Wild flower Walk, March 15, 2013, Friday
Walked about an hour and a half. Not far. Up and down not
that many times. Even so, fatigue was a problem. 108 images. 37 keepers.
Only the second walk this year. I haven’t been out since
February 17, 2013.
Long chat with Carole Parks. She and an accomplice were
looking for frog eggs.
She’s doing a master’s degree in zoology, I think. Her work
is with Drumheller
Springs Park
She wants to write a curriculum on Drumheller
Park for Spokane schools.
*
I looked for the rock cup where I see Draba verna to look at
the foliage of Draba verna, whitlow grass, and the foliage of Montia linearis,
narrow leaf miner’s lettuce and didn’t find it. I found another, similar rock
structure nearby. I was surprised to find Draba verna in bloom.
The ‘rock cup’ was either under a fallen willow or submerged
in south pond.
Ranunculus glaberrimus, sagebrush buttercup were somewhat
sparse but they were everywhere I walked. I found a bud with a cauline leaf so
the plants with cauline leaves do not wait till later in the year to develop.
This plant and others nearby seemed to be var. ellipticus.
I tried very hard to photograph pistil structures on
Lomatium gormanii blossoms. They are so small and my eyes are so weak I won’t
know if I had success till I can blow up the photographs. I tried to use a
magnifying glass but it didn’t help. [I can’t be sure, even with computer
enlargements.]
I found Draba verna in bloom twelve days earlier this year
than last year. And, of course I might have found them even earlier if I had
gone out to look for them. The very first, very few Buttercups, R. glaberrimus,
were out March 14, last year. As I said above, they are well represented on
March 15th this year.
The Pacific willow, Salix lucida, has well developed buds. I
suppose they are leaf buds.
The stems of Cornus sericea, red osier dogwood are
developing their beautiful maroon color.
I found a Lomatium macrocarpum, big seed biscuitroot in bud
beside the main trail and new Lomatium triternatum, nine leaf biscuitroot
foliage nearby. Not far away there was what seemed to be a young Lomatium macrocarpum
with tiny white blossoms. I wonder if it is a different species of Lomatium. Perhaps
it is a young plant. I’m sorry that I made no attempt to mark the spot. It was
only a little north of the main trail, somewhat east of junction pine. I’ll try
to find it again.
The earliest Ribes aureum, golden current is developing leaf
buds.
I walked over toward north pond to check Amelanchier alnifolia,
saskatoon for buds. They were best developed on the highest branches. I had
lost my knife and couldn’t, conveniently, take a specimen from the high
branches. I attempted some photos of a less developed bud lower down.
The Photos
Draba Verna, Whitlow
grass
Brassiceae family, mustard family
010-095
010
Patch
The ‘rock cup’ where I usually find Draba verna is either
flooded or covered by a fallen willow. This structure seems similar. It’s only
a little higher, a little to the west of the rock cup.
I didn’t expect to find Draba verna in bloom but there they
are.
I saw only green leaves with reddish tinge. I saw none that
were red with no green showing.
020-025
Buds
Leaf like bracts [sepals] enclose and protect the bud and
open behind the petals.
‘Flower parts’ usually in 4s is characteristic of the
Brassiceae [Mustard family]. However, I see in later photos that there are 6
stamens.
030-040
Plants, side-view
The flower stalk is leafless. Botanists call a leafless
flower stalk a ‘scape’.
The flower structure, the inflorescence, will be a ‘raceme’.
Racemes are said to bloom starting at the base of the inflorescence. My photos
seem to show buds below the blossoms.
The ‘stem’ vocabulary is inconsistent. The ‘scape’ seems to
function as a ‘peduncle’ with short pedicels supporting the flowers. Perhaps
peduncles are only present in an umbel inflorescence.
[The internet dictionary of Botany has the peduncle as ‘the
main axis of the plant’. Oh, well.]
It is said that this raceme is on only one side of the
scape. My photos don’t demonstrate that. The inflorescence will ‘droop’ later
with hanging blossoms but the pedicels will form on both sides of the ‘main
axis’.
080-085
Blossoms, front
Draba verna has ‘perfect flowers’, both male and female
structures are present.
The six bright yellow pods are ‘anthers’. Anthers contain
pollen. The pollen must have been released from these anthers. The ‘stem’
supporting the anther is called ‘a filament’.
The anther and the filament make up the male sexual
structure. The male structure is called a ‘stamen’.
The female structure is called a ‘pistil’. It is surrounded
by the 6 stamen.
The fuzzy looking top of the pistil is a ‘stigma’. The
stigma is sticky. Its purpose is to capture pollen grains.
The base of the pistil is the ovary. It is slightly swollen
in two of the blossoms of 080. It is more swollen in 085. The ovary contains
the ‘egg’. After the egg is fertilized by a grain of pollen it becomes a seed.
Draba verna is said
to develop its seeds very quickly. There will soon be large dark structures
rising from the petals.
