An Assortment of Colours of California Wildflowers
Here is a memory from 2017’s bloom in the Californian desert within Joshua Tree National Park. I’ve heard this year is also turning out to be an exceptional one.
UBC Botanical Garden’s forums have been operating for almost eighteen years. The most frequented part of the forums is the plant identification section, which frequently has worldwide participation in solving these mysteries. Lila Pereszke from Hungary identified the plant in today’s images, which was photographed by the Scotland-dwelling Sheila during her travels to Mauritius!
Usually, ferns have their spore-bearing structures (or sori) on the surface of the frond or lamina (e.g., Polypodium glycyrrhiza). Sometimes, as in Adiantum shastense (see image in comments), the sori are marginal or on the edge of the frond. A third scenario is presented today: stalked marginal sori that extend from the tips of the veinlets.
Halophytes, or salt-tolerant plants, are found in a number of environments: seashores, mangrove swamps, salt marshes & swamps, and, as in today’s photographs, saline semi-deserts. Two halophytic grasses, saltgrass (Distichlis spicata) and alkali-grass (Puccinellia nuttalliana), make an appearance in the images. The top image primarily features saltgrass with perhaps some alkali-grass in the upper right corner. The swath of finer-textured taller grasses in the second image is comprised of alkali-grass, while the coarser-textured salt-grass occurs along the edge of the swath and is dotted among the salt-encrusted soil.
