The Morning After, Part III

The Trail Plant, Adenocaulon bicolor, is a hard one to photograph. The intriguing feature to those without a hand lens is the bi-colored leaves, green on top and a kind of blue grey underneath. When walking through a dense cover of them, we tend to cause a certain fraction of them to turn upside down, leaving a trail, so to speak. However, the trail only lasts a few moments, so don't count on
for finding your way back to wherever your hike started.

The feature that is difficult to photograph, at least with the equipment I have, is the tiny flowers.  Each flower, only about 1/8" in diameter, is actually a small cluster of even smaller flowers that are  like miniature daisies, that is, composites.

The Yellow Water Buttercup is an intriguing species of Ranunculus.  The flowers are similar to those of many other buttercup species - yellow and cup-like.  The leaves, however, can vary greatly according to the specific habitat in which they are found. The one above was photographed in what is supposed to be a lawn, but was close enough to a seasonal ditch that there was undoubtedly water close to the surface, even in the current dry condition. Nearby there are many blooming in a ditch where the water is still slowly flowing. The leaves on those are much more sub-divided, more or less resembling ferns.I recommend reading the Wikipedia article on this fascinating species.

Bindweed, Convolvulus arvense, is in the Morning Glory family and, in fact, is usually called Orchard Morning Glory by those who like it. Although treated as an invasive weed, it beautifies many of our roadsides - until the mowers or poison trucks come along.

In many places I visit, the Crimson Columbine, Aquilegia formosa, is having a very good summer, although the one above was a solitary specimen in a large area of dry forest in the FRC camppus.

When I first saw several of these energetic white butterflies hopping from flower to flower by the college parking lot, I thought they were Cabbage Whites, or Pieris rapae, because I see them every day in my front yard only a mile or so from the college. However, the enlarged view on my computer screen convinced me they are Pine Whites, or Neophasia menapia. I don't own a comprehensive butterfly field guide, so I welcome corrections from any Lepidopterists who might be reading this.

My favorite photo experience of the day was watching many Western Tiger Swallowtails flying from blossom to blossom of the California Thistle, Cirsium occidentale.

I finish this three=part series on my short hike following the day I made the  more difficult hike up Spanish Peak. On the nature trail by the FRC campus there is one of the best patches of Sierra Goosberries, Ribes roezlii, that I've ever seen.  Definitely enough for a couple of pies or jars of jam within a 10-yard radius.