Wildflowers

[Turtle]

if i told you that my early-blue violets -Viola adunca- were exhibiting cleistogamous tendencies, would you recoil in horror? :omg: smirkle in titillation? :rolleyes: scratch your head in puzzlement? me too!

 

anyway, as profuse as they have grown & spread, they stopped blooming months ago. or so i thought. all of a sudden the last couple weeks i have had many more maturing seed pods than i had seen flowers to account for. ?? enter cleistogomy; the ability of flowering plants to self-pollinate without ever opening a flower. who knew!?

 

cleistogamous flowers & mature seed pods:

[jab2]

After a short drive in the Klein Karoo region of South Africa I shot the following.

 

See my album at http://scienceforums...display__detail

[Freebird11]

i like to add some wildflowere information:

engelmannia - common erect hairy perennial of plains and prairies of southern and central United States having flowers that resemble sunflowers

fleabane - any of several North American plants of the genus Erigeron having daisylike flowers; formerly believed to repel fleas

woolly sunflower - any plant of the genus Eriophyllum

gaillardia - any plant of western America of the genus Gaillardia having hairy leaves and long-stalked flowers in hot vibrant colors from golden yellow and copper to rich burgundy

desert sunflower, Gerea canescens - slender hairy plant with few leaves and golden-yellow flower heads; sandy desert areas of southeastern California to southwestern Utah and western Arizona and northwestern Mexio

[jab2]

So is this thread dead, or what?

 

OK, with most of you in the mids of winter I assume flowers is not too high on the priority list, but then there is always flowers from elsewhere.

 

There are a few members who know a little bit about the South African floral splendor, or rather the flowers of the Cape Floristic Kingdom. The CFK is the smallest of the 6 floral kingdoms recognized in the world and is blessed with a extreme diversity of species of which 69% are endemic.

 

The area is about 46 000 sq Km and has over 9000 species. Table Mountain (Cape Town) has more species than the whole of the UK. Of the genus Erica the CFK has over 600 species, where the rest of the world has 26 species. For more info read this wikipedia page.

 

To illustrate some of this splendor I have posted a number of images to a public album on Facebook. So have a look here and enjoy my garden in nature.

 

PS: Please let my know per PM if you have difficulty in viewing the FB album.

[Turtle]

So is this thread dead, or what?

 

OK, with most of you in the mids of winter I assume flowers is not too high on the priority list, but then there is always flowers from elsewhere.

 

happy birthday! :rose: :xparty:

 

the thread isn't dead, or it's just on life support. :lol: spring was wet and cool again do to la nina and the flowering was a bust and i lost the bug. never did pick up much, but i have one flower/plant i dug from a ditch as a weed & stuck in a bed. darn thing grew huge, bloomed & bloomed & it's mid winter, and it's still blooming. i just know it's some kind of invasive... but i can't prove it yet. will see what photos i have or can get to post.

 

There are a few members who know a little bit about the South African floral splendor, or rather the flowers of the Cape Floristic Kingdom. The CFK is the smallest of the 6 floral kingdoms recognized in the world and is blessed with a extreme diversity of species of which 69% are endemic.

 

The area is about 46 000 sq Km and has over 9000 species. Table Mountain (Cape Town) has more species than the whole of the UK. Of the genus Erica the CFK has over 600 species, where the rest of the world has 26 species. For more info read this wikipedia page.

 

To illustrate some of this splendor I have posted a number of images to a public album on Facebook. So have a look here and enjoy my garden in nature.

 

PS: Please let my know per PM if you have difficulty in viewing the FB album.

 

thanks for the flowers from s africa. i had no problems viewing them. some look entirely foreign & others like some over here. do you ever bother with tracking the specific id's?

 

so thens, thnx 4 the cpr and don't bee a stranger. :bouquet:

[Turtle]

here's my mystery weed. a day and a half ago the plant was under 4" of snow. :snow: since i have had ~ 5" of rain. :weather_rain:

 

blooms in ditch; 9/7/2011:

 

whole plant in ditch; 9/7/2011:

 

bloom in ice in bed; 11/6/2011:

 

leaf in ice in bed; 11/6/2011:

 

whole plant in bed today; 1/20/2012

blooms, seed pods, leaves:

[jab2]

do you ever bother with tracking the specific id's?

This bunch was on request from a friend to post some of my plant shots. I'm now using Adobe Lightroom to catalog my photos so are busy getting ID together. So most probably there will be IDs in future.

