fiesta flower ~ 11/18/14 ~ Pinnacles

fiesta flower

common heliotrope ~ 10/15/14 ~ Cooper Molera Garden

common heliotrope / cherry pie plant

Heliotropium arborescens (aka Heliotropium peruvianum)

Boraginaceae

Thanks to Nature of a Man, I now have the ID of this fragrant shrub that I've been admiring for years.  Years!  It surprises me that online descriptions say it smells like vanilla or freshly baked cherry pie. Mmm, maybe it has some vanilla notes, but not the fake candle stuff.  I can't say I know from experience what freshly baked cherry pie smells like, and I'm at a loss for words to adequately describe its heavenly scent.  I just know I like it.  I want it for my dream garden.

I double-checked the Cooper Store's index-carded photos, which were made in 1995, and this common heliotrope is not included.  Most of the Garden's plants were apparently installed in 1987-1988 to add to the existing historic roses and fruit trees.  I figure this bush was planted sometime after the cards were made.  My guess is this variety might hail from San Marcos Growers (linked in the scientific name above - they have a good, thorough description) because of its unusually large 6 ft. tall bushy shape.  Most of the common heliotropes I found online are shorter with deep purple flowers and darker leaves.  It's funny how garden plants seem to go in and out of fashion.  I prefer this lighter and airer shrub.  It's a total butterfly, bee, and lazy lepidopterist magnet.

west coast lady ~ 10/01/14 ~ Cooper Molera Garden

west coast lady nectaring on common heliotrope

Vanessa annabella nectaring on Heliotropium arborescens
(Shapiro)

Boraginaceae

I've seen a fair number of west coast ladies this unusually warm coastal summer, but only here in town since I'm rarely out in the field late enough in the afternoon to see these beauties.  When I decided to pursue studying butterflies this year, Andy made a request early on that I be home for dinner if at all possible.  Eating dinner together is important to us, and he used to bring me take-out when I worked late at the office.  The nice thing now is he doesn't mind cooking if I'm too pooped out from a day of hiking.  It may seem old-fashioned, but it works for us.

Usually, I'll spot the west coast ladies swirling-flirting with their more numerous and bossy cousins, the red admirals, around tall west-facing backdrops, be it trees or buildings.  This particular spot in the Cooper Molera Garden is great for seeing all kinds of butterflies because of the south-sided warmth of the surrounding historic buildings and this pleasantly scented garden bush.  The flowers look to me like a cross between heliotropes and fiddlenecks, but the soft leaves and huge bushy shape throw me.  The volunteer-run Cooper Store has several handfuls of index-carded photos of the plants in the garden with their IDs.  The next time I'm in, I'll try to remember to look-up this garden plant.

ps 10/15/14 - Thanks to Ken's comments, I now have an ID and corrected the above.

changing forget-me-not ~ 05/01/14 ~ Fort Ord

changing forget-me-not

Myosotis discolor

Boraginaceae

Gush.  This is my favorite new flower.  I don't care that it's non-native.  I love the three colors of blooms on one flower stalk.  The yellow petals turn blue and other parts turn red as they age.  I don't know how they explain the white.  The freshest bloom?  It's really tiny and so sweet.  It looks like it belongs on something girly, like old-fashioned stationery.

rusty popcorn flower ~ 03/26/14 ~ Ahwahnee Hills

rusty popcorn flower

Plagiobothrys nothofulvus

Boraginaceae

Driving up to Bass Lake, we passed beautiful grazing hills scattered with, what looked like from a distance, a grand dusting of powdered sugar.  Popcorn flowers.  I had hoped to find a place where I could trespass to take closer pictures, and then we found Ahwahnee Hills.  Perfect.

