blow-wives ~ 05/03/13 ~ Fort Ord

blow-wives

Achyrachaena mollis

 Asteraceae

posted 05/22/13 - I've seen these before but simply had never bothered to look them up.  Look at what I've been missing.  What a peculiar common name!  I wonder what the story is, because it seems like it should be a good one.  Trying to google it returns some lewd results.  You'll notice I added the fruits/seeds label instead of the flower label. Apparently, the actual flower is a tiny yellow ray flower; it's a native version of the dandelion. I caught the flowering stage a little too late in the bottom center of the first photo. Still, cool beans.

I wanted to note this hike, because I met a local woman online and took her along with me.  She searched the internet for Yadon's piperia after seeing flags just like I did.  She found my images through flickr [I don't know what to make of their recent changes; it's flashier probably for high phone traffic.], which led to my Yadon's blog posts.  We exchanged a couple e-mails and set to meet up. Oddly enough, this is the second time I've actually had a face-to-face with someone I met online because of my Yadon's photos.  Has anyone else experienced that with a particular photo set?

ps - Here are links for later, comparing blow-wives with silverpuffs at Sierra Foothill Garden and the inaccurate picture on Wikipedia, which has unfortunately also populated iNaturalist.org and EOL.org. Editing Wikipedia is a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me, so I asked the iNat fellow to correct this in the interest of internet-kind.  Even, UCSC Natural Reserves has this incorrectly pictured.  Erg!

our GPS find

I think this must be an introduced species called Trashia inweirdplacus var. bowlingpinii. Well, that's not what we expected to find with detailed GPS coordinates. We were looking for the endangered Piperia yadonii. On Sunday, we went on a multi-location orchid hunt with a fellow who drove hours from Sacramento just to see this rare orchid... I said orchid, not bowling pins. After much sand in our shoes, bushwhacking through scratchy manzanitas, sliding down steep slopes, and several bunk GPS records, we were finally successful in a big way. The failed GPS coordinates might be reliable, in another year since this orchid doesn't always bloom. I already knew where some of the local Yadon's was blooming and sure enough we found them just fine. I need to credit Andy for taking a back road and finding a 4th location. The blue flags were more noticeable than the endangered orchid. Pictures are posted on Flickr for now. Once I get the locations sorted out, I'll backpost to Sunday, July 25, 2010.

habitat ~ 06/02/10 ~ Huckleberry Hill

Huckleberry Hill
June 2, 2010

What the heck does a huckleberry look like? I still need to look this up, because we kept making guesses with each vine or shrub we encountered figuring the hill was named for a reason. I would have just as easily named the place Monterey Pine Hill. According to an interpretive sign, this is one of the largest remaining native Monterey Pine forests in the world. I think "native" is the operative word in this impressive description. I'm tempted to lump this place with Del Monte Forest, but I'll continue with my previous location rules and specify by route of access.

There's a little section behind the Presidio with a bunch of yellow flags labeled with endangered species. It wasn't until we walked a little farther when we found the Yadon's piperia (Piperia yadonii) signs, but no evidence of the actual orchid.

Btw, those stairs are much easier to take coming down than going up!