SPRING FLOWERS

April 12, 2014

Last Wednesday Dave delivered my new computer. It has been over three weeks since I let go of the old one. Most of that time I have spent trying to get over a heavy cough and cold, which meant that I was not getting out into nature the way I love to do. Sorry about the long gap between postings.

At the end of January (Jan 29) I reported finding a fungus (Puccinia monoica) that invaded a plant, Rock-cress (Boechera perennans), changed its growth pattern and made the leaves look like flowers. Yesterday Ed and I went to visit the infected plant to see how it was doing. Though it looks a little the worse for wear, you can see in the photograph that the growth pattern is still the same and the fungus is still turning the leaves on the tip of the plant yellow so that they look like flowers (on a plant that has pink and white flowers.) The other Rock-cress plants nearby have mostly finished blooming and have gone to seed. This fungus has been at work pretending to be a yellow flower for at least ten weeks.

The infected plant is projecting out from a steep bank

Some of the many dandelions in bloom

We drove up the mountain to Turkey Run. It is still very early in the season and there are not many plants in bloom. We did see a healthy crop of dandelion. Later we found the orange gooseberry in bloom (Ribes pinetorum). For several years I tried to photograph this plant, but was too late. Here it is, blooming in April. On the way down the mountain we found its cousin, Golden currant, (Ribes aureum) in full bloom.

Orange gooseberry flower. It begins red and turns white with age

The Golden currant flower

Orange gooseberry with flower, last year’s fruit (out of focus) and a penny for scaled

One of my favorite flowers on the mountain is the Green gentian or Deer’s ears (Swertia radiata). It produces a crop of very large floppy leaves each year for many years. In its final year, the leaf pattern is different as it sends up a flowering stalk which can be as high as 8 feet (as in this photograph). The stalk has hundreds if not thousands of pale green flowers. After it produces fruit, the plant dies. This means that it is monocarpic, meaning that it only flowers once in its life.

An eight foot tall blooming Green gentian

An individual Green Gentian flower

New Green gentian growth

Ed and I saw some Gentian plants with last year’s foliage all dried up and in the center, new growth. Within the next few weeks we will see if any of these will send up a flowering stalk. Last year there were very few that flowered, but lots of foliage.

Hillside with a number of Green gentian plants (we found 26 in the area)

We enjoyed seeing Arizona Valerian (Valeriana arizonica). This genus is known as a medicinal plant, acting as a sedative. These bloom early in the Spring where in some damp places high in the mountain they carpet the forest floor.

An Arizona Valerian near a rock

A cluster of valerian flowers with lavender tubes and white flowers.

This week end (April 12 and 13), I am participating in the Tucson Open Studio tour. Our home will be open from 11 am to 5 pm on Saturday and Sunday. Come on over. (9233 E Helen St.)

Waiting for a new computer

April 4, 2014

This is Frank’s son Owen Rose posting for my Dad while his new computer is being built. In the meantime, please enjoy this photo I took of Frank on the trail. Majestic, don’t you think? He will begin posting again once the computer is back up to speed.

Owen

MORE WONDERS OF NATURE

March 17, 2014

On recent plant walks I have found a number of interesting items. On the 26th of February Ed and I were in Catalina State Park and came across a Prickly Pear, growing out of the trunk of a Mesquite tree. I have seen Prickly Pear growing eight feet high on a Saguaro but this was the first time to see one on a Mesquite.

On March the sixth, I drove alone up the Catalina mountains to the Butterfly trail head. It was surprisingly mild considering I was at about 8000′. I was looking for grasses in bloom, and found some, but was not able to identify them yet. On the way I almost tripped over a “witch’s broom.” This is a condition in which the growth pattern of a tree changes so that the branches and needles are much more thickly concentrated forming a kind of basket shape. I took two pictures – one on the ground, and the other propped on a tree stump. Reading about it I learned that trees have growth hormones. Some control the way the plant sends out new branches and some inhibit growth. When the hormones get mixed up the tree forms these very irregular masses of branches, twigs and needles that are considerably heavier than normal growth. In this picture you can see a central branch – so small as to be a twig really, that was supporting this mass. Evidently it broke, and the “basket” came tumbling down. I believe it came off of a Douglas fir.

