.

 

now how in the world one can run, bike, or hike by a sea of green & fail to see this singularly outstanding flower at eye-level and right next to the trail, i would have to investigate. well, not that i can say no one saw it i suppose. anyways, now you can see what i saw. this is a woody vine, and you can see in the whole-plant view that it is choking some poor understory tree quite thouroughly. :eek: :) :D

 

Lonicera ciliosa - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

western trumpet honeysuckle - Lonicera ciliosa (aka orange honeysuckle)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

blooms:

 

whole-plant view:

[Turtle]

i forgot to make a joke about getting on with it & not resting on my laurels. :D

 

to whit & to whither to wither. :shrug: :)

 

Lithophragma parviflorum - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

...petals white to pinkish, 5-10 mm. long, obovate with a wedge-shaped base, digitally 3-cleft, narrowed abruptly to a short, slender claw.

...

cauline leaves 2, sub-sessile, cleft into narrower segments. ...

 

in pinning down my id, i note that the other possibility, slender woodland star, L. tenellum, has its petals digitally 5-cleft, my specimen petals are 3-cleft. for further ident, attached is a leaf detail (:D) showing the 2 deeply divided sub-sessile cauline leaves characteristic of L. parviflorum according to burke. :D

 

small-flowered woodland star - Lithophragma parviflorum (aka small-flowered prairie-star, prarie star)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

blooms:

 

whole-plant view:

[Turtle]

this one took a while to id as the number of petals varies from 5 to 8. :shrug: darn flowers oughta make up their minds. :D not knowing to look for male & female flowers at the time, i didn't. these are all male flowers then. before i'm chided :D, i realize that my "whole-plant view" is hardly the whole plant, but i thought i'd stick with my format for labeling. here we go thens. . . . :) :D

 

 

Marah oreganus - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

interesting ethnobotanical use: univsersity of michigan - native american ethnobotany

Mendocino Indian Other (Hunting & Fishing Item)

Roots formerly used as fish poison

 

manroot - Marah oreganus (aka coastal manroot, bigroot, wild cucumber)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

male blooms:

 

whole-plant view:

[Turtle]

okaly dokaly. this is definitely a buttercup, and while i have labled it "western buttercup", i'm open to challenges. i'm going mostly on the leaves here. (cauline leaf detail attached. :()

 

as the seeds often provide key clues to buttercup id's, let's hope they don't mow the field. :eek: on that note & as an aside, one of my habits for collecting plants is to look for them in ditches, on roadsides, and other areas that caretakers regularly mow , grade, and/or spray. no harm, no foul.

 

so...on to the wildflower. ;) :D

 

Ranunculus occidentalis - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

Geum macrophyllum - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

largeleaf avens - Geum macrophyllum (aka bigleaf avens) western buttercup - Ranunculus occidentalis

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

bloom:

 

whole-plant view:

[Turtle]

i first met this plant in lechtenberg park & brought home a baby clone.:eek: i have been growing them inside for a couple years, i have about 10 now, but they never bloomed for me. last fall i put them all outside in the ground & now they are budding like crazy. :D i was waiting to shoot mine for posting when they opened, but found nice examples along heritage trail so shot them & posting in the interest of getting on with it. ;) :( attached is bonus shot of a moth having its way with one of the blooms.

 

Tolmiea menziesii - WTU Herbarium Image Collection

 

youth-on-age - Tolmiea menziesii (aka piggy-back plant)

may 2, 2010

lacamas heritage trail

clark county washington - native

 

bloom:

 

whole-plant view: