charlie's Favorites

Neither the Illustrated Flora of BC nor the Flora of N. America keys are really clear for this, so it's a bit hard to separate from C. cusickii, but I went with C. prairea due to the prolonged sheaths and the very short ligules.

Generally, you have a large tufted plant with long stems, very long narrow leaves, "coppery" colouring on the mouth of the sheath, drooping branched heads (refer to FNA descriptions, not the key in Ill. Flora of BC, C. prairea does have a branched inflorescence), spikes androgynous, female scales nearly covering the perigynia, peri with a long beak, veined abaxially but not adaxially, achenes "broadly trullate-ovate", etc.

There's just one field photo, it shows habitat and also some of the plants if you zoom to the lower centre part of the photo you can see the arching drooping stems and heads.

For submission to UBC.

Steep granite slope on cliff shelf, Camp Creek. Very uncommon. Only this population in this area was noted adjacent to the third waterfall from the bottom. I believe previously unknown from Yucaipa Ridge.

Help me! I’m not sure what to make of this single tree who I couldn’t get close to. Partly I’m puzzled because this pine grows on the edge of a swampy/fenny little island, and I was using my binoculars from shore. Needles definitely in fascicles and those appear to be in 2’s and twisted and they seem distinctively short, at 1 to at most 2 inches. All cones on the tree are in 2s and 3s a few feet back from the tips, so probably a few years old and pointing forward. There is a pasture history here on the mainland (old barbwire), there are only a handful of scattered invasive plants and the usual hayfield species, but no other pines except white pine found in region. The tree is still small, but the trunks and limbs don’t have the faintest but of red. Pinus banksiana seems pretty unlikely for Vermont, but there can’t seem to come up with anything else. This doesn’t seem to match P. sylvestris well...

This looks like a Jefferson Salamander to me, but I'm not familiar with the Jefferson/Blue-Spotted complex, so perhaps others that are can weigh in on this record. Note the relatively long toes on the rear legs, a characteristic I associate with Jefferson Salamander. Thanks.

shadscale spring parsley, Cymopterus basalticus, Nevada, Snake Range, Black Horse Canyon, Snake Valley drainage, elevation 2090 m (6865 ft).

This odd carrot family member is yet another endemic to the eastern Great Basin of west-central Utah and east-central Nevada.

Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/

desert mariposa, Calochortus kennedyi var. kennedyi, White Mountains, elevation 1705 m (5590 ft).

The very definition of orange to me.

Uploaded from my Flickr site: https://www.flickr.com/photos/127605180@N04/

Cones were very similar to Pinus washoensis, resembling miniature Jeffrey pine cones, but prickles were definitely outcurved, and foliage was yellowish green. Good Pinus jeffreyi is mixed in the same stand.

This appears to be a small, isolated relict stand of these yellow pines, and may be in the process of winking out, although no obvious mortality or disease was noted.

Is it a pale F. biflora or the rarer F. agrestis? randomtruth has a similar looking flower and a similar dilemma (mine seems pretty brown, though...). This was one of many flowers in a patch, most of which were pretty much done flowering or already gone to seed.

Seen in eastern Greenland, south of Ittoqqortoormiit on remote fjord (Romerfjord) within sight of Greenland Ice Cap. Would REALLY like to have iD of the purple striped flower in the photo. The red, I think, must be mountain sorrel.

Lapeirousia pyramidalis

The photo shows the one lone specimen left after the baboons had decimated a largish field of these delightful plants. In the pre-baboon years, I always knew when these plants were flowering because a wave of fragrance wafted down to the house.