These photos don’t show the ‘column’ rising from the ovary
to the stigma, the ‘style’, clearly.
Draba verna is probably mainly pollinated by animals.
[Flies, beetles, bees and butterflies are animals.] I haven’t read about the
‘nectary’ in Draba verna, but it is probably around the base of the ovary. The
animals come to the blossom to feed on and/or collect nectar. [Bees collect
both nectar and pollen.] In the process they ‘accidentally’ collect pollen on
their bodies. The pollen on their bodies brushes the sticky stigma and
germination, the process resulting in a seed, begins.
It is thought to be best if the pollen comes from a
different plant [cross pollination] but it still occurs if the pollen is from
the same plant [self pollination]. [Some plants have ‘strategies’ for
encouraging cross pollination.]
‘Germination’ seems like another rather messy term. A pollen
grain sticks to the stigma. The pollen grain germinates. It grows down a tube
in the style to fertilize [germinate?] the egg. In some plants the pollen grain
‘eats’ its way through cell walls down to the egg.
090-92
Blossom back – sepals and petals
095
Root
The root loop is clumsiness on the part of your
photographer.
Montia linearis,
narrow-leaf miner’s lettuce
Portulacaceae family – the purslane family
110
I wonder if the red on the foliage indicates winter damage.
Perhaps it is protection from winter damage. Red plants are said to deal better
with weather extremes, both cold-drought and heat-drought.
Lomatium gormanii,
salt and pepper
Apiaceae family – the carrot or parsley family
210 -250
Still trying to make sense of the stamens and the pistils.
The columns with black pods are anthers. Columns without pods must be the style
of the pistil. I see no evidence of stigma. There are small ‘lumps’ or perhaps
spines on the columns without pods.
If they are styles, some ‘florets’ seem to have multiple
discrete styles. I think that would be unusual. Some plants do have multiple
styles with multiple stigmas … and multiple eggs in the ovary … but I believe
they are usually fused and appear to be one column.
It seems possible, even likely, that they are not styles but
the filaments of stamen that have lost their anthers.
Ranunculus glaberrimus
var. ellipticus, sagebrush buttercup
Ranunculaceae family – the buttercup or crowfoot family
310-320
There were many Ranunculus glaberrimus var. glaberrimus in
bloom though they were not yet abundant.
I was looking for stem structures, plants with multiple
stems and plants with branched stems. I didn’t find any but I did see this bud
with cauline leaves and elliptical leaves.
Plant descriptions have var. ellipticus with one long bract,
one of three. Something to watch for.
Salix Lucinda, Pacific
willow, black willow, whiplash willow
Salicaceae family – the willow family
400-440
The willows of both ponds are, apparently, introduced from
the west side of the state.
Cornus sericea, red
osier dogwood
Cornaceae family – the dogwood family
510-320
Cornus sericea is just developing its distinctive stem color
in the north pond.
Lomatium macrocarpum,
big-seed biscuitroot
Apiaceae family – the carrot or parsley family
600-670
The blooming date of L. macrocarpum has been a bit strange.
I watched an early plant in 2011, in bud a long time, finally blossoming March
26th. In 2012 I found none blossoming till April 23rd. I
was surprised to find a couple of plants in bud this year, 2013, on March 15
with a plant nearby apparently in bloom or near blooming. I wonder if the
blossoming plant is another species.
The new bloomer
640-670
650 seems to show several stamen.
Lomatium triternatum
foliage, 9 leaf biscuitroot
Apiaceae family – the carrot or parsley family
710-720
720 shows new foliage breaking through the sheathing at the
base of the plant.
Ribes Aureum buds,
golden currant
Grossulariaceae family – the currant family
810-830
830 shows the distinctive leaf shape of Ribes aureum
emerging.
Amelanchier alnifolia
bud, saskatoon
Rosaceae family – the rose family
910-920
The buds at the top of the shrub looked to be more developed
than these. I could have pulled them down and got a specimen but I had lost my
knife at the last sit-down. Then I forgot to go back and pick it up. It wasn’t
much of a knife.
The willow trees in Drumheller Springs park are said to be
introduced. They are said to be Pacific Willows.
I have read elsewhere and long ago that willow species are
very difficult. The article from Oregon
State University
I’ll check the willow leaves in Drumheller Springs
Park
The willow is dioecious, some plants are male, others are
female. Those in the park all seem to be male.
If I remember correctly, the male plants have yellow
flowers, the female plants green flowers. I’ve seen no green flowers.
*
http://oregonstate.edu/trees/broadleaf_genera/willow.html
- Scouler (mountain) willow -probably the most
common willow in western
- Pacific (black) willow - a black-barked
tree or large shrub found around wet places. Often 40'-60' tall, and
abundant west of the Cascades at low and moderate elevations.
Identification is aided by two or more tiny nodules at the base of each
leaf blade.
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