Slatsz Wildflower Walks 2013 #1: Slatsz' Wildflower Walk June 14, 2013

Out 2 hours. 200 photos. 81 keepers.

I parked at the north access.

The light was very strong and I didn’t pay enough attention to that. Didn’t pay enough attention to my camera. Problems with bleaching.

I had a ‘to-do’ list and the intent to limit the number of photographs. But, of course, it was mid-June and there are always plant surprises.

I came to the north access because I wanted photos of the foliage of a strange plant I saw last year a bit later than this near the high-water mark on the east side of north pond but saw no sign of it.

Walking to the pond I saw that Lepidium campestre, field pepper-weed was in bloom along the path. I took a sample.

I wanted a better photo of a Potentilla arguta plant, tall cinquefoil. I thought I saw a patch but it was Potentilla gracilis, slender cinquefoil. I took a specimen. I gathered specimens of Geranium carolinianum, wild geranium, Grindelia squarrosa, curly cup gumweed, Rosa woodsii, Wood’s rose and Centaurea cyanus, bachelor button.

I searched the east-west boulder row for a basalt block about the right height and width to be a seat and a site for macro photography and found almost ‘good enough’, a lot less than perfect.

I was photographing C. cyanus when a young woman, Elizabeth Cortez, walked over and asked me what I was doing. I had a good time talking to her about the wildflowers of Drumheller Springs Park.

It was time for Gaillardia aristata, blanket flower to be in bloom. I finished working the specimens I had taken and walked down the main trail to a point just east of long rock ridge where I had seen G. aristata in the past.

I saw Philadelphus lewisii, mock orange in bloom everywhere I went. I photographed the plant on the hillock with the red leaved Prunus virginiana, choke cherry. Later I got snapshots of P. lewisii blossoms on a low shrub that was somewhat more convenient.

The G. aristata were where I expected them to be. I sat on the ground to make some photographs and noticed a Tragopogon dubius, yellow goat’s beard with its pappus still half open and photographed it.

I circled a likely area west of north pond hoping to find early foliage of Perideridia gairdneri, Gairdner’s yampah for Judith Lowry but saw nothing.

I didn’t see P. gairdneri, but I did see a lush Zigadenus venenosus, death camas. I saw only one so I didn’t collect it. Nearby were Microsteris gracilis, slender phlox. I am still trying to get a good image of its ‘yellow throat’.

I walked through the short grass of north pond on the way back to the car. The tallest grass is probably a little over a foot high. Two years ago it was 7 feet high. Last year it was 5 feet high.

My photo from 2011 was taken two weeks later, June 28, but I’m fairly sure the grass won’t get much higher in two weeks. I’ll try to pay attention.

Back on the east side of north pond I noticed an unfamiliar plant in bud. At first I only noticed one and tried to photograph it in situ but as I was leaving I noticed several more so I took a specimen to photograph elsewhere. I also remembered that I needed good images of Achillea millefolium, yarrow or milfoil for my collection of Asteraceae family flowers and took a specimen.

I made a feeble effort to photograph a small Rumex crispus, curly dock.

* * *

Once again, my pleasure in super closeup photos got me in trouble. I got goo on the lens, this time, directly in the center with smears elsewhere. Many photos were spoiled. I could salvage some. I kept some that were spoiled to remind me of two things, to bring a soft cloth and water to clean the lens and to get new photos of the plant.

The goo causes a fog the color of whatever was nearby, yellow fog if yellow ligules were nearby, green fog if a stem or leaf was nearby. Sometimes I could paint out the fog.

I meant to do more research into the tribes of Asteraceae but … I didn’t. I did collect photos of Asteraceae blossoms for … whenever I get around to learning more about the tribes. There is a lot of variety the blossoms of Asteraceae family tribes. It’s hard to believe the botanists have placed them in the same family.

I’ll cop a plea. I’m having a second cold of this spring. Research isn’t much fun. I’m watching last year’s Tour de France and playing solitaire instead.

I did a little reading just now and the sub-divisions of the Asteraceae family don’t seem to be one sub-family and 10 ‘tribes’ any more. This article has 11 subfamilies, no mention of tribes. Ok, I didn’t actually read the article but I didn’t notice the term, ‘tribe’.

Asteraceae - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asteraceae

THE PHOTOS

Geranium carolinianum, wild geranium – Geraniaceae

110-196