A new project here is to photograph and catalog all the Native California and Sonoma wildflowers that are growing around our little slice of heaven. John the Baptist and Louis are leading the charge by bringing me examples of flowers they find in their trailbuilding work. For now,these bouquets will have to serve as my educational pieces as I’m finding it a lot easier to get good photographs in the wild than when the flowers are picked. I believe I’ve also made my position clear on using common names instead of the Latin. A California Native don’t need no steenkin’ Latin. (Sharp eyes might notice the yellow flower outside the vase that has been chewed and stomped by terriers. It’s one of our despised mustard plants. Decidedly NOT native.)
Here’s a selection of flowers I’ll be searching for this weekend to photograph in the wild:
The white showy flower is Star Lily. I’ll give its Latin name since it’s named after John C. Fremont, pioneer and relentless booster of California statehood: Zigadenus fremontii.
The orange flower is one of my personal favorites, Sticky Monkey Flower. The red brushy one is Indian Warrior.
Here’s a beauty: Checker Lily or Mission Bells.
The name for this one seems to have gone right out of my head. According to my flower book, it looks like Blue Dick or Dichelostemma capitatum.
This poor orange guy is getting a bit crushed, but he’s an Indian Paintbrush.
This weekend, we’re going on a Wildflower Safari.
The first tour will be along the banks of The World’s Most Beautiful Drainage Ditch.
Addendum: Let me know, Informed Readers, if I’ve misidentified anything.
Lovely information.
Request: close ups. I wanted to zoom in on a few.
This rain has been wonderful.
Here is the Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/atweed/sets/72157623391878863/
Click on any one of the pictures and choose (from the menu above the picture) “All Sizes”. Then check “Original Size”. That’s going to be pretty large. And you can download them.
I thought a Camelia was a rose the other day – so I would not be a good one to ask 😀
BTW, how many projects do you have going on at once??
On a nature hike in my youth, the park naturalist had a wildflower book with colored tabs to match the blooms too. Like most of the specialists at our state parks he was a student at a nearby college. Summer gig. Primary interest raptors, not wildflowers. Did a nice job though.
With all that extra rain the wildflowers should be abundant for your safari this weekend.
Will you consider publishing your findings?
Even as a field guide, the information would be interesting.
My publishing is going to be on the inkject printer and pasted into a scrapbook that visitors to Two Terrier Vineyards can peruse.