fallow deer ~ 07/19/12 ~ Mt. Madonna

white (aka leucistic) fallow deer

Dama dama

Hey, I thought these deer were separated to prevent breeding. The perimeter fencing is impossibly tall topped with electric wires to keep mountain lions out, but the gate separating the males from the females is not as tall and potentially jumpable. We only spotted one male's large horns in the distance, but in the past we've seen at least a couple young males. I wonder if the County Parks moves males around to keep the herd going for display. These two fawns were not twins and followed different mothers.

dwarf brodiaea ~ 05/11/12 ~ Fort Ord

dwarf brodiaea
Brodiaea terrestris ssp. terrestris
2011 online Jepson description
Themidaceae (aka Asparagaceae and formerly Liliaceae)

This was my favorite flower from the entire excursion (even though I keep spelling it incorrectly). It was everywhere in the Butterfly Valley vernal pool. I've seen it before, but never knew what it was. The pic with my finger is to show how tiny and close to the ground these beautiful flowers grow. And of course, I had to include one of the several white versions I found, which I pointed out to several students. One fellow who is into plant genetics said that the white versions of flowers are due to a gene being knocked out (don't really know how that happens, and I didn't hear the rest of his explanation).

For the ssp., I'm using the printed list that David Styer passed around. I'm also now including the new 2011 Jepson online descriptions in my IDs, even though it's linked from my usual embedded links to Calflora.org in the scientific plant names. Plus, as I go through plants, I'll be changing all the family names to the 2011 Jepson version, versus the APG versions that are often used on Wikipedia. Jepson seems to be the bible of CA plants for CNPS.

ps 05/21/12 - As Graeme of Imperfect and tense asked in the comments, the even tinier, white Primula-looking sp. growing with the dwarf brodiaea is Hickman's popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys chorisianus var. hickmanii) in Boraginaceae. Click here to see my other popcorn flower posts.

elegant clarkia ~ 07/14/11 ~ Garland Ranch

elegant clarkia

Clarkia unguiculata
Onagraceae

I like virtually collecting white versions whenever I find them.

statice ~ 06/30/11 ~ Fort Ord

statice
Limonium sinuatum
Plumbaginaceae

I usually think of statice as the standard cheap grocery store bouquet filler. I prefer seeing small patches of it growing out in the wild. It's considered a garden escapee, which is a funny term. One can envision little plants waiting until nightfall to execute their break over the fence from manicured life. No one seems to agree on its origins, from the Canary Islands, the Mediterranean, Europe, and/or Asia. This plant is also called sea-lavender, but I'd prefer to reserve that name for the native Limonium californicum, which I've seen blooming down in Morro Bay (sorry, no pics, yet).

CA poppy ~ 05/14/11 ~ Marina City

California poppy
Eschscholzia californica ssp. californica
Papaveraceae

This is the first time I've ever seen creamy-white variants of the California poppy... and it was in a shopping center parking lot in only one spot out of numerous flower beds filled with solid orange poppies. Wikipedia and several Flickr photos call this an albino. Can plants be considered albino? I thought the term only applied to animals, but I could be wrong.

I like how these photos also feature the red ring that distinguishes this poppy from others. Usually I have to turn the flower over to look for the red ring at the base. And, yes, I do check, because there are around 6 species of Eschscholzia in the area. Shown above, the red rings are still attached to the developing seed pods.

baby blue eyes
Nemophila menziesii var. atomaria
Boraginaceae (formerly Hydrophyllaceae)

I asked Andy to stop the car as we were heading down from Fremont Peak so that I could get a closer look at the huge patches of white flowers on the side of the road. I love the detail in the petals. I wonder what it would look like under UV light. I totally did not notice these flowers going into the park, but as Carol LeNeve from CNPS pointed out to me, it matters which direction you're driving to notice many flowers. As an aside, I'm still looking for a wildflower book that can help identify roadside flowers going at 55 m.p.h. Hey, it's not always easy or convenient to stop the car to get a closer look.

This is another first flower sighting for me... I've never noticed the white version of baby blues eyes before. To be quite honest, I'm making an assumption about the variety here based on pictures of white blooms on CalPhotos (linked in the common name below the pictures). I have not found any plant list to double-check this variety. Calflora and Jepson do not show this variety as occurring in San Benito County. Even though Fremont Peak borders both San Benito and Monterey counties, these two floral resources seem to consider Fremont Peak as being in San Benito County.

