WILDFLOWER WALK APRIL 23, 2013, TUESDAY
Arrived at the fireplug on Euclid about 5 pm. In the park about an hour
and fifty minutes, much of the time sitting doing dissection photography. About 190 photos, because I was photographing things
I couldn’t see. 82 keepers.
I walked down to the south shore of south pond to see the
Amelanchier alnifolia, saskatoon there. I believe it to be earlier than those
over by north pond. Its buds were well developed. I didn’t check the other
plants, today.
Berberis aquifolium, Oregon grape is just beginning to
blossom.
There is little water remaining in south pond.
I looked for viola sp blossoms and saw none. There was one
April 9th, two weeks ago. I wonder if their blossoms have come and
gone in two weeks.
I walked over to check the Allium geyeri, Geyer’s onions for
blossoms. Lots of buds, no blossoms.
The Ribes aureum, golden currant that I think is the
earliest in the park was blossoming but later I noticed that the largest patch
in the park, over by north pond was more advanced.
There is a thick patch of Collinsia parviflora, blue eyed
Mary at the foot of the ‘early’ golden currant, on its west side.
I set up my bucket as a seat and did dissection photography
there.
I walked over to the east side of what would be north pond
if there was any water to find healthy Balsamorhiza sagittata, balsamroot in bloom.
Those at the west end of the park had looked bad. Those north of north pond
looked better but they looked stunted. I seem to remember plants twice as tall
as these in the past.
I took two specimen, one of only two blossoms that looked
fresh and one older blossom.
I had taken a specimen of Crataegus douglasii, black
hawthorn on the way by. It was in bud. I haven’t looked at my photos yet but
I’m pretty sure I forgot to photograph it. That’s annoying. [No C. douglasii
photos.]
Lomatium macrocarpum, bigseed biscuit root are in full bloom
all over the park. I took a specimen.
I settled in on one of basalt boulders of the east-west row
of boulders and did more dissection photography.
It occurred to me that I should check a plant that I found
and could not identify last year only long after blossoming and it was in
bloom. It looks like a big brother … a very big brother … to Besseya rubra. The
flowerhead is a ‘spike’.
This plant is east of north pond beside the row of basalt
boulders, near to and south of one of the boulders. There are 4 pines along the
boulder row, two together. The plant is near the middle pine.
*
From Widipedia: Raceme
A raceme is an inflorescence branching off an ‘axis’ on
short flower stalks, pedicels. The oldest flowers are born toward the base. New
flowers are produced at the apex as the plant grows.
A spike is a raceme of flowers that have no branches, its
flowers are not pediculate [with flower stalks] they are sessile [they have no flower
stalks]. Wheat and some other grasses are spikes.
*
When I got back to the car it occurred to me that I might
check the curbside Draba verna, spring whitlow grass for open seed pods, one of
my photo objectives for this year.
Something I read from the north east USA said that
Draba verna was the smallest blossom there. I hadn’t thought about it but it is
probably the smallest flowering plant here, as well. Maybe they are even
smaller than usual this year. Those I tried to photograph were very small,
indeed.
*
When I attempted filenames for the photographs of L.
macrocarpum I became aware that I had no name for the subdivisions of the
flowerhead of a compound umbel.
Wikipedia – Umbel
“The secondary umbels of compound umbels are known
as umbellules.”
A little clumsy, but not the first clumsy
botanical term.
I checked other dictionaries hoping for
synonyms but found none.
The speech synthesizers are hard for me to
hear and understand but there seem to be two pronunciations, the clearest one said
‘umbel-yule’.
*
he photos:
Amelanchier
alnifolia, saskatoon
0110-0140
Berberis aquifolium,
Oregon grape
0210
Viola sp
There was a blossom two weeks ago. None now.
0310
South pond
0410
Low water
Collinsia parviflora,
blue eyed Mary
0510-0570
I don’t remember ever seeing a patch of C. parviflora this
thick. I got some good images. I still need to work on an adequate full front
image. I don’t know why it seems so difficult. I need a better image of the
bottom of the blossom.
Ribes aureum, golden
currant
0610-0695
One of my objectives was to show the pattern of the
inflorescence. I was not successful again, today. Photos of fruit will show the
pattern of the inflorescence clearly.
*
R. aureum has a long tube of fused sepals with flaring lobes
that seem to be petals. Its petals are small, rudimentary structures inside the
sepals.
Petals and Sepals
Phlox caespitosa, tufted phlox and the disk flowers of
Asteraceae have similar tubes but their tubes are fused petals rather than
fused sepals. P. caespitosa has green sepals outside its petals. The tubular
disk flowers of Asteraceae some times have a pappus of bristles outside the
petals. The pappus is said to be modified sepals.