Pfft.  In CA, we have a lot of popcorn flowers (66 Calflora records of Plagiobothrys spp./var.) and look-alikes, aka white forget-me-nots (92 Calflora records of Cryptantha spp./var.).  Ha!  Good luck with ID.  There is no way I would have been able to figure these out, if I hadn't found Ahwanee Hills Regional Park's flowers page.  It's the same style as Yosemite Hikes - same person? same web host?  For now, I'm totally trusting whomever put the park's site together, because even if I refine my Calflora search, I still end up with too many possibilities.  Which also means, I can't assume all the tiny white flowers I saw in the distance were rusty popcorn flowers.  

Apparently, the tinged hair on the calyx and stem gives this sp. its rusty common name. Wayne's Word has an excellent discussion of Plagiobothrys and Cryptantha, including the scary-looking bloody red dye.  It's a good thing I'm not in the habit of fondling plants, because that would have freaked me out.  Plus, he shows some excellent pictures of nutlets.  Finally!  I've been searching for nutlet pictures ever since my first Hickman's popcorn flower, which grow much closer to the ground than rusty's actively popping reach.

As a final note, what is that distinctive collar around the yellow and white throats in my first picture?  I couldn't find it on any other popcorn flower pictures online.  Is that unusual?

Menzies' fiddleneck ~ 03/26/14 ~ Ahwahnee Hills

Menzies' fiddleneck / common fiddleneck

Amsinckia menziesii

Boraginaceae

I'm not a huge fan of yellow, but there is something structurally appealing to me about the fiddlenecks.  We saw expansive patches along the road side of grazing pasture fences and only a small patch at Ahwahnee.  These are lush compared to the skinny ones I took pictures of at Pinnacles.  Even though I inherited a very nice jeweler's loupe, I never use it.  It's a lot of trouble during what's supposed to be a hike to take such a close enough look at these tiny flowers to count their calyx lobes.  Plus, they're prickly.  I'm not absolutely positive about this ID, but I'm going with what's shown on the Ahwanee Hills Regional Park's flowers page.

fiesta flower ~ 02/25/14 ~ Pinnacles

fiesta flower

popcorn flower ~ 05/11/12 ~ Fort Ord

Hickman's popcorn flower
Plagiobothrys chorisianus var. hickmanii
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Boraginaceae

This post is for Graeme, because he asked about it. I know for certain this is the uncommon Hickman's popcorn flower with 3 of our 4 field guides (people, not books) confirming its ID in Butterfly Valley. Speaking of which, as I was searching for additional information, I know for sure that this spot of land is, in fact, on Army Lands and consists of Mima mounds and 6 vernal pools. Hickman's popcorn flower is not an easy flower to identify to sp., let alone to variety, since many look very similar. According to Calflora.org there are 68 records of spp./var. of Plagiobothrys in CA, and depending on whose list one references (CNPS or David Styer's) there are anywhere from 4 to 7 spp./var. of popcorn flowers found at Fort Ord. I've seen popcorn flowers grow much taller than shown here, but then again, they could have been different spp., or it could have been a result of our unusually dry winter. To see exactly how tiny this flower is, compare it to my dwarf brodiaea pictures.

imbricate phacelia ~ 06/10/11 ~ Pinnacles

imbricate phacelia

Phacelia imbricata ssp. imbricata
Boraginaceae

If I didn't have Pinnacles plant list and Calflora's distribution map, I'd have a hard time distinguishing this plant with its relative variable-leaved phacelia (Phacelia heterophylla ssp. virgata), which is found further north. Species of Phacelia are aka scorpionweed. I figure the name comes from the curly inflorescence like the curl of a scorpion tail. However, this isn't the entire story. Apparently, contact with some scorpionweeds (like P. crenulata) can produce dermatitis venenata in susceptible people, similar to poison-oak and sumac reactions. Interestingly, other species of scorpionweeds (like P. neomexicana) were used by Native Americans to actually treat rashes. It's difficult to track down accurate and original online information of which species of scorpionweed does what, so as Santa Fe Botanical Gardens recommends, it's probably safer to stay away from the stuff.

ps - The purple flower in the background is elegant clarkia.

baby blue eyes
Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae)

I asked Andy to stop the car as we were heading down from Fremont Peak so that I could get a closer look at the huge patches of white flowers on the side of the road. I love the detail in the petals. I wonder what it would look like under UV light. I totally did not notice these flowers going into the park, but as Carol LeNeve from CNPS pointed out to me, it matters which direction you're driving to notice many flowers. As an aside, I'm still looking for a wildflower book that can help identify roadside flowers going at 55 m.p.h. Hey, it's not always easy or convenient to stop the car to get a closer look.

