rove to Drumheller
Springs Park
Grant was in his driveway. Couldn’t talk. He had 28 hours to
get out of the house for the new owners and he had a lot of work to do.
I didn’t set my stop clocks. I was there till 7:10. Maybe an
hour and a half. 165 images. 56 keepers.
I walked down to south pond, to check what I suppose to be
the early Amelanchier alnifolia, saskatoon, did some photos.
Both cherries were in bloom. I need help with identification
of the cherries.
Berberis aquifolium, Oregon grape is covered in blossoms.
South pond is nearly dry.
I was interested to photograph willow blossoms again. I had
read something interesting about their structure but I decided not to use the
time … the light … that way this afternoon. I went immediately to north pond.
Totally dry.
Crataegus douglasii, black hawthorn by the pond is still in
bud. I took a specimen.
I was most interested to improve my photos of Balsamorhiza
sagittata, balsamroot. I took specimens of older blossoms with well developed
stigmas. [Lots of work, little result. I may have to wait for next year, or
possibly try higher altitudes for later plants.]
I took a specimen of Lomatium macrocarpum, bigseed
biscuitroot that looked ‘older’ in the hope of improving my photos. I hope …
someday … to get both male and ‘perfect’ florets but they are so small I can’t
see distinguishing features. No. I haven’t tried to use the cheap magnifying
glasses I own. I don’t suppose they will help much. I suppose I will have to
invest in something with more power and better quality. Yes, should try to use
the cheap ones I have. [No photos of L. macrocarpum worth keeping.]
I took a Collinsia parviflora, blue eyed Mary and attempted
a better image full front on the blossom.
A friend who has moved to Iowa sent photos of an invasive plant by her
curb and asked for identification. I am shocked that it is possible that I can
identify it. I walked across north pond and over toward a patch I thought might
be the same plant, Lamia
purpureum, purple deadnettle. They were in bloom. I had to dig out old photos
to get the name of the plant. [The Iowa
plant has similar leaves, different blossoms. Doesn’t have the distinctive bare
stem and leafy ‘plant top’ of purple deadnettle.
I looked for a place to sit to photograph the ‘weed’ and
noticed Camassia quamash in bloom. I didn’t pay attention walking past the patch
west of south pond but saw, later, that they are in bloom there, as well. I
photographed the two specimens in hand.
Fatigue became a problem. I noticed that I was not paying
attention as I headed back to the car … to anything but getting back to the car.
I drove down to Skippers for a bowl of chowder, as I do most
days when I come to the park. I noticed scrawny Draba verna by their curb and
picked one to see if it had open seed pods and it did.
It didn’t occur to me to use the remaining light … dim as it
was … to do the photography, there. I brought the plant home.
I got all the way to my door before I woke up to the fact
that I should try to get the images before the plant dried up.
I went up to the 20th floor and tried to use the
red sunset light through a dirty window. I hope I got something.
Whether or no, I have seen the open pods, a couple with
seeds attached to the septum. I know what to look for next time.
The Photos:
Amelanchier
alnifolia, saskatoon, Roseaceae family
0110-0150
0110 seems to exhibit the feature of raceme inflorescence
that has the lower blossoms maturing first with new blossoms developing at the
apex.
0130-0140 the petals are gone. The calyx sepals are curved
back. A ring of stamens [white filaments, brown anthers] rises from the
hypanthium. The styles with their stigma rise from the ovum in the center.
0150 The hypanthium covering the ovum with recurved sepals.
Imagine the berry-like fruit, later. The sepals will still be present but they
will look tiny on the ball of the fruit. The urn shaped green hypanthium will
be a round black fruit.
Prunus mahaleb,
cherry rootstalk, Roseaceae family
I am not at all confident that I have the cherry
identifications right or in the right order.
I assume from internet photos that this is Prunus mahaleb.
Ken Swedberg says P. mahaleb is used as rootstalk because it is hardy. Other,
more fragile species are grafted onto it. Its hardiness results in
invasiveness. It is established at both the east end and the west end of the
park, seeds apparently carried by birds, ejected in their morning poop.
0210-0240
0210-220 because the cherries, too, are Roseaceae family,
the arrangement of the stamens and styles are similar to Amelanchier alnifolia.
The stigma on the style is different. It is capitate [head-like].
0210-220 because the cherries, too, are Roseaceae family,
the arrangement of the stamens and styles are similar to Amelanchier alnifolia.
