Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Eclipse and blooms in the Sierras

So I went up to the Sierras with some friends to see the annular eclipse this last weekend, and was also pleasantly surprised to see a lot of spring flowers.  First some pics of the eclipse and the weird suncircles that would filter through the leaves of the trees.
And now onto flowers.  The dogwoods were in bloom.  This one was next to our campsite.
 
I've never seen so many fairy lanterns (Calochortus albus) before.  They were scattered all along this trail.
 

More after the jump.



I was even able to capture the full life cycle of the flower (albeit on various plants).
 
 
And here's another from the same family, yellow star-tulip (Calochortus monophyllus).
Here's what I think is sierra checkerbloom (Sidalcea redans) with and without a visitor.
 

And I'm a bit rusty, can anyone ID this one?  [Edit - Thanks to James at Lost in the Landscape for the ID on this one.  Looks like a Triteleia, specifically bridgesii]

3 comments:

  1. I think all the variations in eclipse shadows I'm starting to see are getting to be more interesting than those of the eclipse itself. I really like your annular shirt shadows. Re your mystery plant, could it be Triteleia bridgesii, Bridges' Brodiaea? (http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?enlarge=5208+1611+0247+0020) I'm drawn to the Calochortus species with the fuzzy-looking petals, and your C. monophyllus is a great one. I wish we had it down here!

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  2. It's been a great year for Calcochortus albus here. I'm impressed you found so many with their blooms intact. Here, the ones outside the deer fence tend to get beheaded by the deer as they pass by. The protected ones though put on quite a show. Some day I'd like to try growing them from seed, I have plenty stored. I love the little yellow star tulip, I don't think I've seen one before.

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  3. I like the shadows on the shirt. I feel like the gardeners have been posting photos of leaf shadows while everyone else posted photos of the sun. The shadows were the best part in my opinion.

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