I tried writing to you via the “email” address…didn’t work!! I WOULD love to get to go to the NPSO meeting!! Great photos…good to see mark Turner there…Lovely HIKE!! Wish we could get together… I so Appreciate you…and loved your art too!!! Happy end of June…rain today…we hope…a little drizzle…nice cool days
Turns out the black stuff isn’t pollen. It’s from a smut fungus called Microbotryum nelsonianum that infects the plant and releases its own black spores instead of pollen when the anthers dehisce.
Hi Tanya,
A great post! I love the way you combine the botanical aspects of a site with the invertebrate ecology. Your depth knowledge of both is impressive. Such a pleasure to learn from someone who deeply understands those interconnections. I wish someone was doing this for our sage steppe in Oregon.
Best,
Stu
In Montana we refer to Indian Paint Brush as Indian Paint Brush. Not referred to as Harsh Paintbrush. Other information and references were good and enjoyable.
WOW!!! What a wonderful selection a beautiful photos… Love them all…great hike… wish i had been with you, two, too!!! Hope all your future hikes are as wonderful as this one was… Ain’t MOM NATURE GRAND!!!
I reported the Heuchera to the Flora of Oregon project website back when Bob Ross had sent me a photo he’d taken on the chimney-like rocks on Iron Mtn., and I identified it as the northernmost known locality. We have no OSU collections of it from Iron because it’s not in Bob’s and Henny’s book. It will be in my Saxifrageae treatment in Vol. 3 of the Flora.
We are seeing huge amounts of dying and dead Douglas Fir…and Ponderosa…all dying after the rainy season…so the possiblities include various beetle, drought and maybe a fungus… Your photos and your posts are so wonderful…I am enjoying these so much… Wish I could’ve gone with you…but we’ve been very busy in our HALF ACRE…LOL!! Another rock outcropping almost finished and planting it as we go…I sure hope we can get you here someday…so many things I’d love to ask you…
HI!! WOW!!! Checker spots..EGADS!! So many!! Thousands ( well maybe thirty) on our thyme… Little guys chasing the BIG girls!!! On that wonderful MOTH…I caught a photo of this years ago and called it a Bumblebee MOTH…LOL!! Well…you can se why…Didn’t see any again until this summer when I had TWO chasing each other…NO…I didn’t get a photo..BUt yours is perfect!! Now I’ve got to go back and read the rest!! Hugs to you//Fabulous!!!
Love the hummingbird moth photo/video! Two times I’ve been witness to their presence in our garden, both at dusk on a summer evening, as a moth entered an open day lily, disappeared into it then emerged again felt like being touched by magic!
OH!! GOODY!! more wonderful photos!! What a great place to hike…and I took a picture of your “crevice” garden…sincde so many people are trying to emulate this wonderful natural -type rock garden…MOM NATURE always does it best!! Thank you for another wonderful trip!!…stay cool!!
So glad you are interested in all our insects as well as the incredible wild plants that we both love!! A BIG thanks to Neil!! What a delight having wonderful people who care enough to know what we are watching..and LOVING!! I’ve even become enamored with my tachnid flies…crazy HUH!! Beautiful photos…
THANK YOU..Let;
s get togather!! I wouldg learn so much from you!!
Last saturday…sat with Kathy Allen and Gail…Kathy said this was her last yera…and then she said…she’ll saty open as long as she’s offering her wonderful plants…Wish you were here… “Flat” fire smoking up the Rogue valley
Thank you!! I’m so glad our “brief” forest fires haven’t stopped you…Love that wonderful Ichneumonid wasp..great photos…a BIT of Springtime still…we all need it.. Wish my Xerophytum tenax would bloom like that…Our Delphiniums did not appear in our meadow this year..I wonder why ( D. menzies I believe). I was planning on gathering seed too..
THANK YOU!!! Another wonderful treat!!! The fires are abysmal!! (spelling?)..Thank you for more great photos and PROPER ID…Now to memorize!!! STAY SAFE…Breathe CLEAN!!
Just lovely…and EXCITING…a cougar!!! (Puma concolor..that one i know..raeding Craig Childs wonderful boks right now..and his experience with various wildlife,,great reads!) Beautiful photos…I’d love to see a book by you!!! It would be thrilling…and uplifting.. and on that note ..I am writing a book about creating boulders from scratch to make large outcroppings for our rock garden. Hope I’ll get it together to publish..
I’m so grateful for all these beautiful and incredible trips you are sharing with me… Stay cool…don’t breathe the smoke…
Looks like another great trip! I read them all, and enjoy your writing, photographs and comments. Thank you so much!
Your Carex limosa posting reminded me of one of the few pieces I have ever written: https://www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis16/newhouse.pdf
Hope the fires stay well away from your abode.
Best, Bruce
Great article, Bruce! It’s one of my favorite sedges, too, both for its delicate beauty and its wonderful bog/poor fen habitat. Mud sedge doesn’t do it justice.
Good news on the fire front. Yesterday, they lowered the evacuation levels on the Bedrock Fire, so they seem to finally have a handle on it. I can breathe a sigh of relief—even if I can’t breathe clean air yet! Unfortunately, the recent thunderstorms started some fires in the Calapooyas near some of my favorite places. Fingers crossed we actually get the rain they’re predicting this week!
Wonderful report today!
Chock full of interesting info, both vegetable and
arthropodal, plus exciting automotive and bouldering apprehensions
which were fortunately unrealized. Thank you!
Glad you had a successful outing despite the stress of having to drive on a narrow, gravel road with a steep drop-off that most likely would not have bothered us when we were younger.
I’m so glad the fire didn’t get close to your house. I can imagine the anxiety but you are so much braver than most of us! That sweet bedstraw plant. What a fun mystery to solve. I have lots of Coyote mint in my garden and never thought to check for sphinx moths. I did see one nectaring on one of Clerodendrum bungei flowers. Usually they appear at dusk or after dark which makes it a challenge.
I have never seen “Dodder” here in Oregon and the last time I saw it was hiking in Southern California below the San Bernardino mountains…how and when did it get here??
Wonderful photos as usual..Thank you… On the “white” creature in your photo…i think they were brought in by these ants too…not a beetle larva…I think.. I believe this is another “cow” for the ants…Ants are amazing!! Wracking my brain for name of this critter…Common name “mealybug”…often people growing houseplants will find this sap sucker on indoor grown plants.. sorry..no latin name…but I’ll search.. The fires are still with us.. but the “Flat” fire is theoretically 70% + under control.. We’re cleaniing our nearby forest as much as we can..I hate removing small trees..but it’s become necessary here on our land..
THANK YOU!! looking forward to your next wonderful adventure!! Rain soon???
This is so strange. I just heard about, and saw photos of Dodder yesterday on my gardening app. Someone had it in a raised bed and it had completely entangled a fairly large basil plant. The commenters were telling the person to pull the entire plant and put it in a plastic bag, then dig the dirt out of the bed and get rid of it as well. It sounds awful, I hope I never see it on our property!
OregonFlora considers 10 species of dodder (Cuscuta spp.) to be established in Oregon. While 2 are non-native, the other 8 species are native to the state. While I imagine having it in one’s garden would be a problem, the native species have their place in the ecosystem.
In answer to Leigh’s question about the fuzzy larvae, I thought they were mealybugs at first, too, and thought it ought to find them in a wild place like that. But mealybugs have longer protrusions on their sides. Check out this page on BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1293987. Larvae of some species of ladybugs are referred to as mealybug destroyers. The ones at Patterson may not be that species, but I suspect they are related.
Yes, I do hope we get more rain soon—nothing in the forecast here. That last rain was a godsend, but it wasn’t enough to end fire season. Glad you’re getting forest “cleaning” done as well, Leigh. Stay safe!
Dang. I’m sorry you got stung. I hope it healed quickly. Thank you for the ID on the Holodiscus. I was at Riverbend Campground (Linn County) earlier this week. I photographed a gorgeous red-leaved mystery plant and your photo confirmed its identity! I’m curious if you’ve ever run across any Big Foot signs. Are you a believer?
COOL!!! so glad you got up there..Love the caterpillar…maybe thinking to make a cocoon up high to avoid a flood??? LOLOLOL!! Probably not…but confused where to hide… Great photos…love the Sorbus and GENTIANS!!! WOW!! Those seeds are terrific..seed I had from G. sino-ornata…were microscopic…sent from Czech Republic.. I have joined the Native Plant Society.(YAY)..missed the plant sale…drat…
Wish I had been with you both for this wonderful exploration…so grateful for rains… Would love to collect seed here…I’m hoping to get cuttings from Ceanothus
pumilus near Butte falls on Thursday…I wish I could find Vaccinum deliciosa…so many plants I would love in this garden of ours… I got narcissus bulbicdium bulbs from Illahe Nursery…so much to do..so much FUN
Many Hugs!! PS…I’m attempting to write a book about designing a rock garden constructing our own outcroppings… HAVE FUN!!! THANK YOU!!