The stigma on the style is different. It is capitate [head-like].
Domestic Cherry,
Roseaceae family
0310-0340
Berberis aquifolium,
Oregon grape, Berberidaceae family
0410
South pond
Only a puddle
0510
Crataegus douglasii,
black hawthorn, Roseaceae family
0640-0660
Balsamorhiza sagittata,
balsamroot, Asteraceae family
0710-0795
B. sagittata is the largest of the Asteraceae in the park so
it should be the easiest to dissect. Unfortunately I didn’t start my
dissections soon enough. It’s difficult to see the significant features at this
late date.
The ray florets of B. sagittata are, apparently, sterile.
The disk flowers are ‘perfect’, that is, ‘hermaphroditic’, they have the organs
of both sexes.
I can’t see the recurved ‘petals’ of the corolla-tube [a
tube made up of 5 fused petals] for sure in 0710. There are some possibilities
but none with 4 or 5 recurved lobes. 0760 seems to show one clearly, 0770 is a
blow up of that structure.
Apparently [according to my reading and some of this is
interpretation of that reading … guess work] the anthers [pollen sacs] are joined
and fused into a tube within the corolla tube. [The anthers must be ‘sessile’,
must have no filaments.] It’s easy to see the two-color tubes of the fused anthers
in 0710, 0750, 0760, 0780, 0785 and 0788.
The ovary develops a lobe that grows up through the tube of
fused anthers within the tube of fused petals. That lobe is its style. The
style, of course, has a stigma at its apex.
Confused? It’s too early to be confused. The story is just
beginning to get complicated.
The style has bristles on the outside that scrape pollen off
the anthers. The pollen drops down toward a ‘nectary’ where it will be
available to ‘animals’ that are trying to get the nectar.
The plant prefers not to be self-fertilized. It doesn’t ‘want’
any of it’s pollen to get on the stigma of the style [also a tube, now within
two tubes?], grow down into the ovary and fertilize the egg.
Look at 710, 750, 760, 780, 785 and especially 788. The joined
curved structures are only one stigma.
The two curved stigmatic ‘lobes’ are locked together until
they grow up above the tube of fused anthers so pollen from the anthers can’t
cling to the stigma. They open above the anther-tube. They ‘hope’ to get pollen
from other plants carried to this plant by insects, that is, to be
‘cross-fertilized’, not ‘self-fertilized’ by pollen from their own anthers. Self-fertilization
can, and presumably does happen.
Now I’m the confused person. I’m depending on my memory. Big
mistake.
I’ve also read that the style pushes the pollen up out of
the anther-tube making it available to insects. Damn. Maybe I’ll figure it out
next year.
0710 The disk flowers of B. sagittata
0720 The involucre of B. sagittata with small cauline leave near the flowerhead.
0730 The involucre of B. sagittata with the outer bracts pulled away.
0740 The involucre of B. sagittata with the inner bracts pulled away, exhibiting the base of the ray florets.
0750 The ray florets are pulled away exhibiting the disk florets.
0760 760 Front, center seems to be a corolla tube with petals curved away from the tube.
The striped tubes rising above the mass seem to be fused
anthers. The curling yellow structures above the stripped tubes are anthers.
0770 The apparent corolla tube, a blow up cropped from the previous image.
0780
0785
0788
0790 The bract on the disk floret is called an receptacle bract [for no good reason it would seem to me. More inconsistent terminology.]
0795
Lomatium macrocarpum,
bigseed biscuitroot, Apiaceae family
No photos worth keeping
No 800’s
Collinsia parviflora,
blue eyed Mary, Scrophulariaceae family
910
This is the best full front photo I’ve managed of C.
parviflora. It seems like I should be able to do better.
Camassia quamash,
common camas, Liliaceae family
1010-1060
1030 the filament of the stamen seems to be fused to the
base of the petal.
1030 the filament of the stamen seems to be fused to the
base of the petal.
1040 the best of several failed attempts to show the three
stigmas at the top of the style.
Lamia purpureum,
purple death nettle, Lamiaceae family
1110-1190
An invasive weed but an interesting one. Fun to photograph.
You can probably tell.
Draba verna, spring
whitlow grass, Brassiceae family
1210-1250
I had given up on getting the open seedpod photos I need for
the photo-biography of Draba verna but … there it was. I thought I would have
to do it again in good light but the yellow light of sunset is nice. Well. I
like it.
I should be able to get better detail in strong light.
1220 seedpods before opening.
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