Late Start to 2023 Botanizing
While the center yellow lines were painted by a road crew, Mother Nature created the line along the edge of the road with a bright yellow ribbon of gold stars. They are also sprinkled all over the cliffs along Hills Creek Reservoir.
A little rove beetle(?) has gotten completely covered with pollen from the tiny flowers of skunk cabbage (Lysichiton americanus).
I almost always start my botanizing year with a trip in March to the Rigdon area in southeastern Lane County. With the cold, wet weather of March and April and the lateness of the wildflower emergence, I didn’t get out there until April 26! As I suspected, the wet spring was ideal for gold stars (Crocidium multicaule), and most everything was at least 3 weeks later than usual. Here are a few highlights.
Glaucous spring beauty (Claytonia exigua ssp. glauca) is a diminutive, early annual. While I usually see it on mossy rocks, this population grows in a mound of dirt in the ditch below the cliffs.
After being mistakenly cut down several years ago, the Fremont’s silktassel (Garrya fremontii) by the bridge at Hills Creek Reservoir has at long last recovered enough to put its energy into flowers! A dioecious species, this one is a male with longer tassels.
The skunk cabbage swamp hidden behind Everage Flat Picnic Area was one of the highlights of the day. The flowers were fresh and fragrant, and the leaves hadn’t yet started to give off the skunky odor they are known for.
California mistmaiden (Romanzoffia californica) is distinguished by its hairy, tuber-like bases. The little axillary bulbils that are typically present in this area also show the hairy bases. They drop off and form large colonies in the right spot, usually cliffs or rocky slopes.
This wasp enjoyed the little flowers of California mistmaiden. There were also small bees visiting some of the gold star flowers. I was disappointed to see only a few butterflies (a red admiral, a propertius duskywing, and a handful of California tortoiseshells), but as I’d only seen one butterfly so far this year and just a few days before, it was great to see any. I can’t wait for more of them to emerge from their various stages of overwintering.
The rocky bluff next to the Sacandaga Campground was also covered with gold stars.