New Genera v. ii

More new genera, this time from eastern Oregon.

Chaenactis (Asteraceae)

Layia (Asteraceae)

Blepharipappus (Asteraceae)

Ionactis (Asteraceae)

Tetradymia (Asteraceae)

Amsinckia (Boraginaceae)

Alyssum (Brassicaceae)

Descurainia (Brassicaceae)

Lepidium (Brassicaceae)

Phoenicaulis (Brassicaceae)

Sisymbrium (Brassicaceae)

Holosteum (Caryophyllaceae)

Grayia (Chenopodiaceae)

Lathyrus (Fabaceae)

Camissonia (Onagraceae)

Gayophytum (Onagraceae)

Eriastrum (Polemoniaceae)

Navarretia (Polemoniaceae)

Ceratocephala (Ranunculaceae)

Myosurus (Ranunculaceae)

Plectritis (Valerianaceae)

New Genera

Now in New Mexico, I'm surrounded by new plants.
A list of some of the genera I'm becoming familiar with here!

Abronia (Nyctaginaceae)
Apocynum (Apocynaceae)
Atriplex (Amaranthaceae)
Bouteloua (Poaceae)
Dalea (Fabaceae)
Dimorphocarpa (Brassicaceae)
Fallugia (Rosaceae)
Gutierrezia (Asteraceae)
Heterotheca (Asteraceae)
Hordeum (Poaceae)
Hymenoxys (Asteraceae)
Ipomopsis (Polemoniaceae) -- Ipomopsis sancti-spiritus! 
Krascheninnikovia (Chenopodiaceae)
Linum (Linaceae)
Lotus (Fabaceae)
Machaeranthera (Asteraceae)
Mirabilis (Nyctaginaceae)
Monarda (Lamiaceae)
Physaria (Brassicaceae)
Ratibida (Asteraceae)
Rhus (Anacardiaceae)
Sphaeralcea (Malvaceae)
Thelesperma (Asteraceae)
Thermopsis (Fabaceae)
Verbena (Verbenaceae)
Xanthisma (Asteraceae)

An Abundance of Strange and New Plants

I feel like I've been around the world lately, even though in truth I've visited just a few new corners of the US.

Travelling through Idaho, I stumbled upon the stunning Thomas Canyon campground, and two of my favorite plants in flower: Balsamorhiza sagittata, and Viola purpurea.

Balsamorhiza sagittata (arrowleaf balsamroot) in the Ruby Mountains' Thomas Canyon campground

Viola purpurea (goosefoot violet)

At the Chicago Botanic Garden, I experienced in person for the first time two very charismatic plants: Taxodium distichum (bald cypress), and Theobroma cacao (cacao tree)!

Taxodium distichum. The knees, the knees!!

Theobroma cacao flowers. They didn't really smell like chocolate. And why the heck do they come straight out of the bark? Why oh why, and how?

In the Chicago Botanic Garden's arid greenhouse, I had the privilege of meeting a whole bunch of dry-adapted carbon-fixers.

Cactus flower

weird!

Equinox

The season is turning. A few weeks ago, a fresh layer of dropped leaves on the urban forest floor caught me by surprise -- most of them were still green.
 

It had been rather windy... but did the bigleaf maples care about the greenness they had yet to take back?

 

Some of that green is wanted by someone; they munched out the tasty softer bits between the veins of this red alder leaf.

 

Just a few days later, actual canopy color change seemed to hit the maples all at once.

While many things expanded to huge this summer season, not everything reached its full potential. As I began preparing a long neglected summer garden for its next season, this tiny cucumber was discovered beneath larger leaves.

heat of the day

First ripe blackberries, on Barbur! Oh yeah, dark expanse of heat absorbing and reradiating pavement.

Meanwhile, the sky:

Why the Trees Sparkle

In 2006, working in a dry area of Idaho (above), I remember noticing flashes of light near the tops of the pines. I couldn't imagine why the trees were sparkling, but I didn't think it was my imagination because I kept noticing it. This summer at the Newberry National Volcanic Monument on the dry side of Oregon I came across this tree growing in an obsidian flow:

And noticed that the tree had this cone:

Notice the bubbles of sap stuck to the cone

I'm convinced this is why those trees were sparkling. Now I wonder why the cones are oozing sap, and whether it is a particular kind of pine tree that does this. How many needles are in a bunch is diagnostic of species for pine trees, and from my picture it seems the needles are in bunches of five (Trees to Know in Oregon tells me Oregon native pines with 5 needles to a bunch are: western white, sugar, limber, and whitebark).