Moon Point update
Now to the Moon Point stuff. After the little foray to the Youngs Rock trail I made it to Moon Point. First I went down to the lake and around the lower meadows nearby (I can finally get there without lost!). A few additions were some Psilocarphus, possibly a Rorippa not blooming, a little Plagiobothrys and a bunch of violet leaves which are most likely palustris. These were all in the old pond spots that have now become grassy. Lots of asters and goldenrod and some nice butterflies, but not like in July. One sad discovery was 2 damselflies “caught” by the Silene bernardina. The first one flew off after I released him from his sticky predicament. The other seemed too worn out. He had been stuck both by his feet and his abdomen. Somebody ought to make glue out of that stuff.
The real reason I’m doing a report, though, is that I found something else exciting up on the Point. It continues to amaze me how much stuff is on those rocks, and how I can keep going back and finding things I’ve never seen before. Almost at the top of the viewpoint rock is a Hieracium, which I’m pretty sure is H. greenei. It looks exactly like what I saw at Buck Canyon and Rattlesnake Mtn in the Rogue Umpqua Divide. Some surfaces are very hairy, others more felty, but all very whitish. The seeds are medium to dark brown with the usual fluff.
There was only the one, so I finally decided it was time to look for the other rocks on that side of the mountain. I’d had been looking at the sky peaking through above the meadow and wondered whether there might be more cliff over there. So I scrambled over to the corner where the ridge heads around to a more east-facing aspect and indeed, there are cliffs on the east.
On the way, I discovered 3 more Orobanche pinorum in full bloom. The usual place near the Point had only a few dead stalks. Finally on the top of this corner rock outcrop, I found what I was looking for—more Hieracium. I counted 8 plants with some flowers and 4 more small non-blooming rosettes. I didn’t go out on the point because it gets narrow and has a serious dropoff to the east. To the west, it would be possible to scramble out there safely. Another time.
The cliffs had lots more Heuchera merriamii, Penstomon rupicola, and Luina hypoleuca (still blooming). I definitely want to get back next season to see if there is Castilleja rupicola on those cliffs. I suspect so. I followed the top of cliff peeking out when possible. I was thinking probably no one knew about the cliff, but then I noticed one of the manzanitas I passed to get out to a good viewpoint had a number of branches sawed off. From there, it is only a hundred yards or so through the open woods back to the top of the meadow and down to the trail. A much easier route for next year.