This is an oddity. I remember seeing these on my mom's compost pile when I was growing up, and I sort of assumed they were the larvae of fireflies. But now that I actually look closer, they look a lot more like adult rove beetles. Hmm....
Update: Ok, paging through BugGuide has me thinking this is Ontholestes. BugGuide only lists O. cingulatus, but Nomina Insecta Nearctica also lists O. murinus and O. capitatus. If O. murinus looks like this, then I think we can scratch it. And if O. capitatus is an outdated synonym for Staphylinus (Dinothenarus) captiatus (as this paper would suggest) and it looks like this, then maybe I should just go ahead and call this Ontholestes cingulatus.
This one's pretty cool… for a ceanothus.
Is this Lupinus cervinus? Definitely resembles the pics and there are CalFlora observations of it from Cone Peak Rd, so maybe. Large lupine growing on an embankment among chaparral / mixed forest.
If I'd had the wherewithal to recognize this was a spineflower in the field I might have taken better pics. Alas. Pretty common along Cone Peak Road.
Definitely had one of those "I know you from iNat!" moments with this one. Thanks, zabbey!
Pretty sure this is the other subspecies. Leaves are still small, but the flowers are clustered.
I feel a little embarassed needing help with a non-micro Mimulus, but I'm not seeing any great matches! M. bolanderi is the closest I got, but petal morphology doesn't seem quite right and I don't see any pics of white varients. Throat floor is definitely white. Flowers were 2-3 cm long, whole plant maybe 20-30cm tall.
Ugh, ceanothus. Low bush, twigs are green, leaves are inrolled, lower surface is *kinda* hairy. C. thyrsiflorus or C. oliganthus, I guess. Anyone know a surefire way to distinguish the two?
I don't know what I was thinking on this walk. I saw all these great plants and yet I took a bunch of cursory pics. I was enjoying myself and the fine weather and wonderful floral displays, but I guess I wasn't in the mood for photography. Sigh. This was a new-to-me flower, and really cool one, and yet: sasquatch.
I wanted to call this A. divaricatum based on gestalt, but the leaves are definitely pretty tiny, which leads to me to A. gilioides in the key.
Can't decide if this is C. intermedia or C. hardhamiae. I guess C. intermedia is more likely. Plant was upright, small flower, growing in chaparral.
Tentative ID based on BugGuide search. Windy bush + shaky hands = bad photo.
This keyed out to C. integerrimus, but C. incanus also seems like an option.
