Quincy to Grass Valley, Part 3

 This set brings me from a point just North of Camptonville to the outskirts of Nevada City.  I now realize the full trip will take four posts.  Still playing catch-up.  All the more difficult because this afternoon I took a brief drive out to Butterfly Valley to follow up on a tip from a friend that the Bear Grass was going crazy.  It was.  I'll catch up by tomorrow at the latest, as I've vowed not to take any trips tomorrow.  A month ago, I was worried that the dry spring was going mean a poor season for wildflower photography.  Well, there might be fewer total flowers blooming, and conditions are definitely dry.  I have to look a little harder, but there is still plenty of excitement.  Text tomorrow.

I'm back, Monday night, 7:58 and fading fast.  Saw several new species on this trip, so the research is taking some time.  Here's some narrative for Part 3.  The top photo was taken by a beautiful waterfall coming down a cliff facing North so it was a cool, damp place with lots of interesting flowers and mosses.  The top photo here is Five-finger Fern,  Adiantum aleuticum.  It pretty much covered the cliff on both sides of the waterfall.  Lots of leaves of the Waterfall Buttercup mixed in, the flowers having bloomed probably a month ago.

This next little white one might be a species of Linanthes, the genus of Meadow Foam, but I'm very unsure about it.  Will keep looking.

I took two photos of this big Banana Slug.  I didn't notice the seed from a California Buckeye in the upper right corner until I put the photo on my computer screen.  Then I decided I rather like the composition with the nut and my fingers for scale.

This is a Mimuus, most species of which are called Monkeyflowers.  This one, I believe, is Mimulus moschatus, and is commonly known as Muskflower.  Formerly in the Family Scrophulariaceae, it is now placed in the Family Phrymaceae.  To me, it's still a Monkeyflower.

This next patch of brownish stuff may be a Liverwort or a Fungus, I'm not sure.  Very rubbery and  the gill-like structures on the underside make it look like a flattened fungus.

Some of the more prominent color in all this greenery by the waterfall was from the Sierra Stonecrop, Sedum obtusatum. 

This next one was a mystery to me until my friend Spencer ID-ed it for me.  A first for me, it's Naked Broomrape.  Last year I saw the Clustered Broomrape near Oakland Camp, but this blue one looked like a Monkeyflower or a Porterella, so I was stumped.  The Family Orobanchaceae is closely related to the Scrophulariaceae, so it's not surprising that it looks like Snapdragons.

I labelled this one "unknown" but I'm beginning to think it might be Allophyllum integrifolium.  At first glance the flower reminded my of Nicotiniana, but ..... we'll see.  It was growing in moist area among the the other moist habitat species in this post.

Thimbleberry abundant along most of Highway 49.  THere will be some great berry picking here soon, at least for the birds.  Thimbleberry is Rubus parviflorus in the rose family.

Bleeding Heart, Dicentra formosa, in the Poppy family, Papaveraceae, is common in the damp, shady areas along this stretch of highway 49.

Next up is a set from the North San Juan area.