Lost Coast

Some pics from my recent backpacking trip to the Lost Coast. It was the first time I really used my new p&s camera so I wasn't able to get as many good shots as I'd hoped. I did the best I could with the plant IDs

Phacelia ?bolanderi

Mimulus guttatus

Aquilegia formosa

Eschscholzia californica

After dark

From the fire escape. Sorry for the graininess... shooting at night, big ISO, no tripod. Night time is the right time, though. I really love how much more beautiful any city is at night... this one is especially good.

Iron Mountain

I've been coming here to hike for the past few weeks (the 9 mile loop is really neat) and have been frustrated that my knowledge of local botany is pretty sucky. Here are some pretty pictures, some pictures of plants I've recently learned, and some pictures of plants I am currently trying to figure out... it's tough without many flowers or fruits. Most of these photos have been edited very minimally. I realize there's tons of crud on the lens or maybe- god forbid- in the camera. Haven't gotten around to figuring it out and fixing it,

I know fuck-all about the geology of the Peninsular
Ranges, but they are surprisingly lovely

Ramona from the Iron Mountain Trail

Cneoridium dumosum
Bush rue
I had thought it was a buckwheat until I saw the flowers. It is
actually in the same family as citrus

Helianthemum scoparium
Rush rose
It's everywhere

Xylococcus bicolor
Mission manzanita
Not an actual manzanita (Arctostaphylos) but probably
named because the flowers and the peeling red bark are
similar... the leaves, however, are markedly different

Ribes indecorum
White-flowering currant
Why do I always forget that Ribes exists?

Rhus ovata
Sugar bush
Very similar to lemonadeberry (R. integrifolia)
Of course I already knew this one, it's one of the usual
suspects in chaparral/sage scrub communities... but
I thought the flower buds were pretty.

Heteromeles arbutifolia
Toyon
Another usual suspect... the berries seem to
glow in the right light

Another toyon pic..

Unknown #1
Don't know what it is exactly, but I'm betting holly-leafed cherry
(Prunus ilicifolia), holly leafed redberry (Rhamnus ilicifolia...
guess what ilicifolia means?) or maybe something in the sumac family

Unknown #2
I think it's a buckwheat, but until I look at every photo of
Eriogonum, I won't know for sure

Unknown #3
I think it's a composite. The leaves are not smelly at all.
A similar brute-force approach is in order
Update: It is Eriodictyon crassifolium, the yerba santa... a borage.

Semi-Unknown

I found this plant growing by the side of the road in J Tree and I couldn't figure out what it might be... now I think it may be Eriogonum inflatum ... the fruit didn't seem quite right for an Eriogonum, but everything else fits.

Autumn in the Sacramento Mountains

Mostly pictures of aspens (Populus tremuloides, of course) turning yellow

View of White Sands from the mountains

White Sands

First, a few caveats and apologies. I seem to have had a lot of crud on my lens when I took these pictures... I wasn't patient enough to entirely clean up the photos. Sorry. Also, I edited the photos on my laptop with the stupid adjustable and shiny monitor, so what looks okay to me may be an artifact of the very specific angle at which it was tilted. And it was rainy and windy so I couldn't change lenses or filters or even take a lot of pictures without risking my precious little machine.

I do have a few more photos from this trip that I may post eventually. The problem with White Sands is that it is really difficult to take pictures creatively... very little to work with. Also, it is hard to focus both the camera and one's own eyes in the face of so little contrast. Still, I think I got a few interesting shots.

On the way, US 70. Should have cleaned the mirror.

I think this grass is Sporobolus airoides, the alkali sacaton

Sometimes a shrub (in this case, a sumac) gets buried in the sand.
It sends up a lot of stems to the surface and the stems put out roots.
When the sand ebbs, the root structure holds the sand together
in this weird island of vegetation

Wet sand at the top of a dune

These are the shelters in a picnic area. I couldn't resist a picture of these
wacky structures that look like they're straight out of The Jetsons

Maybe the last for awhile

I don't know when I'll have access to a decent monitor again, so these spring pics may be it for quite some time. (Maybe I'll start experimenting with monochrome.)

The hills looked like some deity had dumped a bunch of
fluorescent chalk on them. The yellow flowers are goldfields (Lasthenia)
the orange are fiddlenecks (Amsinckia) and the white in the foreground
is mostly popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys)

Soda Lake

Suncup (Camissonia)

One year later...

Not exactly the same spot, but close

Carrizo Plain II

Temblor Range

another

Caliente Range from the Carrizo Plain

one

Remnants of an unknown mallow