If sepals look like petals, what then?
Petals, sepals are both said to be modified bracts, bracts
are modified leaves. So, it seems that the inmost modified leaves are called
petals, the next inmost are called sepals and the next inmost are called
bracts. What about ‘tepals’? I’ll worry about that some other day.
One source has the petals of R. aureum turning red after
pollination. I see yellow and red petals. The yellow petals definitely seem to
be younger, fresher.
0620 an anther and a stigma reaching up through yellow
petals.
0635 the sepal tube with flaring lobes and yellow petals
protruding.
0655 the lobes of the sepal tube beginning to open.
0660 the petals are beginning to show color.
0665 the petals are dark red and beginning to wither.
0670 Begin dissection sequence. The long pistil protrudes
from the hypanthium on the left. Short looking filaments seemingly rooted in
the wall of the sepal tube support anthers on the right.
[Digression on vocabulary: The sepals of the tube are
‘connate’, they are similar structures fused. The sepals and the filaments are
‘adnate’, they are unlike structures, fused.]
Cloud Photo – a boy
0710-0720
I attempted a cloud photo over the south pond willows. I
noticed two boys playing and attempted a telephoto shot. One boy got away. I
like this photo. I’d like to give it to his parents.
Balsamorhiza
sagittata, balsamroot
0810-0890
I came here to find b. sagittata that were healthier than
those at the west end of the park. These, too, seem stunted, another possible
indication of a dry year?
There were only two fresh blossoms on the plant. I took an
older blossom stem and a fresh blossom stem.
0810 the stems had two cauline leaves. This specimen had a
flowerhead leaf or elongated bract. I didn’t think to check other blossoms for
this feature.
I meant to dissect the older blossom as well but didn’t.
I had taken a nice specimen of Crataegus douglasii, black
hawthorn buds on the walk over and forgot to photograph it, too.
0815 & 0830 show an involucre of at least two rows of
bracts, maybe three, I can’t be sure.
0835 I’ve pulled away the bracts. Tall yellow ray flowers
stand in front of the shorter disk flowers. The dark structure on the disk
flowers seems to be a one sepal calyx.
0850 an attempt to show the foundation from which the
florets were taken.
0855 Bracts of the outer ring of the involucre.
0860 Bracts of an inner ring of the involucre.
0865-0875 Disk flowers
0880 sepals of a disk flower.
0885-0890 Ray flowers. The ray flowers show bristles or
hairs of a pappus but I don’t remember anything like a pappus developing into
parachutes for the seeds on B. sagittata.
failed cloud photos –
no keepers
0900
My worktable
1010
The 2x4 in the bucket converts the bucket to a seat. It’s a
very poor, unstable seat. I occasionally have to pick myself up off the ground.
Apparently I move around a lot, twist, while doing macro photography and the
2x5 slides off the bucket. The boulder was my seat for this dissection
adventure.
Lomatium macrocarpum,
bigseed biscuit root
1110-1160 fatigue was eroding diligence. I’ve never been
able to make photo sense of Lomatium flowerheads, still can’t. Maybe I got an
insight this session.
1130-1150 My new word. An umbellule.
1140 Goo on the camera lens. How close is close enough?
1160 a floret with its sepal.
Unidentified plant
1210-1293
It occurred to me to check on a plant I found last year,
long after its blooming. It’s well east of north pond alongside one of the
row-boulders. It looks a lot like Besseya rubra to me, but it’s probably an
escaped domestic. It is in bloom.
[I had to go to Google to check the spelling of Besseya
rubra and noticed photos. The basal leaves of the unidentified plant are those
of Besseya rubra but this plant is much larger than the Besseya rubra west of
north pond. The photos of B. rubra don’t show the distinctive cauline leaves on
these plants.]
1210 I see Camassia quamash, buds peaking through the heavy
basal foliage.
1220-1270 It has lots of basal leaves and rather strange
cauline leaves.
1275-1290 The raceme/spike
has a point at which what seem to be red anthers open and show yellow pollen.
Hmm. Perhaps the yellow pollen is on stigma and the anthers disappear at that
point. That makes a little more sense. Maybe.
Cloud photo
1310 Ok it’s manipulated! I hope it’s successful anyway.
Draba verna, spring
whitlow grass
1410-1440
I’m still trying to find an open seed pod. These plants, too,
seem stunted. Draba verna in this area last year were perhaps three, maybe four
times this tall … some of them.
1420-1430
I’m still trying to find an open D. verna seed pod. I can
see the ‘line of weakness’ where the pod will open.
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