A great hike!!! Those cuttings you took with the well rooted stems for your Gentiana setigera would’ve been wonderful in the garden..Beautiful!!
I grow Ribes lobbii in my garden that I had transplanted from another place on our property….and it’s always the first bloomer in the spring…leafs out before Oelmeria here.
Kathy Allen says this is her last year…we shall miss her great offerings…We need more people who can propagate these needed natives here in Oregon.
Thank you!! Great hike!..so grateful you got into this wonderful area. I would love to grow Gautheria humifusa …I’m adding as many high country natives as I can. I’ve lost your email address… Kathy Allen has now closed down for her last year…So Siskiyou Chapter is going to be growing plants at baldassre’s… I have seed coming too..so I’m propagating. I just collected Ceanothus pumilus cuttings from two areas..they look good..air layer rooted… I have been in contact…briefly…with Mark Akimoff… great stuff!! Our garden is growing LOLOL!! Hope to get you down here someday!!
THANK YOU AGAIN for wonderful hike…Love our wasps never fun to get stung…
The hole that Dave Predeek was standing in front of, “near Lopez Lake,” is very likely the product of an unsuccessful (and poorly reported) attempt to create water features in wetlands by using dynamite. Yes, dynamite! The idea was that the hole would develop a good wetland edge and improve diversity. My info on this is buried in notes 30 years ago, so I can’t confirm if this was one of the sites.
Once upon a time my family rescued a bunch of stranded toad tadpoles near a river in Ecuador. :)
What a gorgeous moth! Lovely greens….
Hi Tanya!!!
I tried writing to you via the “email” address…didn’t work!! I WOULD love to get to go to the NPSO meeting!! Great photos…good to see mark Turner there…Lovely HIKE!! Wish we could get together… I so Appreciate you…and loved your art too!!! Happy end of June…rain today…we hope…a little drizzle…nice cool days
many hugs!! Leigh
Turns out the black stuff isn’t pollen. It’s from a smut fungus called Microbotryum nelsonianum that infects the plant and releases its own black spores instead of pollen when the anthers dehisce.
Hi Tanya,
A great post! I love the way you combine the botanical aspects of a site with the invertebrate ecology. Your depth knowledge of both is impressive. Such a pleasure to learn from someone who deeply understands those interconnections. I wish someone was doing this for our sage steppe in Oregon.
Best,
Stu
In Montana we refer to Indian Paint Brush as Indian Paint Brush. Not referred to as Harsh Paintbrush. Other information and references were good and enjoyable.
WOW!!! What a wonderful selection a beautiful photos… Love them all…great hike… wish i had been with you, two, too!!! Hope all your future hikes are as wonderful as this one was… Ain’t MOM NATURE GRAND!!!
Hugs..Leigh
Hi Tanya,
I reported the Heuchera to the Flora of Oregon project website back when Bob Ross had sent me a photo he’d taken on the chimney-like rocks on Iron Mtn., and I identified it as the northernmost known locality. We have no OSU collections of it from Iron because it’s not in Bob’s and Henny’s book. It will be in my Saxifrageae treatment in Vol. 3 of the Flora.
Ken
OH GOSH!!!
We are seeing huge amounts of dying and dead Douglas Fir…and Ponderosa…all dying after the rainy season…so the possiblities include various beetle, drought and maybe a fungus… Your photos and your posts are so wonderful…I am enjoying these so much… Wish I could’ve gone with you…but we’ve been very busy in our HALF ACRE…LOL!! Another rock outcropping almost finished and planting it as we go…I sure hope we can get you here someday…so many things I’d love to ask you…
THANK YOU for this wonderful trip!! Many HUGS!!
Leigh
Great moth video!
Stu
I love the video. Hummingbird moth! What an exquisite little creature, was not even aware if it’s existence. Thanks!
HI!! WOW!!! Checker spots..EGADS!! So many!! Thousands ( well maybe thirty) on our thyme… Little guys chasing the BIG girls!!! On that wonderful MOTH…I caught a photo of this years ago and called it a Bumblebee MOTH…LOL!! Well…you can se why…Didn’t see any again until this summer when I had TWO chasing each other…NO…I didn’t get a photo..BUt yours is perfect!! Now I’ve got to go back and read the rest!! Hugs to you//Fabulous!!!
It’s always such a treat to read about your adventures. Please keep them coming! I can see why you love the bramble green hairstreaks.
Hi Tanya! Your frit at the top of the page is Northwestern Fritillary (now has a newer name also). The grass skipper is a Western Branded Skipper.
