Saturday, May 14, 2011

purple owl's-clover ~ 05/14/11 ~ Fort Ord




Orobanchaceae (formerly Scrophulariaceae)

It is with many thanks to Mark Eggar on Flickr with his impressive knowledge and photo collection of Castilleja that I was able to obtain expert ID for the purple owl's clover variety/subspecies. My policy for Nature ID is to never use other people's photos and only quote if I have written permission. Seeing as how I don't have permission from Mark, yet, click on this link to my Flickr post for his comment about why these Castilleja are unusual to ID. As a note, the ongoing 2006 CNPS vascular plant list for Fort Ord (alphabetical) does not include this subspecies.

I could not decide which photo was better, the clearer first one with the non-native foxtail chess (Bromus madritensis ssp. rubens) in Poaceae or the second pic with chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) in Rosaceae, so I posted both. The third pic centers on older C. exserta var./ssp. latifolia with what I believe is white-flowering wedge-leaved horkelia (Horkelia cuneata) in Rosaceae to the top right. The last photo above shows this Castilleja growing among sky lupine (Lupinus nanus) in Fabaceae and non-native sheep sorrel (Rumex acetosella) in Polygonaceae, as well as many other plants. These were found in areas that were burned in 2003, 2008, or 2009.

ps 06/02/11 - I've added additional ID's in the text based on Cindy's comment below.

5 comments:

Cindy said...

I'm guessing the greenery in the second photo is chamise. But I'm really curious about the greenery in the third photo - a potentilla? I've been tied down mowing and pulling thistles at home for the past few weeks, so it is pleasant to see photos of Ft Ord's summer. Thanks for the trips.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Cindy, thanks for the chamise ID. Rather than a Potentilla, I think it might be a Horkelia sp. (click on the Horkelia link above in the edited text). For both genera there are 3 sp./ssp. officially on the CNPS Fort Ord list, but as this post shows not everything is listed. The only thistle I saw this day (May 14) were shoots of cobweb thistles. What do you do with the thistles once you pull them?

Cindy said...

Without colored petals showing, they are unlikely to ripen to viable seed, so I just stack them in mini-piles in place as I go along so I can see the ground clearly for new thistle seedlings which keep sprouting in these late rains! The colorful ones, I usually give to the cows to eat, or mulch under plastic cover in their corral so that if any seeds do germinate when the cows are back next year, they will probably eat them. The corral has hardly any thistles or mustard anymore.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Too bad cows don't eat cape ivy.

Jennifer said...

Wow, Mark Egger's list of castillejas is EXTENSIVE! Cool.