Slatsz Wildflower Walks 2012: April 23, 2011

I you walk Drumheller Springs Park and see flowers in bloom that I do not have listed please let me know when and where you saw them.

If you see misidentifications or have comments on this blog please write me at:

Spokanewildflowers.slatsz@yahoo.com

I use the UW Burke museum herbarium as a guide to technical names:

http://biology.burke.washington.edu/herbarium/imagecollection.php

April 23, 2012, Monday. Hot, clear, calm. About an hour and a half. 156 photos. 67 keepers.

15 first blossomings!

I knew the light would be hot. I usually have the camera set on aperture preferred with the aperture wide open because I am usually working in low light. Then when the light is hot I forget to reset it and a lot of images are bleached and I don’t know why.

I knew the light would be hot today. I set the camera to shutter preferred, 1/400^th of a second. It seemed to work ok but I haven’t looked at the photos yet. [‘Shutter preferred’ seems to have been an improvement but heat and fatigue … and thick fingers inadvertently changing setting … still created lots of bad images.]

At some time my thick fingers inadvertently reset the camera to ‘program’. I don’t know what ‘program’ means. I hope I didn’t ruin a lot of images. [I’m fairly sure I did. A lot of images were ruined.]

It didn’t occur to me to wear a long sleeved shirt. I hope my arms aren’t burned. They don’t seem to be. I don’t burn easily. [No apparent problem.]

I drove first to the west end of the park to see one plant, the Antelope brush, Prushia tridentata. It was blooming. Grant spoke of its odor. It is odd. I didn’t find it attractive.

I drove to the north entrance.

Boulders have been placed across what could be a road to block vehicle traffic. I noticed that two of the boulders seem to be pillow lava. Maybe something for the rock-walks blog.

I walked over by the willow to check the Balsamorhiza sagittata, balsam root. There were lots of blossoms opening, some were in full bloom.

Before I got to the balsamroot I saw Micranthes nidifica, saxifrage, in bloom beside the trail.

I started back toward the north-side trail where I knew there could be lots of Erodium cicutarium, storks-bill, but routed myself close to the willows to check for green catkins. I didn’t find any, all day. I suppose all of these willows are male and the new plants are ‘vegetative’, not from seed.

The pond is going down fast. I noticed a scraggly Ribes aureum, golden currant, on the edge of the shrubs at the water’s edge and supposed I had found a new first bloomer. I hadn’t. It’s in bloom all over the park.

I saw a Lomatium macrocarpum, big-seed biscuit-root, heavy in bloom. I only saw one other in bloom on this walk.

I got to the north-side trail and didn’t find any stork’s-bill foliage. It will be thick, there, later.

I saw very few buttercups all day. I forgot to watch for Lomatium gormanii. I didn’t notice any. But I saw them later in the year in the shade of the pines on the south-side of the park last year. There will be buttercups there, too.

The Olsynium douglasii, grass widows, are everywhere but they seem to be fading fast. I saw healthy yellow bells here and there. I saw one, later, that I thought might be the chocolate variety but it was probably only a common yellow bell late in its life.

I didn’t see a Lithophragma glabrum, prairie star all day.

I checked the ‘infestation’ of Lamium purpureum, purple deadnettle and found one plant with blossoms.

I checked the shrub I thought was Amelanchier alnifolia, service berry, the one I photographed last time for leaf buds. It’s not service berry. The leaves are wrong.

I wanted to cut the walk short because of the heat but decided I had to walk down to slatsz stump and check the Allium geyeri, Geyer’s onion buds.

I had just started down the north-side trail, right at the east end of Highpoint Rock, when I saw Dodecatheon pulchellum, shooting star. I remembered, then, that I had seen them there last year.

I had been looking everywhere for Collinsia parviflora, blue eyed Mary and Holosteum umbellatum, jagged chickweed.

I left the north-side trail and started across toward slatsz stump. I noticed a damp area with lots of Montia linearis, narrow leaf miner’s lettuce. I thought I recalled that I often saw blue eyed Mary and jagged chickweed where I saw narrow leaf miner’s lettuce. I got down on my knees and there was a blue eyed Mary. I continued to watch for jagged chickweed but didn’t see any. That was the only blue eyed Mary I saw. I didn’t get a good image of it.

As I approached slatsz stump to sit and have a drink of water I was surprised to see a rather mature bud on a Camassia quamash, common camas. There were lots of less mature buds nearby.

I watched for camas buds on the rest of the walk and saw them elsewhere but they seemed to only be on plants in drier areas.

The Geyer’s onion buds did not seem much advanced.

The golden currant behind slatsz stump had a lot of blossoms and the plant I believe to be the earliest in the park was in full bloom.

I headed over to Besseye rubra draw to check for blossoms on them and there were a few.

On the way I was delighted to find two white shooting stars, one rather stunted. There were several others nearby.

I went over to the south-side of the south pond to check the Berberis aquifolium, Oregon grape, for blossoms. They were blooming in town. They were just starting to bloom on this patch.

I walked past a couple of ragged, immature Taraxacum officinale, dandelions. I saw a couple more after that. I only remember those four. I saw lawns with hundreds of them just a block or two from the park. I suppose the well watered lawns made the difference.

Beyond the Oregon grape there are three shrubs, two domestic cherry and one service berry. The Amelanchier alnifolia, Service berry was in bloom. So was one of the domestic cherry shrubs. The service berry over by the north pond showed very little life.

I continued around south pond to the west and there were dozens of Muscari sp., grape hyacinth in bud, some beginning to bloom.

I saw a tree with what I suppose are blossoms. I don’t know what tree it is. I’m sure I photographed it last year.