Love the hummingbird moth photo/video! Two times I’ve been witness to their presence in our garden, both at dusk on a summer evening, as a moth entered an open day lily, disappeared into it then emerged again felt like being touched by magic!
OH!! GOODY!! more wonderful photos!! What a great place to hike…and I took a picture of your “crevice” garden…sincde so many people are trying to emulate this wonderful natural -type rock garden…MOM NATURE always does it best!! Thank you for another wonderful trip!!…stay cool!!
OH!! AGAIN!!! YUM!!!
So glad you are interested in all our insects as well as the incredible wild plants that we both love!! A BIG thanks to Neil!! What a delight having wonderful people who care enough to know what we are watching..and LOVING!! I’ve even become enamored with my tachnid flies…crazy HUH!! Beautiful photos…
THANK YOU..Let;
s get togather!! I wouldg learn so much from you!!
Last saturday…sat with Kathy Allen and Gail…Kathy said this was her last yera…and then she said…she’ll saty open as long as she’s offering her wonderful plants…Wish you were here… “Flat” fire smoking up the Rogue valley
HUGS!!
Leigh
Thank you!! I’m so glad our “brief” forest fires haven’t stopped you…Love that wonderful Ichneumonid wasp..great photos…a BIT of Springtime still…we all need it.. Wish my Xerophytum tenax would bloom like that…Our Delphiniums did not appear in our meadow this year..I wonder why ( D. menzies I believe). I was planning on gathering seed too..
Thank you for great blog!! All wonderful photos…
Caterpillars recorded as eating Delphinium spp. include:
Noctuidae: Darker-spotted Straw Moth (Heliothis phloxiphaga). Stephen’s Gem (Megalographa biloba).
Thanks for the moth ID, Jeff. It does resemble the caterpillars of Heliothis on BugGuide.
THANK YOU!!! Another wonderful treat!!! The fires are abysmal!! (spelling?)..Thank you for more great photos and PROPER ID…Now to memorize!!! STAY SAFE…Breathe CLEAN!!
Many hugs
Thanks for your pictures and relating your day. I love it. Pretty exciting to see a cougar. And good it wasn’t near where you would be with the dogs.
Just lovely…and EXCITING…a cougar!!! (Puma concolor..that one i know..raeding Craig Childs wonderful boks right now..and his experience with various wildlife,,great reads!) Beautiful photos…I’d love to see a book by you!!! It would be thrilling…and uplifting.. and on that note ..I am writing a book about creating boulders from scratch to make large outcroppings for our rock garden. Hope I’ll get it together to publish..
I’m so grateful for all these beautiful and incredible trips you are sharing with me… Stay cool…don’t breathe the smoke…
Many hugs!!, Leigh
Looks like another great trip! I read them all, and enjoy your writing, photographs and comments. Thank you so much!
Your Carex limosa posting reminded me of one of the few pieces I have ever written:
https://www.npsoregon.org/kalmiopsis/kalmiopsis16/newhouse.pdf
Hope the fires stay well away from your abode.
Best, Bruce
Great article, Bruce! It’s one of my favorite sedges, too, both for its delicate beauty and its wonderful bog/poor fen habitat. Mud sedge doesn’t do it justice.
Good news on the fire front. Yesterday, they lowered the evacuation levels on the Bedrock Fire, so they seem to finally have a handle on it. I can breathe a sigh of relief—even if I can’t breathe clean air yet! Unfortunately, the recent thunderstorms started some fires in the Calapooyas near some of my favorite places. Fingers crossed we actually get the rain they’re predicting this week!
Wonderful report today!
Chock full of interesting info, both vegetable and
arthropodal, plus exciting automotive and bouldering apprehensions
which were fortunately unrealized. Thank you!
Glad you had a successful outing despite the stress of having to drive on a narrow, gravel road with a steep drop-off that most likely would not have bothered us when we were younger.
I’m so glad the fire didn’t get close to your house. I can imagine the anxiety but you are so much braver than most of us! That sweet bedstraw plant. What a fun mystery to solve. I have lots of Coyote mint in my garden and never thought to check for sphinx moths. I did see one nectaring on one of Clerodendrum bungei flowers. Usually they appear at dusk or after dark which makes it a challenge.
Thank you!!
I have never seen “Dodder” here in Oregon and the last time I saw it was hiking in Southern California below the San Bernardino mountains…how and when did it get here??
Wonderful photos as usual..Thank you… On the “white” creature in your photo…i think they were brought in by these ants too…not a beetle larva…I think.. I believe this is another “cow” for the ants…Ants are amazing!! Wracking my brain for name of this critter…Common name “mealybug”…often people growing houseplants will find this sap sucker on indoor grown plants.. sorry..no latin name…but I’ll search.. The fires are still with us.. but the “Flat” fire is theoretically 70% + under control.. We’re cleaniing our nearby forest as much as we can..I hate removing small trees..but it’s become necessary here on our land..
