March 16, 2017

Thursday, March 16, 2017

21:22

I might have been an hour and 45 minutes in the park today. I made two stops, there, one, the usual, by L. gormanii rock, the second at the east end of the park. I meant to go to the west end as well but I ran out of gas. The better part of valor said time to go home.

There were lots of Lomatium gormanii on their rock.

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There were buttercups, Ranunculus glaberrimus, everywhere I went. I thought there would be a few, as I only observed two buds on the tenth of March. There were many. Not as many as there will be.

I noticed an eight petal R. glaberrimus on the deeper earth approaching L. gormanii rock. I saw a seven petal R. glaberrimus on L. gormanii rock and others with extra petals, later, later, elsewhere.

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The R. glaberrimus on L. gormanii rock don’t seem to be as hardy as those on deeper soil. Some look normal.

I’ve seen these R. glaberrimus with no petals before. I need to mark one and watch it develop. The leaves look like they might have had some winter damage. Could damaged leaves cause deformed petals? Is it a matter of nutrition, a lack of sun energy?

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I didn’t notice bees, today but there were quite a few fly and gnat like insects. A couple or three landed on my face and neck. No bites or stings.

I walked to the west side of L. gormanii rock to check for Olsynium douglasii, grass widow foliage and found three in bloom. I saw another just opening on the west end of the park, above north pond.

Two on L. gormanii rock were in full bloom and even looked a bit faded, as if they have been in bloom for awhile. The third was just opening.

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On one O. douglasii, the ‘inflation’ at the base of the stamens appeared, in my photograph, to be a flat disk with the stamens rising from the center of the disk. I checked photos from other years and the inflation seemed to taper upward.

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The inflation on the other O. douglasii in full bloom was also odd. There was no inflation as such, the base of the stamens were ‘inflated’ but they were not fused. They were separated.

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This is a dissection done by my daughter, April, a number of years ago. The ‘flat disk’ is apparently an illusion.

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The O. douglasii that was just opening had anthers apparently coated with pollen. The anthers of the O. douglasii that were open seem bare of pollen.

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I saw an opening O. douglasii, later, east of north pond, that was apparently even younger. Its anthers were not coated with pollen.

The photo shows 4 styles and stigmas. There should be three.

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An even bigger surprise was a small patch of Draba verna on L. gormanii rock. I didn’t see D. verna in bloom anywhere else. I did see D. verna foliage elsewhere.

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I suppose this establishes that O. douglasii blooms before Draba verna, it seems to have in 2017. The place I usually find the earliest Draba verna was deep under water, as is the area where I usually find the first R. glaberrimus.

I saw very small leaflets of Lomatium macrocarpum here and there. They will be in the neighborhood of a foot high, later.

When I got home I looked at wildflower walks in mid-March of previous years and L. Macrocarpum was often well developed and blooming. Plants in bloom would have been few. But this year, as I said above, its foliage was just beginning to appear.

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There seems to be an outflow from south pond partially dammed, filtered, by a large, thick patch of tall grass.

South pond was definitely a bit higher. It was father up the Ribes aureum at the south east ‘corner’ of tall pine grove, though not much. And I could see that it had spread through tall pine grove to the far side.

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The ponding below and behind L. gormanii rock was more extensive but I could not observe current in it. It wrapped around the north side of the rock and extended out of sight down the hill to the west.

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The two vernal ponds are joined by an arm following the north access trail. I’d need aerial photography to show the full extent of the flooding. The water is a single pond extending clear across the park.

This is a view of south pond from near L. gormanii rock.

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I drove to the east end of the park, near the access to the main trail. Much of the main trail at the east end was flooded.

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There was a scattering of buttercups, east of north pond, more than in the area of L. gormanii rock.

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The north access trail was clear to the east-west line of basalt boulders and it was flooded from that point, the water over the trail connecting the two vernal ponds.

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North pond

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Cloud photo

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