Proceeding along the trail I looked for one of my favorite flowers, the Redfuzz saxifrage. There were still patches of snow on the ground. I learned before that the plant will actually melt enough snow to poke through snow. On this walk I found a few plants with their red buds. By now the buds have opened to reveal these delightful white flowers, harbingers of spring in the mountains.

Redfuzz saxifrage (Micranthes eriophora)

Picture taken a few years ago.

Kayla decided to spend her spring break with her grandparents in Tucson, getting away from one of the harshest winters on record in deKalb, Illinois where she is completing her last year of college at Northern Illinois University. She loved the warmth and sunshine, and hiked with us in Molino Basin. On part of her visit the three of us, my wife, Louise, Kayla and I went for a trip to Sedona. On arrival at the visitors center we were told about a trail to the iconic Red Rock Crossing that we had never been on before. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk. At our farthest point we stood at the edge of the fast-flowing Oak Creek. Later we visited the fascinating shops in Tlaquepaque and then drove up Airport Hill to catch the sunset. Hundreds of other people had the same idea. There was something really nice about seeing so many people gathered, hugging each other in the chill evening air, just to watch the sunset.
Before leaving Sedona the next day we hiked in the West Fork trail. On getting home I was inspired to write this little poem about our final walk.

A POEM OF GRATITUDE

by Frank S Rose, March 12, 2014

The sky overhead is striped with long curving lines of ice crystals
The ground underfoot is red and soft
A cluster of acorn woodpeckers plays tag darting back and forth between the bare apple trees
The air is soft and cool as groups of people make their way up the canyon.

The cliffs of red and ocher block out the morning sun
Up ahead it highlights an enormous Ponderosa pine and lays a patch of gold at its foot

We cross and re-cross the stream tracking damp footprints up the banks of red earth
It is early spring – the bare branches of red osier dogwood give a warm glow to the forest, especially where sunlight touches them
White Candytuft start to appear as we make our way up the canyon first a few – then a cluster, then a celebration.
There are a few yellow mustard plants just showing their colors
We see a thicket of ancient horsetail the great survivors of earlier times

Happy people greet us, including the couple that spoke to us as we waited to get seated at the restaurant last night.
Lively teens and wobbling infants add to the pageant of human life visiting this treasured part of Oak Creek.

We turn around just before stream crossing number 5 (out of 13) and soon are treated to new flowers
The pink Valerian we missed on the way up the canyon, now reminding us how easy it is to overlook nature’s treasures

We complete our timeless interlude to begin the long drive home.

Kayla and Louise walking toward Red Rock Crossing

People gathered to watch the sunset in Sedona

Wild Candytuft (Noccaea fendleri)

ENJOYING IRONWOOD FOREST

March 13, 2014

When I wrote my last blog I thought that the next big event for me was the Tucson Festival of Books. That will happen this coming week end. In the meanwhile, two other big events have intervened.

ONE
Jim Avramis sent an e-mail on Friday inviting me to be a co-leader of a hike the very next day. It turned out that I was free, and had even been thinking of going on the hike which had been advertised long ago. It was to Ironwood National Monument where I gave a talk last November 16.
About 60 people gathered in the parking lot at Marana Airport as Lahsha Brown welcomed us and gave us our marching orders. There were three hiking groups. Mine was led by Jim Avramis, and Gary Borax. I was there to share some knowledge of the plants of the region.
We car pooled to the Monument, ending up traveling along narrow lanes lined with thorny shrubs and trees scraping the sides of the vehicle “Desert pin-striping it” as one hiker said.