THANK YOU!! looking forward to your next wonderful adventure!! Rain soon???
This is so strange. I just heard about, and saw photos of Dodder yesterday on my gardening app. Someone had it in a raised bed and it had completely entangled a fairly large basil plant. The commenters were telling the person to pull the entire plant and put it in a plastic bag, then dig the dirt out of the bed and get rid of it as well. It sounds awful, I hope I never see it on our property!
OregonFlora considers 10 species of dodder (Cuscuta spp.) to be established in Oregon. While 2 are non-native, the other 8 species are native to the state. While I imagine having it in one’s garden would be a problem, the native species have their place in the ecosystem.
In answer to Leigh’s question about the fuzzy larvae, I thought they were mealybugs at first, too, and thought it ought to find them in a wild place like that. But mealybugs have longer protrusions on their sides. Check out this page on BugGuide: https://bugguide.net/node/view/1293987. Larvae of some species of ladybugs are referred to as mealybug destroyers. The ones at Patterson may not be that species, but I suspect they are related.
Yes, I do hope we get more rain soon—nothing in the forecast here. That last rain was a godsend, but it wasn’t enough to end fire season. Glad you’re getting forest “cleaning” done as well, Leigh. Stay safe!
Wonderful…lovely and we all love green at this time of the year..I love seeing water too..
Thanks for beautiful photos…We’re working to finish up the pond we started, five years ago…Need to see water in the garden…
Have a glorious hike again soon!! Thinking of you!!
Dang. I’m sorry you got stung. I hope it healed quickly. Thank you for the ID on the Holodiscus. I was at Riverbend Campground (Linn County) earlier this week. I photographed a gorgeous red-leaved mystery plant and your photo confirmed its identity! I’m curious if you’ve ever run across any Big Foot signs. Are you a believer?
COOL!!! so glad you got up there..Love the caterpillar…maybe thinking to make a cocoon up high to avoid a flood??? LOLOLOL!! Probably not…but confused where to hide… Great photos…love the Sorbus and GENTIANS!!! WOW!! Those seeds are terrific..seed I had from G. sino-ornata…were microscopic…sent from Czech Republic.. I have joined the Native Plant Society.(YAY)..missed the plant sale…drat…
Wish I had been with you both for this wonderful exploration…so grateful for rains… Would love to collect seed here…I’m hoping to get cuttings from Ceanothus
pumilus near Butte falls on Thursday…I wish I could find Vaccinum deliciosa…so many plants I would love in this garden of ours… I got narcissus bulbicdium bulbs from Illahe Nursery…so much to do..so much FUN
Many Hugs!! PS…I’m attempting to write a book about designing a rock garden constructing our own outcroppings… HAVE FUN!!! THANK YOU!!
Some time I’d like to get together with you and plot a selection of the wetlands you have discovered for future moss and liverwort hunting.
Yes Dave, let’s do that!
A great hike!!! Those cuttings you took with the well rooted stems for your Gentiana setigera would’ve been wonderful in the garden..Beautiful!!
I grow Ribes lobbii in my garden that I had transplanted from another place on our property….and it’s always the first bloomer in the spring…leafs out before Oelmeria here.
Kathy Allen says this is her last year…we shall miss her great offerings…We need more people who can propagate these needed natives here in Oregon.
Great Hike…I already said that…THANK YOU!!
Thank you!! Great hike!..so grateful you got into this wonderful area. I would love to grow Gautheria humifusa …I’m adding as many high country natives as I can. I’ve lost your email address… Kathy Allen has now closed down for her last year…So Siskiyou Chapter is going to be growing plants at baldassre’s… I have seed coming too..so I’m propagating. I just collected Ceanothus pumilus cuttings from two areas..they look good..air layer rooted… I have been in contact…briefly…with Mark Akimoff… great stuff!! Our garden is growing LOLOL!! Hope to get you down here someday!!
THANK YOU AGAIN for wonderful hike…Love our wasps never fun to get stung…
The hole that Dave Predeek was standing in front of, “near Lopez Lake,” is very likely the product of an unsuccessful (and poorly reported) attempt to create water features in wetlands by using dynamite. Yes, dynamite! The idea was that the hole would develop a good wetland edge and improve diversity. My info on this is buried in notes 30 years ago, so I can’t confirm if this was one of the sites.