2019 - Robert's botanical adventures in Northern California

[Leucogenes]

Hi Thomas,

I may not be out again until after the 4th of July holiday here in the U.S.A. 

Eriogonum prattenianum var. prattenianum has beautiful silvery and woolly foliage. I have one specimen that I grew from seed in our Sacramento garden (they can also be propagated asexually). It thrives in our garden and looks great. It can be a bit sparse during the winter, but then I enjoy this wintertime look too. I would like to grow more seedlings. I have a great deal of data from this site, if by chance you are interested in the environment in which these plants grow.

Yes...more information about the life of Eriogonum prattenianum var. prattenianum is very welcome. I would also appreciate a detailed photo of the foliage. I have a few species of Eriogonum in my garden...but not this one. The silvery hairy species I like the most. 

I am also curious to see how the cultivation of this beautiful Penstemon roezlii will continue in your garden.

Thomas

[Robert]

Thomas,

I know that it takes me time to get to things. Jasmin and I have been in and out of town over the last few days.

Eriogonum prattenianum var. prattenianum is such a fine species. I will try to get out a get a close up of the foliage in the next day or two and post a photograph. I do not always have good luck with close up photographs but I will do my best.

Given what I observe on Peavine Ridge, Eriogonum parattenianum will most likely grow well in ordinary well-drained garden soil, at least here in hot, dry interior California. Right now my only specimen is in a large tub with an extremely well draining soil mixture. I have other Eriogonum species growing in ordinary garden soil that are thriving. I am sure that it helps that we never water them during the dry summer months. It can be 40 C and they do not need any irrigation.

Eriogonum prattenianum is a fairly small species. Next time I am on Peavine Ridge I will take some measurements and pass them on to you. Most likely it will be a species that you will enjoy growing as it stays relatively small.

I know that I promised you some photographs of our garden too. I have not forgotten and I will get around to this too. The garden is in summer mode now - not lush and green. Most of our garden is becoming xeric and will have that interior California look i.e. dry    I have always lived in California so the dry summertime look seems normal and natural to me. It also presents some creative challenges, like how to create flower color in summer and autumn. We actually have native annuals and perennials that might fill this need. Fun gardening stuff to experiment with.     

[Robert]

Hi Thomas,

This is the best that I can do with a close up of the foliage - Eriogonum prattenianum var. prattenianum.

The cob-webs are indeed cob-webs from spiders, not some unusual feature of the foliage. I just renewed my driver's license and my far sight vision is good (no glasses needed). Not so good with my near sight vision! I can not function reading without glasses. If I saw the webbing before the photograph, I would have cleaned it up before taking the photograph. Such are things!     

[Leucogenes]

Hi Robert

Thank you very much for the interesting photo. This foliage fits exactly to my baggage scheme. Great shape and color.

Also my eyes are no longer good. Reading only with glasses. I would be disappointed if you had removed the cobwebs. I much prefer a natural appearance... perfect for me... no show.

In the appendix the flower of Eriogonum kennedyi...from the Ventura Co. / California.

[Robert]

My wife and I have used the U.S. holiday to get some clean up work done.

My next outing will be this coming week. 

[Robert]

The U.S. Forth of July holiday is over and I was able to to return to the Sierra Nevada Mountains yesterday.

This is a photograph of a small portion of Wilson Meadow.



Lyons Creek flows into Wilson Meadow.

I hope to work in this area this coming week. The wildflowers are blooming at this elevation and hopefully I can put together an interesting report.

[Robert]

It was a beautiful day in the Sierra Nevada Mountains today.

It was also one of those days. 

The good news is that I think that I managed to jump start a data logger that was malfunctioning. 

The bad news is that the main 2 inch water line on the farm failed. 

I did travel to the mountains today, however the outing will need to be rescheduled. It all depends on when I can get the water line fixed. It is a messy job, however once I have the one correct replacement part the job should go quickly, and hopefully easily.



Much of the crest on Peavine Ridge is very dry, but there were some nice patches of Brodiaea elegans ssp. elegans in bloom.

Also, while trouble shooting the data logger, I was able to observe some of the diurnal wind patterns at a unique site in the Crystal Basin.

So, despite an above average number of challenges today, things went well. The next outing will be sometime soon. 

[Robert]

This morning’s 850 mb precipitable water moisture transport. The 1200 UTC (5:00 a.m. local time) temperature in Las Vegas, Nevada was 90 F (32.2 C). It appears that the Southwest U.S. monsoonal season is arriving. The moisture is still far from our portion of the Northern Sierra Nevada Mountains. I checked our local conditions this morning. There is a bit of moisture over the Crystal Range and neighboring regions. At best, there might be a bit of convective cloudiness today over the Crystal Range.

