BotanyGirl took me to Rock Creek Park in DC. Was great to see lots of new plants and photograph Hooded Warlber!

I hiked to the Mapache Gate the other day to find some of my favorite plants I've only seen one of at JR. They are Chaparral Mallow, Wild Licorice and Chaparral Beardtongue. Unfortunately only the first was blooming. The others still in bud.

Had a great trip to Jepson Prairie today! Was my first visit and I think we timed it perfectly. What a cool spot. Were lots of canada geese, avocets, willets, and black bellied plovers around. Lots of showy fields of goldfields with other species mixed in. Would have liked to see what a docent with a dip-net would have been fishing out (fairy shrimp and what not) but alas no docent.

Jess among the goldfields

To celebrate Spring Break at Berkeley I went on a short hike at McLaren park and followed by a longer one at Edgewood Preserve. I saw 103 taxa including 10 species I haven't reported before. An interesting one was the pygmyweed (Crassula connata) that I found in the serpentine at Edgewood - this plant is on tons of plant lists but I've never seen it, I now see why - its incredibly tiny. I had to get down on my belly just to see it. But now that I can identify it I'm sure I'll see it everywhere. It grows on bear ground and looks almost like the moss and lichens its found with.

I got to go to the Ohio Natural History Conference where I had the good fortune of hiking with Mike Gratziano, who has to be one of the best naturalists in the state. We turned up all sorts of cool things despite the literally freezing weather. My favorites were seeing a newt swimming below the ice, learning that black birch tastes like root beer, and my first Botrychium!

Mike in the field, notice the sheet of ice in the background.

On this day in 1890 (123 years ago!) someone calling themselves 'E. C.' collected the rare fragrant fritillary (Fritillaria liliacea) on Bernal Heights in San Francisco. The specimen is at the California Academy of Sciences cataloged as: CAS:BOT:108701

I went back today to try to relocate this specimen. No luck, the site is pretty disturbed these days, lots of dogs and bare ground but I did find these 15 plants in bloom.

Lots of the invasive yellow Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae), but no fragrant fritillary (Fritillaria liliacea) blooming on Bernal Heights

Went into this giant crater (apparently a collapsed volcano) in Arizona filled with herds of Pronghorn & Elk and incredible wildflowers - unbelievable!

I photographed every flower I saw in bloom on my hike on San Bruno Mountain today, if its not in this post, I didn't see it blooming!

I made an effort to make an observation of every species I could find in bloom on my hike at Sugarloaf - the count of 17 reflects that its still a bit early in the year (Feb) but things are coming in fast and furious!

Hiked Sweeny Ridge with some friends today. We got a new telephoto lens this week - our old one has been broken since about April - which was great to test out. Fun to take photos of birds for a change. Also not much of interest in the plant world. Sweeny Ridge is interesting because you hike by the spot where the Portola Expedition discovered the SF Bay. I've been there before when it was totally socked in with fog (as it usually is) so there would be no Bay Discovering. But today was a gorgeous clear day and you could see as far as Mount Diablo without any trouble.