Identifying plants, butterflies, etc. is time consuming and hard to do with kids hanging on me (and computer equipment!) - some of our discoveries I have identified. I'm working on the rest and will update as possible. I'll number them - if you know what anything is, please (pretty please!) leave a comment.
1. Waterleaf
Waterleaf picked for me by J.
3. Lichen - A is particularly excited about Lichen and was thrilled to find this stick covered with it. Do you want to know "All About Lichen" and learn more than you thought you wanted to know?
4. My friend called this dainty blue and white flower a "Virgin Blue-Eyed Mary," but when I looked it up I didn't find any similar images under that name.
7. Yellow flowers are so hard to identify - there are so many of them! This flower had 7-9 flower heads per stem with 5-7 stems per plant. I was leaning towards one certain flower, but I've lost my notes and am having a hard time finding what I thought it might be in my book again - Sagebrush Country: A Wildflower Sanctuary.
8. I am pretty sure this next flower is not native. I know its some kind of tulip as I saw it at a local tulip festival, but I don't remember its name. I'm going to blame the tulip eating deer who forage throughout the city for transplanting it, but I kind of have a grudge - tomatoes last year, broccoli & cauliflower the year before.
9. Forget-Me-Not - maybe :) I almost think it doesn't have the same look as a Forget-Me-Not, but looks enough like it that I'm not sure.
11. The next flower is a complete mystery - I've never seen a simliar flower. The flower blooms in the middle of the leaf - it was a remarkable looking plant. The lower picture shows more of the plant and an unbloomed flower.
A couple more discoveries without pictures:
Wild Onion - Not blooming yet, but that strong, unique scent is hard to miss. It smells so wholesome and fortifying (deep breathe, sigh), and they are beautiful when they bloom.
Cactus - Prickly Pear I believe, and not necessarily a new discovery. We do like to watch for the blooms and my kids love shrieking out warnings - "Watch out for the cactus!"
Bluebirds - I believe they were Mountain Bluebird, but they didn't wait around for me to know for sure. However, the Western Bluebird isn't commonly known to be in our area so I can somewhat safely assume they were Mountain Bluebirds. Can you ever safely assume anything to do with nature?
Mystery Butterfly/Moth - my daughter tried to catch it as I tried to take a picture - c'est la vie. It was dark brown, maroon, or black with a white band on the edge of the lower wings, possibly the upper wings too - is that description helpful? No? Well, I've looked at hundreds of pictures and still haven't identified it, and I'm the one who saw it! So don't feel bad.
I think we will use this hike throughout the Spring - Summer - Fall to continue discovering new things as this area changes.