This is another first flower sighting for me... I've never noticed the white version of baby blues eyes before. To be quite honest, I'm making an assumption about the variety here based on pictures of white blooms on CalPhotos (linked in the common name below the pictures). I have not found any plant list to double-check this variety. Calflora and Jepson do not show this variety as occurring in San Benito County. Even though Fremont Peak borders both San Benito and Monterey counties, these two floral resources seem to consider Fremont Peak as being in San Benito County.

I'm taking my cue from James of Lost in the Landscape, whose recent comment reminded me about not allowing distribution data to blind me from recognizing rarer plants. This is in stark contrast to how some people are so excited that they've found something so rare and so unusual that they make outlandish ID claims. Generally, my stance on Nature ID is that whatever I manage to find is not too unusual for the area.

Pacific hound's tongue ~ 04/17/11 ~ Fremont Peak

Pacific hound's tongue
Cynoglossum grande
Boraginaceae

I first heard of this flower last year from Clare's forget-me-not post at Curbstone Valley Farm. I'd never seen one until now and was surprised to discover the flowers are larger than a U.S. nickel coin. I'm out of words this morning, but I'd like to point out the sparkles of the petals (Katie at Phyteclub has a creative post on floral iridescence) and the 1-4 lobed, prickly, berrylike fruit (called nutlets).

tree year project 2011, #5

coast Douglas-fir with pride of Madeira
Pseudotsuga menziesii var. menziesii with Echium candicans
Pinaceae and Boraginaceae

Those first green sprouts that appeared the last week of January and first of February dried up into sadly drooping tails of brown. My only guess is that our long month and a half without the usual winter rain and sunny warm temps affected the annual growth of this tree (nope, incorrect guess, see postscript below). No worries, it looks like this old Douglas-fir is sporting a second set of green shoots after the appearance of baby cones and additional rains. For those new to Nature ID, I've committed a small part of my blog to participating in The Tree Year project.

I was really pleased to get a decent picture of the gnarly tree trunk and the purple blooms of the prolific pride of Madeira in its shadow. Actually, I had the camera out with hopes to capture what I believe is a migrant Rufous hummingbird. No luck since it's such an extremely quick flying bright red bird. It does a country line dance move with a head lean and fly to side to side that I swear the sole purpose is to taunt me into trying to take its picture.

http://thetreeyear.wordpress.com/tree-year-posts/about-the-tree/buds-and-flowers/

ps 08/08/11 - I just noticed the lighter brown structures hanging down are dried pollen cones. I'm also guessing the droopy brown tails are unfertilized female cones. And the bright green are indeed new needle shoots; they look very similar to budding female cones. It always helps to take another look at these older posts.

CA yerba santa ~ 03/20/11 ~ Fort Ord

California yerba santa
Eriodictyon californicum
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae)

I've hiked past these always wondering what they are, most notably for the black fungus covering most of the leaves. You can see some black leaves in both pictures above. Wikipedia says this fungus is called Heterosporium californicum, but I can't find any online information other than this sooty fungus is common on this plant. This is the first time I've seen these shrubs blooming. It's really hard for me to believe that these are in the same Eriodictyon genus as the woolly yerba santa I spotted at Pinnacles recently. Erg. Once again this plant has changed families from the waterleaf family Hydrophyllaceae to the borage family. These family changes are harder to track than women who change their surnames due to marriage and/or divorce.

blue fiesta flower ~ 03/20/11 ~ Fort Ord

blue fiesta flower among Pacific poison-oak
Pholistoma auritum var. auritum among Toxicodendron diversilobum
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae) and Anacardiaceae

It rained off and on during our hike. These sweet purple faces all seemed to be a bit downturned; I don't know if that's typical or is due to the rain. I had to get really low to the ground, trying to avoid touching the poison-oak, in order to get the first 2 pictures. It's funny the things you notice as you're taking a photo. I've seen blue fiesta flowers blooming in several places, including our recent hike at Pinnacles on March 4, 2011, but believing I had already posted this flower on Nature ID, I haven't bothered photographing it before now.

