Thursday, May 11, 2017

A Micro-Bloom

I pulled off for a pit stop at Bob Scott Summit and started seeing little tiny wildflowers everywhere. I looked around, hoping to see a superbloom, like so many were reporting this year, but the flowers were either somewhat far between, or—where covering the ground—were itsy bitsy.
Spring was just beginning on the second highest summit along Highway 50 in the Toiyabe Range of central Nevada, so I suspect that these flowers are just the start of what might be spectacular in places later this month, or even in June or early July.
I don't have the names of all these flowers, but the first photo features locoweed (Astragulus sp), and the second photo is of Phlox (Phlox sp.).
Here, a few sunflower-family plants are starting to come up; these are either Wyethia or Balsamorhiza of some type (likely the former, I think). I don't know what the little blue flowers are, but they are beautiful.
And here is some locoweed again, with a few white flowers, possibly Eriogonum, and more unknown tiny yellow flowers.
Barbecue down!
In a few of these shots, I got really low to the ground to try to make it look like some of the more spectacular superbloom-type photos, wherein you can see flowers up close going off into the distance...
...but that didn't really work for me, and getting a good focus was problematic.
Nevertheless, I persisted, and got some good photos of several different types of wildflowers.
Too bad I won't be passing this way until sometime in July. Perhaps the lupine, which has been forming thick fields up on top of Austin Summit ever since a burn in the 1980s, will be blooming then, but the flowers at this lower pass will most likely be done.

4 comments:

Hollis said...

The white flowers with divided petals, in the pic after the downed barbecue, are Lithophragma, woodland star (not sure what species you have there). The tiny blue & white ones look like blue-eyed Mary -- Collinsia parviflora here, not sure that's what you have. I think the eriogonum-like one is in the carrot family (do I see fern-like leaves?), either Lomatium or Cymopteris (hard to tell apart even with plant in hand sometimes). Biscuit root is a common name (many species). The overall inflorescence is very much like buckwheat. I agree on astragalus and phlox, but no idea as to species. Fun to see!

Silver Fox said...

Thanks, Hollis! :-)

I wasn't sure of the leaves for the white flower, possibly Lomatium. I think some of the leaves we're seeing might be from the astragalus, but not sure (obviously needed to *really* zoom in on some of these).

jozien said...

lovely!

Silver Fox said...

Thanks, Jozien. :-)