I'm taking my cue from James of Lost in the Landscape, whose recent comment reminded me about not allowing distribution data to blind me from recognizing rarer plants. This is in stark contrast to how some people are so excited that they've found something so rare and so unusual that they make outlandish ID claims. Generally, my stance on Nature ID is that whatever I manage to find is not too unusual for the area.

shootingstar ~ 01/19/11 ~ Fort Ord

coastal shootingstar

Dodecatheon clevelandii ssp. sanctarum
Primulaceae

Here's my first spring wildflower post for 2011. And, there wasn't just one or two, there was a whole hillside covered in these padre's shootingstars (the common name given to the species as opposed to the subspecies). I've been telling my husband for years that spring essentially starts in mid-January along the Central Coast of California, but he still poo-poos this idea having hailed from colder Washington state and holding firmly to the "traditional" timing of seasons in the northern hemisphere. Who hasn't heard "in like a lion and out like a lamb" as a description for the month of March? Hey, where I live, that's a better description for January!

I'm having trouble getting clear shots of wildflowers with longer, delicate stems, especially when the wind blows almost non-stop around here. I was very disappointed to find most of my pictures were too fuzzy to post. Does anyone have any suggestions, besides picking the flowers and taking them home to photograph in the kitchen, or besides purchasing a spendy new fast-action camera?

ps 01/30/11 - I sometimes use the Fort Ord plant list to confirm my IDs and D. clevelandii ssp. sanctarum is the only Dodecatheon listed. Personally, I would not be able to easily distinguish between the 12 species records listed on Calflora.

fallow deer ~ 12/21/10 ~ Mt. Madonna

white fallow deer
Dama dama

posted 09/03/11 - I want to show how the antlers have grown since our last visit to Mt. Madonna on June 9, 2010.

white fallow deer
Dama dama

Seeing these white deer while camping was a bit of a surprise. I really like the woody pattern on the fuzzy antlers. The females look like large goats to me.

In the 1930's William Randolph Hearst, of the Hearst Castle fame, gave a pair of fallow deer to the Henry Miller Estate, probably for hunting or novelty; these are those descendants. Henry Miller, an extraordinarily successful (and perhaps not very charitable) cattle rancher and an influential figure in California's land use history, built an elaborate summer home complex on Mt. Madonna. This land is now a part of the Santa Clara County Parks.

sky lupine ~ 05/08/10 ~ Fort Ord

sky lupine
Lupinus nanus
Fabaceae

There was a very impressive showing of sky lupine at Fort Ord. Wow! It smelled really nice, according to my hubby since a cold has taken out my sniffer. I liked how they appeared straight down from above; you'd almost never guess what it was. I couldn't believe the white one we found. I wonder how often that happens. CalPhotos has a picture of a white sky lupine, too. It was a challenge to take non-fuzzy flower pictures in the afternoon wind, but the lighting was amazing! These pics make me think of late-summer, due to the low lighting angle, but we all know lupines here in CA are definitely a spring bloomer and the grass turns bright yellow come June. Compare the density of the lupine to last year May 6, 2009 at the same location, and I thought that was the year of the lupine. Nope.

padre's shootingstar
Dodecatheon clevelandii
Primulaceae

I was a little surprised that shootingstar is not listed on CalAcademy's California Wildflowers site. Also, with my recent brouhaha about common names, I found it interesting that my three CA wildflower books at home (Yadon, Lamb, and Munz) call this "padres' shooting star," whereas most online sites state "padre's shootingstar." Needless to say, I don't know enough to identify these to subspecies. I was happy to find the white version.

scrub-jay ~ 06/03/09 ~ at home

white western scrub-jay
Aphelocoma californica

I saw this bird two early mornings before the sun came up around our place. A western scrub-jay was closely following it. It doesn't have the dark wings of a northern mockingbird, but I've never seen a white-colored scrub-jay before, either.

ps 05/18/12 - For the past few months, Andy and I have seen a bird like this one hanging out near Dewey St., Central Ave., and Sloat Ave. It's always being followed by one or two very blue-colored western scrub-jays. I got a close look one evening, and it's definitely a light colored scrub-jay. I would have had a picture, but an EMT friend happened to pull up in her ambulance to say "Hi!" I hope to see both her and the white bird again.

pss 01/20/14 - As I was looking for something else, I came across Don Roberson's 2012 highlights including a leucistic western scrub-jay.  Aha!