Memories of a Grand Wildflower Day Out

It's now almost a month that Country Mouse and I threw caution in the wind and had a Grand Wildflower Day Out, described with wonderful photos by Country Mouse right after the outing. But I promised I'd show my photos as well, so here they finally are.

Above one of the vernal pool mystery plants. The Wikipedia page on vernal pools says "Vernal pools, also called ephemeral pools, are temporary pools of water. They are usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe development of natal amphibian and insect species." Unfortunately, most of the vernal pools along 140 were fenced in, and parking was difficult. So we glimpsed tantalizing circles of bright yellow or buttery yellow, but couldn't get close. We did later see some vernal pools of a side road where I took this photo of a Triphysaria eriantha (butter and eggs) plus a Chlorogalum pomeridianum (California soaproot).

But even as we approached Mariposa, we started to see beautiful meadows of wildflowers. Nemophilia menziesii (Baby blue eyes) on an embankment.


Also fields of white flowers. This stunning display reminded me a lot of the description of the meadows in the alps in Heidi, the children's book. When I read that book I so longed to see the beautiful flowers in the Alps that amazed Clara, the city girl. But a vacation like that was beyond our means at that time. So it felt really special that I had the chance to see the flowers now, so close to home.



Other flowers were like old friends, like the Dichelostemma capitatum (Blue dick) that I often see on my walks in the parks closer to home. I also loved the Layia platyglossa (tidy tips), looking like small suns on this gray day.






And a gray day it was. We kept hoping for the promised clearing and sunny weather, but it was more like this.


But we were much too excited about the amazing flowers, and making photos is actually more difficult when it's sunny. I would have never been able to make this photo of a beautiful manzanita if it had been sunny.


I now believe that this was most likely a Manzanita viscida (ghost manzanita) -- check out this interesting post about ghost manzanita by Pomona at Tulips in the Woods .

And as Country Mouse already explained, the best was last. The most amazing mountain of lupine. Well, it was actually an embankment, but two species of Lupine were in full bloom. The blue lupine is Lupinus Benthamii (also known as spider lupine). It dominated the display.






It was mixed with a white lupine, Lupinus densiflorus.


An amazing sight. We almost didn't mind the cars racing by.


After all, there were a few more photos to take.


And then the drive home and the joy of having spent a day with the blossoms.