naked mariposa lily ~ 05/14/13 ~ Lang Crossing

naked mariposa lily
Calochortus nudus
 Liliaceae

posted 06/02/13 - This is my best guess. The other possibility is the Sierra mariposa lily (Calochortus minimus). Ya, I looked at Jepson eFlora for both nudus and minimus, and I can't make heads or tails out of it. Regardless of what it is, I like it! If anyone knows for sure which species, please comment.

yellow star-tulip ~ 05/14/13 ~ Washington

yellow star-tulip

Calochortus monophyllus

Liliaceae

I was pleased to find yet another Calochortus.  I wonder if these yellow star-tulips might be bigger if they were on better soil, kinda like how fairly lanterns are incredibly small at Fort Ord compared to all the other places I've found them.  It's interesting that the common names seem to divide the genus into globe lilies, mariposa lilies, and star-tulips.  Considering the current enthusiasm for renaming everything under the sun, I'm betting Calochortus will be split apart at some point in the future.

ps - I'm still hoping someone out there knows which x-some deletion causes short pinky fingers.

Leichtlin's mariposa lily ~ 05/14/13 ~ Washington

Leichtlin's mariposa lily

Calochortus leichtlinii

Liliaceae

Calochortus are quickly becoming one of my favorite groups of flowers.  They're common enough that I'm rarely disappointed at not seeing any, and they're distinctive enough that they stop me in my tracks.

fairy lantern ~ 07/14/11 ~ Garland Ranch

fairy lantern / white globe lily
Calochortus albus
Liliaceae

I remember hiking past fairy lantern seed pods in the past and not knowing what they were at all. Now that I'm beginning to recognize a decent set of local flowers, I'm gradually discovering the beauty and identity of the structures that surround seeds, such as pods and fruits. It's a natural progression of my learning curve.

I've recently reorganized my labels for plants and have edited and added new labels, such as *fruits/seeds. My eventual goal is that someone visiting my blog can click on a name in the labels (at the bottom of every post) and see how a plant looks throughout the year and note some locations it can be found. I've mostly done this for poison-oak already since it is ubiquitous. Plus, you may start seeing labels with a number added to the end, like poison-oak 2. I'm designating the numbered labels for when the plant is pictured but is not the focus of the post. I'm hoping this will help give a sense of the habitat and what other plants can be found with it.

As a final blogging brief note, I often choose a less attractive photo for posting to Nature ID if it shows the features I want to highlight, such as the three part seed pod of the fairy lantern. This sometimes makes for a less visually appealing blog, but that's not my primary purpose.

butterfly mariposa lily ~ 06/09/11 ~ Pinnacles

butterfly mariposa lily among wild oat

Calochortus venustus among Avena fatua
Liliaceae and Poaceae

We saw whole hillsides of this beautiful lily in various shades from white to pink. Unfortunately, the invasive wild oat was taller than the lilies and made them difficult to spot in photographs.

ps 08/07/11 - Thanks to Way Points post on mariposa lilies, I looked at these again to double-check the IDs. Many of the 45 kinds of mariposa lilies found in CA look very similar. I'm not familiar enough to know the tricks to look for to distinguish between the species and Jepson's descriptions confuse me. Here are links to Flickr groups that highlight mariposa lilies, CaliFlora and Calochortus beauty. I wonder if one or more of these might be clay mariposa lily (Calochortus argillosus) even though it is not on the official Pinnacles plant list. I asked on a Flickr picture with hopes to get an answer. Does anyone know of how to tell the difference between mariposa lilies?

yellow mariposa lily ~ 06/02/11 ~ Fort Ord

yellow mariposa lily
Calochortus luteus
Liliaceae

large flowered star-tulip ~ 03/20/11 ~ Fort Ord

large flowered star-tulip
Calochortus uniflorus
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Liliaceae

I've posted this large flowered star-tulip before from May 8, 2010, but I want to note the March timing of this bloom, which was found in almost the exact same spot as last year. These are not very common and are restricted in where they grow, near wet meadows and vernal pools. I wish I could have gotten some other photo angles, but the surrounding grass was taller than the bloom. The flower is surprisingly large (almost 2 1/2" across) compared to its diminutive height (maybe 6" tall at the most). They're difficult to spot unless they're fairly close to a trail, and I generally stick to trails out of respect for the sensitive public lands I hike.

After the vandalism the past two years of "closed trail" signs, there's a new sign at the InterGarrison entrance that now states all trails are closed unless specifically marked as open. Considering the Army is still in the process of removing old ordinances, this isn't only for the safety of plants but also for people (no joke, we sometimes hear explosions when they do their annual burns). I love Fort Ord and I hope all those folks who wish to continue using it for recreation such as hiking, biking, horse riding, and nature loving will appreciate the hard work of the land managers who want to save this unique habitat for everyone and everything. OK, I'll get off my soapbox.

ps - I'm in the process of back-posting the rest of my Fort Ord finds with hopes to refresh my memory for my favorite wildflower months of April and May. I always date my CA nature posts to the date of the photographs. Depending on how you access my blog, say through a reader, this might not make sense; it may look like this pic was taken the day I post (03/29/11) or look like I haven't posted in a couple weeks due to the date of the photograph (03/20/11). If you go straight to Nature ID, all pics and posts are dated and in the order that I intend for later archival reference. Apologies, I still haven't figured out a way to explain this properly since everyone has different ways of reading and following blogs, and the way I post is not typical of the blogosphere.

fairy lantern / white globe lily
Calochortus albus
Liliaceae

These were fairly small, similar to those I saw last year at Fort Ord. I normally think of fairy lanterns as being larger and in fewer numbers like at Point Lobos and Garland Ranch. I wouldn't be surprised if someone came along and started splitting these into subspecies. I was impressed to see so many at Jack's Peak.

large flowered star-tulip ~ 05/08/10 ~ Fort Ord

large flowered star-tulip
Calochortus uniflorus
CNPS 8th Edition Inventory
Liliaceae

Superficially, this looks like the splendid Mariposa lily (C. splendens), but I checked where each was found. I see C. uniflorus only next to one particular wet meadow at Fort Ord. Plus, as a double-check, the large flowered star-tulip is listed as one of four species of Calochortus found at Fort Ord. During a hike last year on May 23, 2009, I saw two of the other Calochortus, a yellow Mariposa lily and a fairy lantern. Now, all I need to do is find a butterfly mariposa lily and I'll have my Fort Ord Calochortus collection complete.

fairy lantern / white globe lily
Calochortus albus
Liliaceae

I have never seen so many fairy lanterns in my life as I did at Los Padres!!! Wow!!! Everywhere we looked on the hillsides along the trail, fairy lanterns and more fairy lanterns. These had a beautiful pink tinge. They were sized smaller than what I've seen at Garland Ranch and Point Lobos, but bigger than at Fort Ord. Plus, there were multiple blooms on a stalk, unlike how I've seen them in the past with just 1-3 blooms.

yellow mariposa lily
Calochortus luteus
Liliaceae

fairy lantern ~ 05/23/09 ~ Fort Ord

fairy lantern / white globe lily
Calochortus albus
Liliaceae

I have a hard time believing this is the same species as what I saw at Point Lobos on April 30, 2009. This is so tiny!

fairy lantern / white globe lily
Calochortus albus
Liliaceae

I love finding these and have seen them at Garland Ranch before.