Slatsz Wildflower Walks 2012: May 9, 2012 - 7 new bloom

If 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 in this blog 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.

I use many websites when I attempt plant identification. I go to these three first.

Burke has a huge collection and is best for convenient use. Perhaps I consider it convenient because I’m used to it.

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

The Carr brothers have great flower photographs. They have linked websites. This site is dedicated to Eastern Washington and adjacent Idaho.

http://web.ewu.edu/ewflora/

Turner’s plant collection is large and its plant descriptions are often but not always more literate than most.

http://www.pnwflowers.com/browse

Wikipedia is a great resource. It is uneven but much of the time its articles are well written.

Google search results discover interesting miscellaneous information on a plant. Use either common or technical name.

I was out about two and a half hours. Took too many photos as usual. Kept about 70 of wildflowers and ten or so of crows.

Camera trouble, as always.

It was about four thirty when I arrived, about six when I left. There was high overcast and high, gusty, wind.

I’ve found 49 plants in bloom this year.

7 new plants found in bloom, today. I observed 11 plants currently in bud. I had photo fun with crows.

There have been 271 ‘page views’ of my 2012 wildflower walks.

I've found 49 plants in bloom this year.

May 9, 2012, Wednesday

I went to the east end of the park to check the Crataegus douglasii, the huge Black Hawthorn I had seen in bud near The North Pond. As I approached the area of the pond I saw a small shrub in bloom and stopped to check it, assuming it was Amelanchier alnifolia, saskatoon. It was black hawthorn.

On the walk to the small shrub white blossoms in deep grass caught my eye. The plant had, like one of the ‘unidentified herbs’ of my last walk, the look of Arabis holboellii, Holboell’s rockcress. Neither plant had basal leaves.

I photographed the small black hawthorn and started over to check the tall one by The South Pond. I saw an Anchusa officinalis, common bugloss, on the hill that had been full of them last year. Grant cleared them off because they are so invasive. I pulled this one but didn’t bother others. Burke also has ‘common alkanet’ for a common name.

The giant black hawthorn near The South Pond was covered with blossoms. The black hawthorns out by The North Pond don’t even have buds.

There is another giant black hawthorn inside Tall Pine Grove. I haven’t checked it this year.

I drove over to the fireplug on Euclid. I walked down to the pond to check the domestic cherry. Nothing yet.

There are more black hawthorn there, some out in the pond. They are all full of blossoms.

Another vocabulary problem. I see that Burke uses Cornus sericea, not Cornus stolonifera for red osier dogwood. I saw dogwood buds and photographed them.

Girls were walking the willow trunk bridge out in South Pond. I asked if I could photograph them.

I had lost my kneeling pad somewhere which felt like a disaster, not just for my knees but because I had begun using it to background some of my photos.

I noticed that the Carr brothers use black wool for background sometimes. That seems to deal nicely with the glare I get from the kneeling pad. There is even glare off other black fabric in direct sun. I keep meaning to find some black wool rags but I don’t get it done.

Back to using my hand and the thigh of my pants for today.

I noticed a speck of blue while walking through the Camassia quamash patch, common camas, west of South Pond and photographed it. I’m guessing it’s Myosotis stricta, blue scorpion-grass.

I had seen and photographed an Allium geyeri, Geyer’s onion bud that was starting to open near the bugloss. I photographed both pink and white blossoms on The Fireplug Trail to Junction Pine. There were few and they were not fully open.

The Fireplug Trail follows a rock ridge to The Main Trail. Just west of it is another rock ridge leading to a tall pine near The Main Trail. I found early Triteleia grandiflora, Douglas’ brodiaea, there last year so I walked over to look for them. There they were. Later I saw them elsewhere.

I disliked pulling one but the wind was so heavy I had no choice if I was to photograph it that day. I was amazed by the depth of its stem, with no sign of root structure.

Right under the tall pine is a patch of unidentified herbs I saw last year. I watched them but couldn’t catch them in bloom. This is the first time I have checked them this year and they have well developed seed pods already. If you can help me with identification please do. There might be one bud.

I saw a speck of pink near by. It must be Microsteris gracillis, slender phlox but it was only a bud. And the photos of slender phlox foliage in Burke, Carr and Turner are not helpful. Burke says the lower leaves are opposite and the upper leaves are alternate and that might be true.

Prunus virginiana, choke cherry is in bud.

Ceanothus sanguineus is in bud. Burke has ‘red-stem ceanothus’ and ‘Oregon Tea-tree’ for common names.

I noticed the strange Lomatium near North Pond. I’m calling it Lomatium dissectum, fern-leaf biscuitroot. I watched it for blossoms last year and didn’t find blossom or fruit.

There was a patch of the Antennaria that I am calling luzuloides, silvery-brown everlasting or woodrush pussy-toes, nearby. It was in deep grass, wet soil. I thought that was odd. It didn’t seem as vigorous as the two patches in the dry area.

Right near by was a patch of apparent Saxifraga integrifolia. Ken Swedberg and Turner both say that Saxifraga integrifolia has a lot of variation. These show red in the flowerheads.

There have been unusually great flocks of crows lately. They seemed to be working the muck at the edge of the receding pond. I attempted some photos.

I decided to loop back to the car past the place I thought I might have lost my kneeling pad. I had checked the car twice and it wasn’t there.

In order to get to my search I walked The North Trail past North Pond and checked the Syringa vulgaris, Lilac for blossoms. It had only one but it did have one. It is far ahead of the lilacs south of South Pond.

The Viburnum sp., snowball shrub, east of the lilac is unchanged, still in bud.

Just west of the row of boulders at the trailhead of The North Trail I saw an Eriogonum heracleoides, parsnip flowered buckwheat with buds that were well advanced and photographed them.

I searched everywhere I could think of and the kneeling pad was not to be found. It’s so light the wind blows it easily. And it might have been near enough to the trail that someone might have picked it up. There were several walkers today, lots of children.

The I photographed the large stump by The Main Trail. It is a little tall for a sit-down but I can manage it.

When I got back to the car the flock of crows was coming and going, some landing in the street and in one of the yards across the street. I attempted more photos.

One photo had fair resolution. The others did not. I attempted to salvage them by reducing their size.

I toyed with ordering the ‘street crows’ into a fake narrative. I hope you can see it.

My kneeling pad is the same color as the dashboard of my car. It was, invisible, on the dashboard. Who put it there?