Slatsz Wildflower Walks 2013 #1: February 17, 2013

2/17/2013 3:00:48 PM

2/19/2013 2:33:12 AM

February 17, 2013

It’s three o’clock, now. I arrived at Drumheller Springs Park, the fireplug on Euclid around one thirty. I walked about and got up and down taking 67 photos for about 45 minutes. [33 keepers]

This is the first time I’ve looked at the park this year. My bad leg has been a problem. Seemed ok, if less than perfect, today. Served me well enough.

I expected to find Lomatium gormanii, Ranunculus glaberrimus and maybe Draba verna in bloom. There were lots of L. gormanii blossoms, salt and pepper but they seemed stunted and there were almost no leaves showing above the grass. There were leaves but they were not ‘fully arrayed’.

R. glaberrimus, Sagebrush buttercup, had lots of leaves but they were almost all very small. No sign of a bud, never-mind a blossom.

I expected to see red Draba verna, whitlow grass leaves in the little rock ‘cup’ where I find them later in the year. It was full of green leaves last December that I thought would have turned red by now. There was nothing today. No sign of a red leaf.

There were red leaves that were probably Draba verna in the photos of R. glaberrimus foliage.

I was a little surprised to see foliage of several Montia linearis, narrow leaf miner’s lettuce plants in the ‘cup’.

I learned in my recent reading that the ‘tubers’ of M. linearis were food for starvation times for some Native American tribes. It’s hard to believe those tiny plants would have much in the way of a tuber. I suppose that’s why they were starvation fare.

I checked the early Ribes aureum, golden currant and Amelanchier alnifolia, saskatoon, for buds. There seemed to be some life showing.

I only checked one saskatoon plant and that briefly. I only saw two buds on it. I thought the best one was high so I pulled it down and took a specimen. I noticed that the reading I had done on their stems had it right. The lower part of the branch was a charcoal color with a sheen. A foot or so near the apex was brown. A few inches at the apex looked reddish.

Both ponds were partly filled. The north pond seemed to have more water than the south pond. The south pond being surrounded by trees was half covered with ice.

I was delighted to see a bee working furiously on the many L. gormanii blossoms. It seemed frustrated, even frantic, flitting quickly from blossom to blossom, visiting each repeatedly. It settled a short time on one of the blossoms with more well developed leaves. Perhaps there was a little food for it there. It didn’t seem to stop long enough to feed elsewhere … feed or gather pollen for the nest. I think I see pollen in one of my photos. Hmm.

I suddenly became aware of my ignorance of bees. I thought I had always heard that bees gathered pollen. That doesn’t make sense, now. It seemed obvious that honey would be made out of nectar.

I found a nice legible article on the internet. I recommend it to you for lots of interesting facts about bees. The information about African vs. European bees is especially interesting. African bees are smarter and work harder. They even work by moonlight: http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/insects/ahb/inf4.html

Bees gather nectar, pollen, water. They also gather resin and gum from trees.

Worker bees drink the nectar and store it in a ‘crop’, return to the hive and regurgitate it to house bees.

They store pollen in ‘pollen baskets’ on their legs.

They don’t say how the worker bees carry the resin and water.

The water is to dilute the honey that is fed to the larvae.

The pollen is mixed with nectar to make ‘beebread’, a protein-rich food used to feed the larvae.

The bees make a substance called ‘propolis’ from the resin and gum. It seems to be the duct tape of the bee colony. They solve problems around the house with it.

I noticed a round yellow pea sized object and wondered if it was a paint ball or something of the sort but photographed it anyway. After getting the photos I attempted to move it with a pine needle and it seemed to be firmly attached so I suppose it is a mushroom.

While I was down checking it out I noticed the foliage of Lewisia rediviva, bitterroot plants.

One of my projects for this year’s L. gormanii photography is to make sense of the reading I have done on their sexual changes.

Apparently there are more staminate [‘male’] flowers and less hermaphroditic [‘perfect’] flowers early in the year. The proportion changes later in the year with increased hermaphroditic flowers.

That is alleged to be a strategy for maximizing seed production in environments that are subject to bad years for pollinators.

If cross pollination is not available, do-it-yourself functions will still provide a seed supply.

I don’t see pistillate [female sexual] structures in my photos. But maybe I don’t know what to look for.

The photos

Plant photos

010-030

Botanists use three terms for stems that bear flowers. All three are required by Lomatium gormanii because it is a compound umbel. A ‘scape’, a leafless stem bearing an inflorescence rises from the ground. ‘Peduncles’, bearing umbelets or umbellules spread from the scape. ‘Pedicels’ bearing flowers spread from the peduncle.

020 shows the scape of L. gormanii.

030 has the best developed leaves I saw that day.

Inflorescence

040-080

060 and 080 are close-ups taken from the previous photos. 060 has stamens with their dark anthers spreading from a dark mass in the center of the flower. The dark mass must be the top of the ovary but I see no sign of a style or stigma. However, if it is a male flower there would be no ovary.

Fun chasing a February bee

210-250

Ranunculus Glaberrimus, Sagebrush buttercup foliage

310-320

Two photos of the plant with the best developed leaves. No sign of buds. There were lots of leaves everywhere but the others were very small and still quite round. The notches were not evident.

The tiny reddish pointed leaves in 310 on the right side may be Draba verna leaves.