An Almost Empty Basket

After yet more frogging, I managed to finish stitching the basket and a couple of the eggs.  This time of year a basket could easily be filled with wildflowers.

Take a walk with me and see what I mean.

On a gray Saturday morning my sister and I headed out to the eastern entrance of Buford Park, near Pleasant Hill, OR.

The almost 5,000 acre park includes the confluence of the Middle Fork and Coast Forks of the Willamette Rivers, Mt Pisgah (1,531'), open prairie, 

and remnants of the oak savannas that once embodied the Willamette Valley. 

We signed up to take part in a three mile Wildflower Walk through wetlands, prairie, and savanna.

While many of the wildflowers were familiar to me, there were easily a dozen I'd never seen before.

The wetland meadows are home to the critically endangered Bradshaw's Lomatium (Lomatium bradshawii).  It is a small unassuming plant. There were several different kinds of Lomatiums - a family of wildflowers of which I was totally unfamiliar.

I did clear how to tell the difference between two kinds of native Camas we have.  This is Common Camas (Cammassia quamash). One of the petals on the flowers is substantially longer than the others.

This is Great Camas (Camas leichtlinii).

All six petals are the same size.

We crossed Buckbrush Creek.

It is named for the Buckbrush that line the banks of the creek (bottom of photo). 

Buckbrush is also called Redstem Ceanothus (Ceanothus sanguineus) and the shrub grows up to 10' tall.

As we walked along we were treated to some nice vistas off to the eastern foothills.

This is Bog Saxifrage (Micranthes oregana).

It likes wet meadows.

I think I've seen Large Leaf Avens (Geum macrophyllum) on my walks at home. It is another wetland lover. 

Here's a lovely group of Rosy Plectritis (Plectritis congesta).

Still another wetlands lover - there's a theme here!

I think I was most taken with the Oak savannas. So pretty now that they are beginning to leaf out. 

I did not get a name for this pretty little wildflower.

This wildflower's common name is Rusty-haired popcorn flower (Plagiobothrys nothofulvus). A long name, but far less of a mouth-full than the Latin name! It has a rather specific habitat of grassy hillside fields.

Here's another wildflower whose name passed me by.

I wanted to share this view with you!  

It was worth pausing and just looking.

No name again, but I know this is some kind of small wild onion.

And this is a Monkey Flower - a Mimulus of some sort.

I seem to have collected shots of small white unnamed wildflowers!

While the day was rather dark and it rained the last 20 minutes, it was a pleasant way to spend the morning.  The eastern part of the park was extremely quiet - we met one person on horseback, otherwise we were alone with nature!