slatsz' wildflower walks 2012 #3: October 14, 2012

Out about an hour, 73 images, 31 keepers.

I was sure the tall sagebrush would be in full bloom. It was not. But there were more blossoms.

I didn’t bother with a ‘plant’ photo of Artemisia tridentata. I did a plant photo of the smaller sagebrush.

There are small changes to be seen in the blossoms of the tall sage brush. I need help understanding them.

I have supposed that the smaller sagebrush plant was simply a young one from the tall sage brush but I decided to look for blossoms on it.

The branch I took from the small plant had a slightly different look than the branches from the tall sagebrush, it was a bit more open.

When I got the images into the computer I saw that the small sagebrush has a considerable amount of red in the blossoms and the tall sage brush had little.

The surface texture was different, as well.

I was a little short of sleep and my legs were weaker than they should have been.

I drove to the fireplug on Euclid, partly in the hope that Grant would see my car and come out if he was in Spokane. I wanted to return his knee-pads.

My only objective of the day after working the sagebrush was to finish photographing the shrub-mounds near north pond to help me with identification next year when the shrubs are leafing out. I needed three more mounds.

Most of the shrubs in the park, not counting those in ‘import corner’ are on natural mounds that may have been created by freezing and thawing thousands of years ago, during the glacial age

Grant thinks the broken rock surrounding many of them indicates an origin for the mounds in the shaking of earth quakes.

Are they or are they not mima mounds?

I don’t know how long it has been since we have had measurable rain. A very long time.

Showers were predicted for that day. It was rather dark with heavy overcast but there were no rain drops.

I attempted some cloud photos with little success.

The maple leaves on the east side of tall pine grove were just beginning to yellow their edges. I think I have seen the photo I took of the leaves somewhere in the past. A photo of one of the famous photographers of long ago, some one from the f64 club. Maybe Edward Weston. No. This photo was in color. Maybe it was late Ansel Adams when he was pimping the color Polaroid.

I wanted to identify the shrubs from their leaves but the leaves were usually curled up … and I was out of patience with the project by that time.

I had picked up one leaf in the hope that I would remember what it belonged to. I didn’t remember but I photographed the leaf anyway just because I enjoyed looking at it.