Bucks Creek Loop

We headed out on the Mill Creek Trail in hopes of finding Monkshood and Camas, but found neither.  I thought it must be too dry, although they usually survive the gradual drying of summer.  At least the Monkshood does. After lunch, we tried the Bucks Creek Loop, and I found the largest crop of Monkshood I've ever seen.  Some were in the sun and others in the shade, and their color varied somewhat from place to place, but they generally looked very healthy.  I'm still puzzled about why there were none on the Mill Creek Trail.  I didn't get to talk with anyone who lives up there, but i suspect the Camas bloomed much earlier and was already wilted and gone to seed. 

The most impressive show of yellow on the Bucks Creek Loop was the Single-stemmed Groundsel.  This is a common roadside weed in lots of places and is often found with its close relative, the Goldenrod.  They're both in the Family Asteraceae, the asters, sunflowers, daisies, and the like.

A most intriguing plant along the trail is the Dodder.  It is a bright orange and at first glance it appears to be a dead vine of some sort.  It is wrapped around all the green vegetation it can reach, much like other twining vines such as the Orchard Morning Glory, AKA Bindweed.  It so happens that Dodder is in the Morning Glory family, Convolvulaceae, but it is a parasite.  It produces tiny white flowers, but they are not very noticeable.

At the half way point, in an open meadow, we came across a large patch of Dusky Horkelia, a plant I've only seen in one other place, Old highway on the way to the Keddie Cascades Trail.  I took several photos here, but my favorite was the one with a small green grasshopper resting on the flowers.

There was quite a bit of Slender Cinquefoil along this trail.  Around the Quincy roadsides the more common species is the Sticky Cinquefoil.  They have nearly identical flowers, but quite different leaves.  The leaves of this one resemble those of Cannabis.

I think my favorite flowering plant on this trail was the Rangers' Buttons.  I took lots of pictures of it, trying out different lighting and surveying the great variety of visiting bugs.

This second photo shows the plant in relation to the trail.  The Rangers' Buttons were mostly between three and six feet tall.

The prominent beetle in the center of this one is the Dimorphic Longhorn Beetle.  A female.  The male is smaller and entirely black, but I couldn't find any males.  Last summer at Oakland Camp I found these mating on Brewer's Angelica.

It's always fun to find orchids in the woods.  Most species like the Coralroots and Lady's Slippers have already wilted and gone to see, but the Rein Orchis tends to last through most of the summer in wet areas.  We saw a fair amount of it in the wet areas along this trail.

 

I'm finishing this series with three photos of flowers I haven't yet been able to identify.  I might be back later with results.