Today I had the pleasure of doing a nature walk in Sabino Canyon. There were five of us. We took the tram to the last stop (number 9), and then slowly walked down the road to the 7th stop, looking at plants, insects, birds, trees, shrubs, etc., on the way. It was absolutely delightful. After an hour and a half of exploring we took the return tram and had a pleasant lunch.

I found many of the “invisible” flowers I have been looking for and met a few I had not yet known. Here are some of the close up pictures of the flowers. Keep in mind that most of them are less than a quarter of an inch wide.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fringed amaranth – Amaranthus fimbriatus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ayenia – Ayenia filiformis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bush spiderling – Commicarpus scandens

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pringle prairie clover – Dalea pringlei

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Santa Cruz island tick clover – Desmodium psilocarpum

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Female flowerHop bush – Dodonea viscosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

Male flower

Hop bush – Dodonea viscosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chiricahua mountain sandmat – Euphoriba florida

 

 

 

 

 

Arizona blue eyes – Evolvulus alsinoides

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Odora – Porophyllum gracile

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed and I were hiking the Sunset Trail in the Catalina mountains, enjoying the wonderful display of wildflowers, when I noticed a tiny plant growing on top of a rock. It seemed to me that I had never seen it before, so I took photographs and made a special note of where it could be found. Later, with the help of my botanical friends I learned that it was Hedyotis greenei – hedyotis, or Green starviolet. This is a plant I have photographed before, and yet I had not seen it clearly until I did so through my new powerful macro. What a little beauty it is.

In this picture you see it in my hand, and can tell how small the whole plant is.

This is a side view of the flower, with the wonderful red markings.

And here is a top view.

This is another reminder that there is more to these little plants than meets the unaided eye.

INVISIBLE FLOWERS
If you walk up the hill to enjoy a meal at the Iron Door Restaurant in the Catalina Mountains, you may not notice plants scattered among the clumps of grass. And even if you did, you might not realize that the plants were in full and glorious bloom. The plant is in the rose family, and has very unusual flowers.

The flower head consists of  a number of little capsules, each packed with anthers, with long filaments ending in a yellow stamen. The stamens are the male parts of the flower and are loaded with pollen. When the time is right the capsules burst open and the male flowers hang down on their thin threads. The beautiful red female flowers are mostly on top. When they open up they look like something growing in a coral reef.

 

 

 

Here we see the flower head with the female flowers at the top. These heads are less than an inch in diameter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In this picture we see the anthers popping out of the little capsules.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
And here is a close-up of the female flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The plant is called Small Burnet. Its leaves are used in salads, so it is also called “Salad burnet”. The botanical name tells of the medicinal use of the plant – sanguisorba (meaning blood absorbing). The species name is minor. There is another larger sanguisorba, (Sanguisorba major) but I have not met that one. Small Burnet is a delightful plant, easily passed by because of the nearly invisible flowers.

INVISIBLE FLOWERS
In 2011 the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum published my book: “Mountain Wildflowers of Southern Arizona” and a year later, “Mountain Trees of Southern Arizona.”  Many people have thanked me for the two publications and have wondered what my next book will be. This had been on my mind some time when I attended a meeting of the Arizona Native Plant Society (AZNPS), and heard a fascinating talk on bees. The author, Stephen Buchmann, had wonderful pictures, some of them taken at very close range. I immediately began to wonder what kind of camera could take such fascinating close-ups. The author mentioned that Jillian Cowles, a friend of mine, had taken some of the pictures. She was at the meeting. When the talk was over I went to her and found it what kind of camera and lens she was using. She not only gave me all the details, but after I had bought the camera, lens and flash, took me on a field trip to show how it worked. This has led me to my current project – photographing “invisible flowers.”

People ask, “How can you find invisible flowers?” Well, they are not really invisible, of course. The plants can be seen with the naked eye. I did have the experience of sending my daughter to find one species (Drymaria molluginea) near a rocky outcropping on the Box Camp trail, and she failed. Later on the trail we came across another colony, and I said: “There they are!” Later we returned to the outcrop, and it was only after she knew what to look for that she found them.

Some of the “invisible” flowers are on very large plants. With the naked eye it is hard to know if they are in bloom. It is only with a loupe or binoculars that the average person can see the flower.

In this category of “invisible flowers’ I include flowers where the whole inflorescence is clearly visible, but the individual flowers in it are not.  I plan to show pictures of these rarely seen treasures of the plant world.

Let’s start today with one of the many bedstraws on the mountain, Wright’s bedstraw (Galium wrightii). The plant has very small, elegant wine-red flowers. From a distance you can hardly tell whether the plant is in bloom or not, but the macro lens brings you into an appreciation of its beauty.