We parked on the flanks of the mountain range and made our way up the slope to the saddle between Ragged Top and Walcott peak. Ragged Top has a distinct jagged outline, and is home to a herd of big-horn sheep. It was lambing time for the sheep, so we were told to avoid Ragged Top, and circumnavigate Walcott peak. Eighteen of us made the three-mile journey, crossing washes, making our way up the slope to the saddle, and going around the mountain back to the cars. We noticed thousands of tiny wild-flower seedlings too small to recognize. Then we saw poppies, heliotrope, brittlebush, and other flowers. I met, for the first time, Chuparosa (Justicia Californica), a beautiful plant with red tubular flowers, also called Hummingbird bush and beloperone. It was a gorgeous day, and there was much to enjoy.
Getting back to our starting point at the airfield, I handed out my flower posters, apologizing for the fact that I did not have enough for all of the people in our party.

TWO
The other big event was a trip to Sedona with my wife, Louise, and granddaughter, Kayla. More about that next blog.

Jim giving us directions

Chuparosa

Making our way to Walcott saddle

Some of our group at the base of Walcott peak

NEW GROWTH

March 6, 2014

I recently visited Desert Survivors Nursery (1020 W. Starr Pass in Tucson) where Jim Verrier is Nursery Director. He is the brave soul who invited me to work on a book of grasses with him. When I got there he pointed out Bamboo Muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa). I was able to photograph the whole plant (it is quite large), and then zoom in on it to show more details as in these photographs. Two days later he and I did a plant walk in Sabino Canyon. Recent rain has brought a new crop of seedlings, and we saw about a dozen grasses coming into flower.

A clump of Bamboo Muhly at Desert Survivors Nursery

A branch of Bamboo Muhly

Zooming in to see more detail

The pink is my finger. There are flowers in this picture. Can you spot them?

We also walked along Sabino Creek with the water rushing by and nurturing all kinds of interesting aquatic plants.

Sabino Creek with a clump of Deer grass (Muhlenbergia rigens)

On the way back we saw some Natal grass (Melinis repens) that I have photographed before, but this time I was able to get an especially good close-up of the flowers.

Natal grass flowers. The feathery ones are female, and the two yellow ones are male.

Two nights ago our son, Owen, and I were guest speakers at the Friends of Western Art meeting. Owen began with a humorous and challenging talk about how watercolors are better than oils. The fact that we were in a room richly equipped with excellent oil paintings made his remarks seem especially daring. I talked about how I got into painting and, much later, into nature photography. Our talks seemed to have been very well received and we thoroughly enjoyed the company of friends new and old.

The next big event for me is the Tucson Festival of Books where I will be spending time in four different booths. Since we had a good rain a few days ago there will be new life to enjoy in the Catalina Mountains.

MAKING VISIBLE THE INVISIBLE

February 24, 2014

February has been a month full of interest. More and more plant species are coming into bloom. I had the pleasure of speaking twice – the first in Sierra Vista to the Cochise Chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society (AZNPS) on “Invisible Flowers and Other Wonders” , and two days later giving a similar speech to the Arizona Botany Meeting 2014, at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, “Taking a Closer Look.” Both talks gave me a chance to share pictures I have taken, some looking at familiar flowers close up, others showing “invisible flowers”, flowers that are so small or insignificant that people walk by them not knowing that they are in bloom. People responded very favorably to the two talks.
At the conference I had the pleasure of making contact with people who share a love of plants, and all things in nature. The day ended with a dinner, and a speech by local raconteur Petey Mesquite, whose radio talks have entertained people for years. He proved to be a most engaging speaker with his stories, pictures and songs. What a delightful way to end the day!

The next day there were optional nature walks. I went on the one led by Jim Verrier. There were about 15 to 17 people on the hike, including some specializing in certain aspects of botany, like sedges and rushes. Everyone had something to contribute to the richness of our experience, and we all shared the love of discovery.

