Saturday, April 15, 2017
23:48
I arrived at the park at 1626 hours.
I took 116 images, 38 keepers.
I was in the park 1 hour 40 minutes.
One of my objectives was to see if there were still L.
gormanii in bloom.
I walked the few steps from the car to the east face of L.
gormanii rock. I saw two, scrawny, L. gormanii, probably the last of the year.
Surely the last of the year in this location. I didn’t see any at the east end
of the park. I should check the west end of the park for later L. gormanii.
01
L. gormanii in fruit,
02
L. gormanii in bloom. Probably the last of the year.
The buttercups of L. gormanii rock are much reduced.
The sky is about half covered with small to medium clouds
but lots blue sky, lots of sunshine.
Lots of Draba verna everywhere. A thin carpet of it.
There was only half a dozen R. glaberrimus, on L. gormanii
rock, none in their prime. Only two
Olsynium douglasii were in bloom. There were 20 or 30 Lomatium triternatum in
bloom, they are still looking stunted. Those I saw at the east end were also in
bloom and small.
1638 hours in the new parking lot at the east end. There are
still thousands of O. douglasii here and lots of buttercups.
A crow or two are complaining my about intrusion. Much later
I heard a pretty and unfamiliar bird song.
I found two tiny Lithophragma glabrum, woodland stars, a
foot or so inside the parking lot by one of the boulders marking the limit of
the parking lot.
There was a tiny, undernourished O. douglasii there, too. In
both cases I was trying to photograph
things I can’t really see.
03
Lithophragma glabrum plant
04
L. glabrum apex with bulbils. Note the swelling demarking
the receptacle from the sepals. The bulbils are something like bulbs. They will
fall away and may create new plants.
05
L. glabrum cauline leaves
06
L. glabrum cauline leaf
07
Olsynium douglasii fruiting
About 15 feet into the park I found an area I was looking
for. A place where I could sit down and reach a fairly large number of R.
glaberrimus.
08
Search area with several R. glaberrimus
09
When I got down to look at the R. glaberrimus I noticed,
nearby, a numerous patch of L. glabrum with only one in flower.
10
L. glabrum flower
11
I photographed a Saxafraga nidifica flower stalk thinking
there were the beginnings of blossoms. I was wrong. The insect damage is
probably what caught my weak eyes. I got good images of buds. And there is an
appendage below the lower inflorescence of interest.
The question I wanted to answer is: Have I been deceived about
the length of R. glaberrimus stems by the fact that they are often prone, as
suggested by the plant descriptions in E-Flora
BC
12
There are R. glaberrimus there with very white petals. I
suppose they are ready to fall. But it may be insect damage. I’ve seen fresh
looking petals with white spots in the past.
This flower looked more white to the eye than it does to the
camera.
13
All of the parts of R. glaberrimus are said to be poisonous
but something is eating this one. An earlier photo in this collection also
seemed to have a bite taken out of the pistils.
14
I saw a fruit head that I thought looked old and at least
somewhat dry. I wanted to photograph it. I found it again, picked it and it
wasn’t old and dry.
15
The interesting thing was the cauline leaves on the fruit
head. One was the typical three fingered cauline leaf. The other, seemingly
from the same node was elliptical.
16
17
I picked an O. douglasii stem to see if I could find a
nectary. No nectary is mentioned in the plant descriptions I checked and I
found nothing.
18
I photographed a petal in case, as with R. glaberrimus, the
nectary was at the base of the petal. I saw no sign of anything.
19
A record of today’s clouds and my current antique car.
20
I noticed two ‘rivers’ of O. douglasii, backlit by the sun
and attempted to photograph one. I suppose they demark moisture. A seep of some
kind.
The next problem to be solved: Does R. glaberrimus sometimes
have several flower stalks and basal leaves rising from the same root system.
There are, fairly often, little clusters of them, packed close together.
21
I walked only a few feet and found the cluster I wanted.
They have glossy petals. They have three finger cauline leaves. The basal
leaves seem to be roundish leaves with distal notches, the leaves of R.
glaberrimus var. glaberrimus.
22
A superficial study says this cluster of R. glaberrimus is
made up of individual flower stalks with their own root system. The turf and clay-like
mud are a problem. I’m taking the cluster home. I’ll let the dirt dry then
check for connecting roots. [I lost my focus. Connecting roots was the issue
with O. douglasii. In this case it should have been a single root system
supporting multiple flower stalks that I was looking for, tuft stgructures.