How the SW Monsoon will impact our portion of the Sierra Nevada Mountains this summer will have my attention. 

Stay tuned. 

[Robert]

Just a follow up on a few items:

> I repaired the 2-inch main water on the farm yesterday. It was a messy job, took a bit of time, but it was fairly easy to accomplish.



> I would like to follow up on my mountain weather forecast from this morning. Basically my forecast for the Crystal Range was correct. There was very little convective cloudiness in this region, however I was surprised by the thunderstorm activity in Nevada to the southeast of the Crystal Range. In the afternoon, as I was driving up the mountain toward the farm in Placerville I noticed convective storms to the east. It was not until I had a good view of the Crystal Range that I could determine that the storms were to the southeast of the Crystal Range in Nevada. This is not an unusual event this time of year. In this satellite image, above, you can see the storm to the southeast of Lake Tahoe. Although this is a bit out of my territory, still, I was not expecting any storm activity in this area as I looked over the data in the morning.



This is a radar image of the same storm later in the early evening. Due east of Carson City, Nevada the storm can be seen decaying. From my perspective in California, I did not notice much glaciation occurring in the storm top during the late afternoon. Most likely the storm decayed as solar energy diminished, convective energy waned, and sinking motion in the atmosphere started to occur during the early evening.

I learn a great deal by forecasting potential storm development in the morning and then analyzing the results and all the data at the end of the day.

It will not be long now and I will be out again. In the mean time there are many things that keep me busy. For me atmospheric science is a passion and very relevant to the ecology and flora of a region.

[Robert]

We are having warm days in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Todays high temperature (13 July) on Peavine Ridge was 86 F (30 C).



Many species have started to bloom about a week later than average this year. I attribute this delay to the cool summer weather to date. The month of May ran 3.33 F (1.85 C) below the 30-year mean, and June was 1.58 F (0.88 C) above the 30-year mean. Although June had slightly above average temperatures, there were only 10 days with temperatures ≥ 90 F (32.2 C) and no temperatures above 100 F (37.8 C). This is a bit unusual.

Monardella villosa looking good today.



Large sheets of Navarretia leptalea ssp. leptalea can be seen blooming at the 5,000 ft. (1,524 meters) elevation.



Lessingia leptoclada is a late blooming species. This annual species will continue to bloom into the autumn months. This species persists and blooms despite extreme drought and heat. They are frequently seen growing in bare mineral earth with full exposure to solar radiation. Soon, I hope to get an afternoon temperature reading of the earth surface with my inferred thermometer. I will not be surprised if I get a reading of 60 C to 80 C. Bare earth surface temperatures in this range are not unusual in the alpine plant zone, where solar radiation can be intense.

The heat fluxes through the soil are very interesting. I record daily heat fluxes at both 10 cm and 15 cm below the surface at various sites under various conditions. The data is very fascinating and revealing. Depending on the time of year, and other variables, soil temperature fluctuations can have a noticeable impact on specific species of plants.



A few clouds appeared over the Crystal Range this afternoon (13 July). During my next outing I will attempt to hike to the highest elevations in the Crystal Range.

Stay tuned…

[Robert]

I had a very interesting and productive day in the Sierra Nevada Mountains yesterday. The scene pictured looks dry and void of plants in flower, however this was not the case at all.



Lilium washingtonianum ssp. washingonianum is just one example of the species seen on this outing. I think that I have a good story to tell. As time permits I will get this outing posted. 

[Maggi Young]

Lilium washingtonianum ssp. washingonianum is so elegant. I  love the  delicate  spotting on the  outers.

[Robert]

Lilium washingtonianum ssp. washingonianum is so elegant. I  love the  delicate  spotting on the  outers.

Hi Maggi,

Lilium washingtonianum ssp. washingtonianum also has a wonderful clove fragrance.

A general question for anyone out there:

For the most part the species seems very difficult to cultivate, at least in a wide variety of gardening situations.  Do you know of any hybrids or forms that preform well in a wide variety of garden situations? It sure would be a nice break-through for horticulture.

[Robert]

Currently, my workload is a bit overwhelming. I will post a few photographs of scenes from the Sierra Nevada Mountains occasionally as time permits.

A scene from the Sierra Nevada Mountains taken last week before the Southwest Monsoon began in earnest. So far, most of the thunderstorm action has been to the east and south of our area.



Hackelia veluntina



Ipomopsis aggregata ssp. aggregata



Monardella breweri ssp. lanceolata



Field Crescents, Phyciodes campestris

[Robert]

Yesterday's satellite image of our region. 

I will be working in the Sierra Nevada Mountains tomorrow. It looks as if the monsoonal moisture will be shunted off to the east over the next few days, so the weather looks pretty good. If all goes well I will have some nice photographs to share.