Seed Gathering at Blue Sky

First weekend in August, helping CNPS collect seeds for habitat reconstruction on the Blue Sky ranch.

Most plants were in seed, but a few still had flowers.






Morning Glory
(you can recognize the native one
by the location of the bracts under
the flower.)

Clearing Broom in Del Dios Canyon

This week was my second time going to the San Diego CNPS meeting.
I met the chair of the Invasive Plant committee, and my husband and I decided to join them for some work on Saturday.

The project of the day was to route out some invasive French and Spanish broom from the south side of the canyon (about a half-mile up the canyon from here). We also saw invasive anise, eucalyptus, and celery, but generally the south side of the canyon looked pretty good. I was so busy working, I forgot to take pictures. The north side had a lot of invasive grasses, mustard, and Castor bean. We enjoyed being out in the canyon and helping reverse some of the damage! a lot of work had already been accomplished, especially against the eucalyptus.




This is French broom. The photo is borrowed from the Cal-IPC website.








Spanish broom. Photo is also borrowed from the Cal-IPC website.




I also saw the dried-out remains of a Sahara mustard for the first time. It was quite distinctive, with its long, thin seed pods. I wish I had taken a photo.

Pine Creek Camping

Eaton's Firecracker
Penstemon Eatonii
blooming all over the place







California Thistle
Cirsium occidentale
...its an aster.









butterfly on buckwheat
Eriogonum fasciculatum








Jimson Weed
Datura wrightii
a nightshade









Mimulus brevipes
Yellow monkey flower








Prickly Poppy Argemone corymbosa
Its not in Ms Fillius's San Diego County book , but I found it in Munz's Desert Wildflower book. I guess its more of a desert plant - but we saw it in a high meadow.

Weekend at Home

After the weekend in Chico, we decided to spend the next weekend at home. For me, that means pottering about with my plants.

This odontoglossum to the right was a gift from a friend when I lived in LA. Its a very easygoing orchid, but smells like tete de moine cheese when its blooming.






odontoglossum again






I've got two buckets of epidendrums that were rescues about a year or two ago, that are now blooming in full force. They were discards from a neighbor's front-yard remodel. (we went under cover of darkness to liberate them from the trash pile.)

In other news, the valentine's day roses are finally well and truly dead. I'm surprised how long they held out. 6 months. A brief sunny spell finished them off.

Hiking in Chico

Visited my brother in Chico over 4th of July. Spent most of the time chatting and hiking (backpacking Bucks Lake area), so not much time for botanizing.

Columbine, white ceanothus (very stinky and overpowering), corn lily, mallow, mariposa lily, pine drops Pterospora andromedea? (or was it coral root?) under the pines.






Also saw a white bog orchid Platanthera dilatata for the first time (though spent a lot of time looking!). The photo was snapped as we hiked past at dusk, so not the best quality.






This blue lily I had never seen before













this was interesting, looks like mistletoe on a pine tree.


Also, my poor husband got poisen oak. So I failed there in my botanical duty.
I never saw what got him.

Fortuna Hike

The yellow mariposa lilies are blooming now, something I look forward to every year. These ones are from Fortuna Mountain, Mission Trails.

There were still many other flowers blooming along the way. It was a great hike.
Other flowers were broom, California poppies, pink gentian, yerba mansa (saururaceae), and the purple mariposa lily.

Calochortus weedii var weedii,
aka Yellow Mariposa Lily.




















In other news, I joined the California Native Plant Society, and bought Margaret Fillius's Native Plants , so now I can go back through these pictures and find out what I was looking at.

Cowles Mountain Hike

We got married on Saturday and took two days off work afterwards. On the Tuesday afternoon, we did a quiet little hike up Cowles mountain. I remembered that there were yellow Mariposa lilies up there, and I really wanted to see some. It proved to be a bit too early in the season, but there was other fun stuff to see.

Besides the photos below, we saw manzanita, red and orange monkey flower, California poppy, broom, sage, dodder, and lots of invasive mustard.





A climbing pink snapdragon in the shade of a rock







White Pincushion (an aster)
Chaenactis artemisiiflioa








Parry's Larkspur
Delphinium parryi









Bicolor Everlasting (an aster)
Pseudognaphalium bioletti









Canchalagua, a Gentian
Zeltnera venusta









Mariposa lily leafs and buds,
still not ready to flower.









Quail at the trail head