Sunday, February 20, 2011




I haven't spotted a saxifrage in a very long time, actually not since March 14, 2009 at Fort Ord. The blurry second pic with my hand is to show just how tiny these flowers are and why they can be easily overlooked. Indeed, this was one flower that was not included in the Garland Ranch Visitor Center's current blooms display, despite the fact they were feet away from the only spot of Padres' shootingstars we saw during this hike. The shootingstars were also mentioned to us from a friend we ran into who regularly volunteers at Garland - Hi, Andy! - not my Andy, but a female Andy. I love the delicate combination of salmon colored anthers of the California saxifrage with the bright green ovaries (they look like they're split in two) and enveloped in white petal folds. Can you tell I've been refreshing my memory on flower parts?

2 comments:

phyte club katie said...

Pistil Packin' Mama! Someday I'm going to use this to title a blog post, but one of my botanical teachers said this is the only way she ever remembered that the pistil is the female part.
I don't think I'd ever seen this flower. Thanks for sharing, as always....

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Hi Katie. That would be a great post title. I've also seen pistil called the carpel. Do you know anything about the 2 part pistil? If you click on my March 14 photograph, the stigma and style stay white as the flower ages.