Examination at home did not find root connections.]
1731 hours I’m only about 40 feet from the car. I’ll walk
around a little. If I have the energy for it I’ll walk down to high point rock and look
for F. pudica.
I’ve walked down to the north-south line of boulder just
east of north pond.
I saw no L. macrocarpum in bloom above the north access trail.
I see one plant in full bloom below the line of boulders. I saw occasional
Phlox caespitosa in scanty bloom on the walk down. I saw one L. glabrum in full
bloom.
23
I saw a single Erigeron compositus plant, cutleaf daisy on
the slope above the north access trail.
24
The buds were just beginning to show petals. I failed to get
a good image of an opening bud. But the image of the back of the bud suggests
that the sepals grow down from the receptacle then turn up. A minor curiosity.
25
I spent some time trying to make photo sense of the anthers
on L. macrocarpum.
I took 15 images with little success. Photo 25 just suggests
the mess I’m trying to make sense of. There is a plane of focus very roughly
indicated by the white dots. The acceptable depth of field is very narrow and
very shallow. The top of an object may be in acceptable focus and the base,
not.
26
The right edge of the inflorescence with the white dot. The
extended organs seem definitely to be stamens with their anthers. I searched
the 15 images for styles and stigma and found nothing.
27
The petals of the individual florets [or flowers, if you
prefer], curve upward and down, coming together. The stamens protruded between
the petals.
28
The petals of L. macrocarpum with stamens not yet uncurled.
I walked along the north side of north pond. I see that the
burned Rosa woodsii patch is coming back.
There was a Muscari species, grape hyacinth in full bloom.
29
Plants of the Apiaceae family are usually but not always
hollow. I tried to verify that the flower stalk of L. macrocarpum was hollow
but failed. I didn’t get a good image. However, I noticed the distinctive lines
in the flower stalk and decided to record them.
The flower stalk is pilose, covered with soft hairs. I
suppose they are soft. There’s plenty of hair [trichomes].
30
I dinked with the light levels in this photo to bring out
detail but the hole, if there is one, is indistinct. Perhaps it’s evident when
the stem is dry, later.
31
I saw a tulip in bud.
32
A cloud photo across north pond. Yellow willows. The water
levels of the ponds is lower but not much.
I walked past the fir grove. The pond is still circling the
mound with the north-most tall shrub, with a huge patch of Symphoricarpos
albus, snow berry, at its foot. I think the shrub is Amelanchier alnifolia,
saskatoon, but I’m not confident. Fatigue made me stupid. I didn’t attempt a
photograph of the water surrounding the mound.
I looked to see how far the water reached west in a bit of a
trench and decided I had done enough for today. My energy was low. Low enough
that I didn’t bother with a photo of the water filled trench.
33
I noticed Lamium purpureum, purple dead nettle, in bloom
along the water’s edge. There’s a huge patch there, later in the year. It’s a bit
of a noxious weed, even if not legally recognized as such. I carried the
specimen back to the line of boulders to photograph it.
34
35
I rested, sitting on one of the north-south boulders. There
were sheets of O. douglasii, back lit, in the distance. I tried some telephoto
shots hoping to capture the image. The monitor was too dark to be sure I got
them. These are only two of several photos of similar O. douglasii patches in
different directions.
36
37
1806 hours back at the car. I found a Saxufraga nidifica
with a couple of flowers. There were two inflorescences on the flower stalk, a
somewhat typical arrangement. There was one flower at the apex of each
inflorescence. These were the only S. nidifica flowers I saw but they are very
small and I’m a long way from the ground with weak eyes so I could have walked
past many more. And I didn’t survey much of the park.
38
The lower flower may be the best image of an S. nidifica I
have. I need to put it somewhere so I can find it.
I saw one Erigeron compositus, cutleaf fleabane, with
opening buds on the walk west. I saw one other with buds that were still closed
on the walk back to the car.
The sky is mostly blue with puffy clouds. Not as many and
probably smaller.
1842 hours in my parking place at home. I stopped at
Skippers for clam chowder on the way home.
Well, damn. USDA has Saxifraga nidifica Green. peak
saxifrage.
UW Burke herbarium has Micranthes nidifica Green Small, no
common name.
UBC has no Saxafraga. It has Micranthes but not nidifica.
Flora of North America seems to have neither S. nidifica nor
M. nidifica. Assuming no typos during search.
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