western brown elfin on ceanothus
Callophrys augustinus (aka Incisalia augustinus iroides) on Ceanothus sp.
As I was trying to get pictures of the unusual-to-me ceanothus, she flew right into focus and sat there. No nectaring, no laying eggs. Guess she wanted her picture taken. So I did.
Rhamnaceae
Now, back to the ceanothus. Grrr. I'm most familiar with the buck brush found at Pinnacles in San Benito Co., and it happens to be the last place I saw a western brown elfin. C. cuneatus is the only sp. on their plant list, which seems odd to me considering Calflora has 82 records of native Ceanothus spp./var. (some are outdated, but still!). At Pinnacles, the flowers are whiter, the leaves are shinier, and the stems are browner... and there's quite a bit of variation as I just noticed. I think lots of people are confused about Ceanothus ID, myself included, and many online pictures are too inconsistent to be helpful.
OK, I'll admit, there's a part of me just wishing this to be a different
sp. I did drive over 3 hours, up the hills, suppressing awful memories
of childhood car sickness every single time we visited the Sierras (ah, now
I remember why I generally avoid the area like the plague). I want to
find something different, dang it! I tried to convince myself that this is mountain whitethorn (Ceanothus cordulatus). However, it didn't particularly have any thorns, the bushes were taller than me (Jepson eFlora states C. cordulatus is generally < 1.5m), and the leaves are not 3-ribbed from base. Anyone have a better guess? Big bushes like these were blooming everywhere in open sunny areas. It was really stunning.
6 comments:
Did the flowers have a nice smell? I guess most white flowers do have a strong scent (is that true?) but I've smelled white ceanothus that I liked, and some I didn't. My very first encounter with a ceanothus of any sort was when my new husband brought me a branch of white C. from the mountains above Santa Barbara. And I did love that one!
p.s. your elfin guest is such a dear, and your picture ! showing her legs all stripey....
oops, I meant her antennae
Good question, Gretchen. I actually didn't notice a scent on the air, even though it was really warm in the sun. At Pinnacles, I can almost always smell the buck brush before I spot it in bloom.
I don't know if white flowers in particular have a strong scent. I do know some of the feathery spray-like white flower clusters (have no idea which ones) have horrendously offensive smells, so I generally avoid all of them.
Ya, of all the flowers she picks to land? I couldn't have gotten that close if I had tried.
Yes, Ceanothus cuneatus is one of the most common plants in CA. You find it pretty much everywhere except valley bottoms, deserts, beaches, and above about 5k feet in elevation.
C. cordulatus has larger leaves and whiter stems. If you go up a bit in elevation you'll find it. You can also find some of the cool prostrate Ceanothus species around there, such as Ceanothus prostratus and Ceanothus fresnensis.
I saw your return comment on flickr, Ken. Thanks. I uploaded over there what I think may be one of the 2 whitethorns, which was actually found at even lower elevation. Can you take a look? It's funny, I grew up in the Central Valley and now live on the Monterey Peninsula, two places that do not have buck brush. I had no idea how widespread it is.
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