I intended a short visit. I’d check the apple tree for buds
and do some dissection trying to make sense of disk flowers and ray flowers.
Stopped at the west end of the Park about 2:30. I was out
about an hour, sitting on a rock much of the time attempting crude dissection.
70 photos, 45 keepers, several blowups of previous image.
I walked up the north side of the park, followed long rock
ridge across the park. I walked through the area of the dogbane but saw
nothing. I’m sure it is a woody plant. There should have been stems.
I returned west to the car on the south side of the park. I
stayed off the trails during the walk, looking at small areas I don’t usually
walk through. I assume the uneven surface is good for my ankles.
*
I started the walk up through import corner. I didn’t expect
to find anything down there but Purshia tridentata, was in bloom. [Oh, oh! For
some reason I decided to suspect my identification and it seems that the
identification is wrong. Damn.] [Cercocarpus
ledifolius, mountain mahogany. Thank you, EcoRover]
There were lots of tiny white flowers. I got down to check
them out incase some were the chickweed I thought I saw here a couple of years
ago and haven’t seen since. They weren’t. Again, the unexpected. I sat down
beside a patch of Polemonium micranthum, Jacob’s ladder.
Most of the tiny white flowers were scrawny Montia linearis,
narrow leaf miner’s lettuce.
I attempted, once again, to get adequate photographs of
Collinsia parviflora, blue eyed Mary. Different problem, this time, just inadequate
light. But I did get a side view that is informative.
I checked the Apple tree for buds and there was nothing. It
is leafing out.
The main purpose of my dissection program was to make sense
of the florets of Asteraceae.
I picked a Taraxacum officinale, dandelion blossom, an
Erigeron compositus, cutleaf fleabane blossom and a couple of blossoms of
Balsamorhiza sagittata, balsamroot. All of the balsamroot in the west end of
the park looked awful. I don’t know if it is mere old age or if they are attacked
by some microbe.
The unexpected continued. Geum triflorum, prairie smoke was
in bloom.
Lewisia rediviva is still foliage. No sign of budding.
The Photographs:
[Identification error] [Cercocarpus
ledifolius, mountain mahogany, Rosaceae family, thank you EcoRover]
Purshia tridentata,
antelope brush, Rosaceae family
0110-0150
Furry blossoms.
Polemonium
micranthum, Jacob’s ladder, Polemoniaceae family
0210-0240
I should have used my tape measure. This plant is probably
three inches tall.
Montia linearis,
narrow leaf miner’s lettuce, Montiaceae family
0310-0320
Collinsia parviflora,
blue eyed Mary, Plantaginaceae family
0410-0440
Balsamorhiza
sagittata, balsamroot, Asteraceae family
0510-0550
I wonder if the white hairy texture is fungus
I hope to get healthy looking specimens next outing.
Erigeron compositus,
cutleaf fleabane, Asteraceae family
0610-0690
0610, notice the small whitish dots at the base of the ray
flowers. These must be anthers.
The disk flowers that are open show petal-like structures.
I have wondered if disk flowers were a mix of male and
female flowers. It occurs to me that the ‘blowballs’ that develop from the disk
flowers later are all seeds so … disk flowers are all female.
0650-0660 Mostly ray flowers. I assume the white structure
at the base of the ‘ray’ is an anther even though it doesn’t look like any
anther I have seen before. I see that the ray flowers, also, are equipped with
a pappus, see disk flowers below for
discussion of pappus.
0670 Disk flowers. The ‘hairs’ are a ‘pappus’, said to be
modified sepals [if I remember correctly]. They will spread and become the
parachute to carry the seed the seed away.
0680-0690 I don’t now what the green structure is. I need to
pay attention, next time.
Taraxacum officinale,
dandelion, Asteraceae family
0710-0730
Another job to be done again. Dandelions are all ray
flowers. So some ray flowers have to be male and some female. I suppose the
curling tops of the florets are stigma. If so, I see no anthers, only stigma.
Malus xdomesticus, Apple tree, Roseaceae family
0810-0840
No sign of a flower bud.
Geum triflorum,
prairie smoke, Roseaceae family
0910-0990
0950 I’m fairly sure this bud-like blossom never opens. It
looks like only very small insects and bugs can enter.
0960-0970 If the ‘bud’ never opens then the anthers remain
locked inside, only the stigma protrude. This cutaway does not show the ovary.
The anthers seem not to have released pollen yet.
Another do over.
0990 The stipule at the base of the leaf. Characteristic of
the Roseaceae family. Other plant families have stipules.
Lewisia rediviva,
bitterroot, Montiaceae family
1010
No sign of a bud as yet. Same family as Montia linearis. I
wonder if the succulent leaves are a feature of the Montiaceae family.
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