Several times our group gathered around an apparently bare patch of earth, some of us on all fours. People gave us strange looks as they walked by in bewilderment. We were definitely looking at things that they were not seeing.

We found some interesting “invisible” plants, including Mouse-tail (Myosurus cupulatus, in the Ranunculus family). This is a very small plant that grows in wet places in the early spring. I have looked for it in Molino Basin and Gordon Hirayabashi this year without success. Evidently it is too dry there. But we were in Catalina State Park, where there is some water still flowing even though it has not rained much in the last eight weeks. Another small plant is Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata), so called because it is an edible little plant and its stems are perfoliate, going right through the center of the leaves. The tiny white flowers come out of the top leaf like a miniature lotus in its lily pad.

Mouse-tail – a plant just a few inches high. The tail grows longer and longer and turns brown.

This is my most recent picture of the flower stalk of Mouse-tail with a penny to show the scale

Here is a close up showing the anthers.

Miner’s lettuce close up, with one open flower and lots of buds

Looking down on a Miner’s lettuce plant. It is named after John Clayton, an18th century botanist from Virginia.

We had two very special plant people on the walk, our leader, Jim Verrier and one of Arizona’s most knowledgeable botanists, Richard Felger. Each of the other people on the hike brought some special knowledge of nature, which made for a very rich and enlightening experience.

We came across just a few examples of another plant that I met in Catalina State Park last year and regretted not finding it with flowers or fruit (Common pussy paws, Cistanthe monandra). Also last year I did not have my super macro lens. We found that the plant was mostly in fruit, but Richard Felger pointed out that there were some very tiny flowers. Its species name “monandra” which means “having only one anther”, which you can see in the picture.

Common pussy paws, a plant in the Portulaca family that looks as if it has been stepped on.

A close up showing lots of fruit on the Common pussy paws.

A very close look at what I think is the flower

NOTES

KXCI presents:
“Growing Native with Petey Mesquitey”

The following is an excellent website for looking up the meaning of plant names:

California Plant Names:
Latin and Greek Meanings and Derivations
A Dictionary of Botanical and Biographical Etymology
Compiled by Michael L. Charters
http://www.calflora.net/botanicalnames/index.html

A recent and excellent website for Arizona flora:
gilaflora.com

STUDIES IN PINK AND WHITE

February 20, 2014

Thanks to our alert friend David Hollombe, we know that the mystery flower noted on January 31, was not a flower at all, but a discoloration created by the fungus Puccinia monoica. He suggested it might be on the plant: Boechera perennans. This week I confirmed his suggestion. The infected plant is in a hillside with a number of boechera growing near it, and though the upper leaves on the infected plant are very different, the lower ones match the other plants near by. Boechera, or as it used to be called, Arabis, is called Rock-cress, and is a perennial (which is what perenanns means). It can have pink and white flowers on the same flowering stalk as in the second picture.

Holding the top of the infected plant

This is what the top normally looks like

Some flowers are pink

On the same inflorescence, some are white

Later that day my wife and I saw another plant with both pink and white versions of its flowers, the tiny Slender phlox (Microsteris gracilis.) It blooms very early in the year, in this case February, and is only an inch or so high when it starts to bloom. This is a very sweet little flower.

Two of the Slender phlox plants, showing the pink and white versions

The pink close up

And the white

Today I was hiking with Ed and we saw many examples of a lomatium plant. I have known this plant for years, and so far my botany friends have been unable to identify it. The flowers are similar to Lomatium nevadense, but the foliage is different, and the plant grows much larger (up to a foot high compared to only a few inches for L. nevadense). With my close-up camera I was able to see what the individual flowers of this plant in the carrot family look like. My flower books do not list it. Wikipedia notes that there are 75 species of lomatiums in the world, and it has article on 51 of them. None of them seemed to match this plant. It seems that most of the plants in this genus have yellow flowers. These are white. None of the ones I saw had long thin leaves. Any suggestions?

Looking down at the mystery Lomatium on the trail

A flower cluster on the Lomatium

Looking more closely at the cluster

A close up of individual flowers in the cluster

The leaves of the mystery lomatium

I am excited about speaking to the Cochise chapter of the Arizona Native Plant Society in Sierra Vista tomorrow, and as one of thirteen speakers at the Botany Conference coming up this Saturday at the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum. Both talks will be about taking a closer look, but the species shown will be different (except for one mystery plant.)

FUNGUS FAKES FLOWERING

February 14, 2014

An alert individual (David Hollombe) has pointed out that the false flower we reported on January 31, was produced on a plant by a rust fungus called: Puccinia monoica. The fungus invades the plant and prevents it from flowering. Then it turns the upper leaves yellow, making them look like flower petals. For a moment this deceived us. Evidently it also deceives pollinators who land on it, get frustrated, and fly off, helping the fungus spread. The host plant is usually in the mustard family. Thank you, David.

Plant infected with rust fungus

Dave Larson and I went to Milagrosa Canyon (which I recently incorrectly called “Milagro” which is Spanish for “Miracle” instead of Milagrosa, Spanish for “Miraculous”). He wanted to see the honeycombs that Ed and I saw earlier. I had a different camera lens and was able to get a better picture including bees flying in and out.

The cliff with the hive (left of the saguaro). Note Dave’s white hat in the foreground

We followed the trail up and to the left, finding a number of new flower species in bloom, like . Arizona fiesta-flower (Pholistoma auritum), Anemone, Twist Flower, and lots more of the Red Justitia. We ended up at the base of a Rock climbing-wall. As we sat for our snack we couldn’t help noticing the marvelous echo, and even tested to see if burps would echo back at us (as Dave’s wife would say, “you boys!”). We saw ravens, swallows (or were they swifts?) and hummingbirds flying around. We were eventually joined by some rock climbers.

Arizona fiesta flower with its red, white and blue

The next day Ed and I walked a short distance up the Babat Do’ag. Trail, and found 29 species of wildflowers in bloom, including lots of Gordon’s bladder pod (Physaria gordonii). Noting the harsh weather conditions in other parts of the country we felt especially privileged to be in such miraculous country with warm sun and bright blue skies.

In Milagrosa Canyon looking back to Tucson

Note the remains of a saguaro left center, with its thin wooden skeleton tops curving to the right

Common fiddleneck (Amsinckia intermedia)

My fingers give an idea of scale

Gordon’s bladderpod (Physaria gordonii)

TWO BAD GRASSES

February 7, 2014

It was a cool, cloudy day, so Ed and I decided to stay in the valley for our weekly hike. Something drew us to explore Milagro Canyon. We found many flower species in bloom, some with only a few specimens, others out in full force, like the gorgeous Indigo Bush (Dalea pulchra) loaded with its wine colored flowers. The other was one that I have not seen very often, Arizona water-willow (Justicia candicans) also called Red justicia (which puzzles me since candicans means “white”.)

Arizona water-willow plant

The top of Arizona water-willow with lots of blooms

A close up of two flowers

The stream bed was choked with grasses, most of them invasive species, notably these two bad actors – Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum) and Buffelgrass (Pennisetum ciliare). Not surprisingly since they are of the same genus, they have similar flowering stalks as shown in this picture. The leaves are very different. Fountain grass has mostly straight leaves that splay out like a fountain. Buffelgrass leaves are wider and more irregular in their growth pattern. Fountain grasses is the dominant species in this canyon and is larger than Buffelgrass.

On the left is Fountain Grass with straight leaves

On the right is Buffelgrass with irregular leaves

En route Ed began talking about Ragged rock flower (Crossosoma bigelovii), and very soon we spotted some up on the cliff above us. We wondered if we unconsciously noticed it, discussed it, and then spotted it or whether it was just a coincidence that we saw it almost immediately after discussing it. We love it especially for its beautiful scent. Speaking of scent, we were also delighted with the fragrance coming from some mistletoe.

