Natural History Wanderings

McGee Creek in the Eastern Sierra Nevada has scenic high desert landscapes that. are looking good with lots of Rabbitbrush and Sulphur Buckwheat. The area is very dry and most flowers are past peak. There are still some late bloomers and the last few flowers of some of the earlier ones. The following resources were helpful in identifying flowers:

 

McGee Creek Plant List from the Bristlecone Chapter of the California Native Plants Society (available at the Chapter Website)

Eastern Sierra Wildflower Hotspots Booklet (available at visitor centers)

Wildflower Hot Spots of the Eastern Sierra And Wildflowers of the Eastern Sierra and adjourning Mojave Desert and Great Basin by Laird Blackwell.

 

Click Read More to see today's Plant List

 

McGee Creek Plant list 7/20/16

 

First seen on road to trailhead:

 

Prickly Poppy/Argemone munita

Sulphur Buckwheat/Eriogonum umbellatum

Mountain Pennyroyal/Monardella odoratissima

Rabbitbrush/Ericameria nauseosa

Silver Lupine/Lupinus argenteus

Red Paintbrush/Catilleja sp.

Bridge's Penstemon/Penstemon rostriflorus

 

First seen after trailhead:

 

Heavenly Blue or Few-flowered Wooly Star/Eriastrum sparsiflorum

Skeleton Plant/Stephanomeria spinosa

Hoary Aster/Dieteria canescens

Naked Buckwheat/Eriogonum nudum

Blue Elderberry/Sambucus mexicana (Leaves had significant insect damage)

Beavertail Cactus/Oppuntia basilaris (not in flower)

Green Rabbitbrush/Chrysothanmus visicidflorus

Great Basin Buckwheat/Eriogonum microthecum

Bolander's Milkvetch/Astragalus bolanderi

Wooly pod Milkvetch/Astragalus purshii in fruit)

Balloonpod Milkvetch/Astragalus whitneyi (in fruit)

Desert Peach/Prunus andersonii (in fruit)

Panamint Beardtongue/Penstemon floridus var. floridus

Wax Currant/Ribes cereum, in fruit

Calochortus sp., in fruit

Mules Ears/Wyethia mollis only one in flower, thousands in fruit

Interior Rose/Rosa Woodsii var. ultramontana

Western Blue Flag/Iris missouriensis (in fruit)

False Solomon's Seal/Maianthemum stellata

 

Butterflies:

 

Orange Sulpher

Acmon Blue

Swallowtail