Also, I'm regretting the day I started including plant family names in my posts. As I've said before, this blog is my learning tool, and I hoped by including family names I could start recognizing related plants. It's been 20 years since I've had any formal botany class and barely remember anything more than the names of flower parts and checking to see if leaf margins have notches. So, here's the rub for the regret: once again as with many other flowers I post, fiesta flowers have been moved to a different family - from Hydrophyllaceae (waterleaf family) to Boraginaceae (borage family). Calflora and all my flower books are now outdated. Erg. I'll try to go back and fix the labels for all my previous waterleaf posts.

woolly yerba santa ~ 03/04/11 ~ Pinnacles

woolly yerba santa
Eriodictyon tomentosum
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae)

When I first saw these along the road into Pinnacles, I thought they had succumb to disease with its chalky white and slightly wilted look. They are very soft to the touch and indeed are alive and healthy.

ps 03/30/11 - I've corrected the family name above from the waterleaf family to the borage family.

common fiddleneck ~ 03/04/11 ~ Pinnacles

common fiddleneck
Amsinckia intermedia
Boraginaceae

This is the first time I've taken an up close and personal look at fiddlenecks. Maybe it's the yellow or the spiny parts that makes me relatively adverse to this reasonably cute flower. Calflora lists 18 species and varieties of Amsinckia. Btw, what an awful genus name; sounds like "I'm sick of ya." For the record, I'm abandoning my usage of common names according to Jepson's that I started doing this year. Who the heck really calls this finger weed?

ps 04/05/14 - I updated the name from Amsinckia menziesii var. intermedia.  There was a little bit of shuffling in the genus.  I'm noting how skinny the whole plant is compared to what I consider A. menziesii.  I really don't know how to tell them apart.

forget-me-not ~ 02/04/11 ~ Hatton Canyon

broadleaf forget-me-not
Myosotis latifolia
Boraginaceae

Similarly to my previous forget-me-not post, I'm not entirely sure of this ID. I suspect this may be another local garden escapee from atop the canyon and in such case it could be any number of cultivars. For a very informative and well-written post on forget-me-nots (including the look alike native Cynoglossum grande), check out Curbstone Valley Farm.

fiesta flower ~ 01/19/11 ~ Fort Ord

fiesta flower under oak
Pholistoma sp. under oak
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae) and Fagaceae

I love the bright green and shape of the fiesta flower leaves. I'm not positive which species creates this lush green carpet under the oak trees (there's a blue and white version, each with subspecies)... nor have I taken the time yet to ID specific oaks. Interesting to note, I only see fiesta flowers under the oak canopies. Isn't there a name for the condition where things grow directly under the branches of trees due to the shade and extra moisture from fog and rain they provide to the understory? I plan to pay more attention this spring when I'm out hiking.

salt heliotrope ~ 08/04/10 ~ Fort Ord

salt heliotrope
Heliotropium curassavicum
Boraginaceae

posted 08/14/11 - I remember thinking these couldn't possibly be the same species of plant as what I saw 10 days earlier along the shoreline. These are incredibly small and sparse compared to those.

salt heliotrope ~ 07/25/10 ~ Shoreline Park

salt heliotrope
Heliotropium curassavicum
Boraginaceae

I didn't believe our new orchid friend, but he was correct and this belongs to the borage family along with fiddlenecks and forget-me-nots. This heliotrope has several common names, including seaside heliotrope, quail plant, and Chinese pusley. I think the Chinese parsley was misread somewhere and is now also considered a common name.