[Turtle]

This bunch was on request from a friend to post some of my plant shots. I'm now using Adobe Lightroom to catalog my photos so are busy getting ID together. So most probably there will be IDs in future.

 

:thumbs_up thanks for your continuing interest & effort here. i very much appreciate it. so cool to see some stuff outside the US.

 

i was asked if tree flowers were appropriate here & my answer was a flower is a flower is a flower. bring 'em wherever they bloom baby!! phlower photo contributors welcomed here. :bouquet:

 

not many of my last postings were of tree flowers but only because i have exhausted most of the trees in urbania and i didn't get afield last year. still, it is the time when our native indian plum blooms and that it is so early is largely why it took me 5 years to id. i haven't looked to see if it's out but i can only surmize that it is.

 

so, until this season gets rollin', here's a blast from the past of a most elusive and botanically, indiginous natively, edibly flowery treey. (the fruit darkens to a plummy dark color but i haven't collected a shot of that stage to date.)

 

indian plum @ burke herbarium

 

indian plum - Oemleria cerasiformis (aka oso-berry and skunk bush)

february 7, 2010

lechtenberg park

clark county washington - native

bloom:

 

collected june 2, 2008

lechtenberg park

clark county washington - native

fruit:

 

[freeztar]

Looks like a type of Phlox, Turtle. But I could be wrong...

 

:)

 

here's my mystery weed. a day and a half ago the plant was under 4" of snow. :snow: since i have had ~ 5" of rain. :weather_rain:

 

blooms in ditch; 9/7/2011:

 

whole plant in ditch; 9/7/2011:

 

bloom in ice in bed; 11/6/2011:

 

leaf in ice in bed; 11/6/2011:

 

whole plant in bed today; 1/20/2012

blooms, seed pods, leaves:

[Turtle]

Looks like a type of Phlox, Turtle. But I could be wrong...

 

:)

 

so good to hear from you freezy!! just searched the burke site and it's none of our native phloxes (phloxi?). they all seem to have narrow leaves and the anthers are not protruding as in my plant. i will search some of my other books and see what i find. given that it i have cared for it over a year & it has done so well i'm figuring its a cultivar escaped from a garden. :omg: :lol:

 

i hope you find some time this year to visit more often and favor us with some of your eastern flowers. i can never thank you enough for all your help here and for suggesting and motivating me to purchase flora of the pacific northwest. take care and may your blooms be long lasting...and native. :) :bouquet:

[freeztar]

so good to hear from you freezy!! just searched the burke site and it's none of our native phloxes (phloxi?). they all seem to have narrow leaves and the anthers are not protruding as in my plant. i will search some of my other books and see what i find. given that it i have cared for it over a year & it has done so well i'm figuring its a cultivar escaped from a garden. :omg: :lol:

 

i hope you find some time this year to visit more often and favor us with some of your eastern flowers. i can never thank you enough for all your help here and for suggesting and motivating me to purchase flora of the pacific northwest. take care and may your blooms be long lasting...and native. :) :bouquet:

 

Thanks Turtle! :)

 

I plan on sticking around again for a while...No flowers blooming here except for the ubiquitous daffodil (my city promotes them and sells them to its denizens). I'll post back here when I explore this spring. :)

 

So much to catch up on...If I've missed anything epic, please PM me!

 

BTW, I hear you on the phlox. Anthers protrude too much on yours. Leaves are too broad...

 

Not sure exactly, but I would bet they are in the same family...at least...it's a monocot. ;)

[Turtle]

Thanks Turtle! :)

 

I plan on sticking around again for a while...No flowers blooming here except for the ubiquitous daffodil (my city promotes them and sells them to its denizens). I'll post back here when I explore this spring. :)

 

So much to catch up on...If I've missed anything epic, please PM me!

 

BTW, I hear you on the phlox. Stamens protrude too much on yours. Leaves are too broad...

 

Not sure exactly, but I would bet they are in the same family...at least...it's a monocot. ;)

 

:thumbs_up

 

nothing epic in flowers that i can think of. last year was kinda a bust with the long wet spring which spoiled the flowering and then my attitude. i did produce a set of flower index cards with pics on one side and data on the other. about 110 of them i think. i can sort them by color, or location, or any category i choose and take them into the field as well. i woulda coulda done more but i ran out of color ink and haven't seemed to be able to put together the $30 for a new one. well, i guess if i quit smoking :esmoking: :naughty: a few weeks i could, but then if i did that i would be 20x the curmudgeon than i already appear.

