Natural History Wanderings

The Plumas County Bloom Blog just posted this detailed wildflower report

Joe Willis checked in with his first 2013 wildflower report: Here are seven early blooms, all found around the 3,500-foot elevation in and around Quincy. Any one of these can be the first species to bloom in a given area.

The first ones I noticed were the Spring Whitlow Grass, Draba verna, which have already gone to seed and started a second generation for the season in some areas. This tiny beauty is in the mustard family, Brassicaceae. I supply the scientific names because many of these are known by several different “common” names. If you browse the scientific name, you can find out a lot about each plant including its various aliases.

The second one of these to get my attention is the California Buttercup, Ranunculus californicus, in the Family Ramnunculaceae. I found these first two on south-facing slopes around Oakland Camp a couple of weeks ago. Now they’re springing up in lots of places at this elevation.

Shelton’s Violet, Viola sheltonii, a yellow violet (don’t you love oxymorons?) is the first wild violet to bloom around here. It is also known as the Fan Violet, among other names. The problem is names like Fan Violet are sometimes applied to two or more different species. Don’t worry about always getting the names right. Better to concentrate on enjoying their beauty.

The tiny Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia torreyi, was also found around Oakland Camp initially, but is now blooming here and there around FRC, the Keddie Cascades Trail, and in the Feather River Canyon. Very tiny. You have to walk around quite a bit while bent over in order to spot them. Once you’ve spotted one, you tend to notice them more easily from then on. This one has been in the Snapdragon family, Scrophuariaceae, for a long time, but some botanists have put it in other families. I’ll leave that subject alone for now.

More recently I spotted Henderson’s Shooting Star, Dodecatheon hendersonii, and Three-tooth Horkelia, Horkelia tridentata, on Old Highway on my way to the trailhead of Keddie Cascades Trail.

And last, the Henbit Dead Nettle, Lamium amplexicaule, is a mint with no odor, at least none that I can detect. I’m sure some bugs can. It’s springing up at roasides all around Quincy, including some of the planted flower beds in town. It’s pretty, so people don’t usually treat it like a weed and get out the herbicides. I wish they had as much respect for Dandelions.

See photos and follow all their reports at: Bloom Blog Wildflowers.