Flat honeycombs

On our way up the rocky canyon, we looked up and saw something like stalactites hanging in a recess in the cliff. Our trusty binoculars revealed that these were honeycombs. Neither of us had ever seen the likes of it. We did not stay to look at it more closely, concerned that the hives might be the work of the infamous killer bees.

We got about as high in the canyon as we wanted to go, and stopped to rest. Sitting down for our break, Ed looked up into the gray sky and saw a glow where the sun was obscured by the clouds. We liked the way this glow was framed by the arms of a saguaro cactus far above us. This was about as much of the sun as we saw all day.

Ed looking up at the gray sky with fountain grass clumps

The sun just barely showing through a saguaro cactus

On the return to the car we saw five flower species that we had not noted on the outward journey, making a total of about twenty for the day. Not bad for early February.

CLOSE UP NATURE PICTURES

January 31, 2014

The last two days have taken me up into the mountains, a pleasant break from the freezing temperatures in Glenview, north of Chicago, where my wife and I spent last week end.
Ed and I walked in the Gordon Hirayabashi camp ground. As soon as we parked the car we noticed a plant that looked, from a distance, like a bladderpod, though we knew that it does not normally grow at this elevation. On closer look the “flowers” were actually leaves. Looking still closer we saw that these leaves at the tips of the branches were covered with yellow papillae. We have no idea what the plant is. From the woody stem, we decided it must be a perennial. We will enjoy checking on it from time to time to see how it develops.

The mystery plant, seemingly in flower

The mystery plant showing that these are leaves, not flowers

A close up of the plant showing the yellow papillae

We had almost given up on seeing any flowers on our return journey when we heard a loud buzzing coming from the top of some of the cottonwood trees. These were the male trees, with their golden catkins. Some of the trees still had leaves left over from last fall. All of them had leaf buds developing at the end of the twigs.
We stopped for a snack by a little waterfall. It was actually running, though very slowly. We have had precious little rain this winter. There we noticed that the Alligator juniper (Juniperus deppeana) was coming into flower. They are not true flowers, but thousands of little brown buds containing pollen. They are called pollen cones. I managed to get a close-up of one of them, and also of new fruit forming. It is red now but will turn blue as it ripens.

The Alligator Juniper pollen cones

New fruit on the Alligator Juniper

The next day Dave and I went to Bear Canyon and found that the great Arizona cypress trees (Cupressus arizonica) were also coming into flower. I managed to get a close up of the pollen cones, including some that evidently had finished releasing their pollen. Then for the first time Dave found what seems to be a seed cone (the female part of the plant.)

Arizona cypress pollen cone

We think this might be the female, seed cone of the Arizona Cypress

Dropping down into the canyon we came across a large dried up plant which we think was a Pokeberry (Phytolacca icosandra). It had lots of last year’s fruit on it. The ones on the tips of the branches were deep red. Lower down they were grey and white. I love the close-up pictures we were able to get.

Last year’s fruit on the Pokeberry

Lower down the stalk the old fruit turns grey

We also saw lots of willow in bloom, possibly Coyote willow (Salix exigua). It seemed much too early in the year, but the bees certainly knew that it was in flower. This is another dioecious plant. With my new close-up camera I was not only able to look more deeply at the male flowers, but for the first time, saw the actual flowers on the female shrubs. They are the tiny pale yellow endings to the green spikes.

The male flowers of the willow

The female flowers

A close-up showing the actual tiny flowers on the willow

Tomorrow (Feb. 1st) Owen and I have the opening of our Father/Son art show at Contreras Gallery in Tucson – 6 – 9 pm. All are welcome. The show goes until Feb. 22.

Frank S. Rose

Flowers and more