 

i do have some epicish math stuff, but the guy that started this thread will chew me out if i get off-topic. :rant: some people's kids. ;)

 

i'll let the weed be for now as it's not costing me anything. i have some time tomorrow & will go through my books again that have other than native plants. in spite of all the sources i have at home or found online, i have found none that let you search by things like leaf type or number of petals, etc. . a lot let you search by color, but is my weed purple or pink? :omg: :doh:

 

good to hear you will be around. talk to you soon.

[freeztar]

given that it i have cared for it over a year & it has done so well i'm figuring its a cultivar escaped from a garden. :omg: :lol:

 

I thought the same thing at first...went straight to the Oregon noxious weed site. lol

 

It didn't show up there, or anywhere else in my searches. I was *sure* it was an invasive...

 

An escaped ornamental is usually a good second guess...but those are usually shrubs/bushes. You don't find too many escaped ground plants. ;)

 

I'm still sticking with a non-native plant that got there through some invasive route (bird poop, wind, etc.). I'll keep looking and let you know if I find a match...

[freeztar]

:thumbs_up

 

nothing epic in flowers that i can think of. last year was kinda a bust with the long wet spring which spoiled the flowering and then my attitude. i did produce a set of flower index cards with pics on one side and data on the other. about 110 of them i think. i can sort them by color, or location, or any category i choose and take them into the field as well. i woulda coulda done more but i ran out of color ink and haven't seemed to be able to put together the $30 for a new one. well, i guess if i quit smoking :esmoking: :naughty: a few weeks i could, but then if i did that i would be 20x the curmudgeon than i already appear.

 

i do have some epicish math stuff, but the guy that started this thread will chew me out if i get off-topic. :rant: some people's kids. ;)

 

i'll let the weed be for now as it's not costing me anything. i have some time tomorrow & will go through my books again that have other than native plants. in spite of all the sources i have at home or found online, i have found none that let you search by things like leaf type or number of petals, etc. . a lot let you search by color, but is my weed purple or pink? :omg: :doh:

 

good to hear you will be around. talk to you soon.

 

Let's keep it on-topic guys! ;)

 

There's a cool iPhone app that let's you take a picture of a plant and then it searches an online database (using facial-recognition-esque processing) to find an ID for the plant/flower/stem you are standing in front of. I don't have an iPhone and have never tried the app, but it sounds really cool and is supported by some big NPOs like Nature Conservancy, iirc. Given another 20 years, it could turn out to be the makings of a real life plant ID tricorder!

 

EDIT: not Nature Conservancy...Smithsonian Institute

[Turtle]

Let's keep it on-topic guys! ;)

 

yes sir.

 

There's a cool iPhone app that let's you take a picture of a plant and then it searches an online database (using facial-recognition-esque processing) to find an ID for the plant/flower/stem you are standing in front of. I don't have an iPhone and have never tried the app, but it sounds really cool and is supported by some big NPOs like Nature Conservancy, iirc. Given another 20 years, it could turn out to be the makings of a real life plant ID tricorder!

 

ooooooo!!! one of my boys has some kind of smart phone; do you think it works on non-apple devices? do you know the name of the app? i could have him search for it.

[freeztar]

Sadly, it is only for iphones right now...my Android phone can't install the app...yet...

 

Here's an article about it: http://www.bare-essentials.com.au/11145-world-first-plant-id-iphone-app/

 

How cool is that?

 

ooooooo!!! one of my boys has some kind of smart phone; do you think it works on non-apple devices? do you know the name of the app? i could have him search for it.

[Turtle]

Sadly, it is only for iphones right now...my Android phone can't install the app...yet...

 

Here's an article about it: http://www.bare-essentials.com.au/11145-world-first-plant-id-iphone-app/

 

How cool is that?

 

it is awsome kewl!!! :xparty: how would you like to collaborate with me and write our own app for wildflowers? just a thought. :lol: but, which thought prompted me to get off my skinny stamen and go out and pluck some leaves, flowers, and seed pods and make a scan @200dpi. these are the primary leaves which are basal and differently shaped than the secondary leaves apparent in my previous photos.(i know there's a technical term for the "secondary" but it slips my mind. :wilted:)

 

submitted for your consideration. :coffee_n_pc: