Botanical Terms...A Visual for Suborbicular

Three species of Prairie Star or Fringecup are present in Montana and other parts of the American West. Line drawings and written botanical descriptions (keys) are confusing, unclear and somewhat contradictory on how to separate and identify Lithophragma glabrum and Lithophragma parviflorum. This situation will continue to crop up for all kinds of fauna as our knowledge expands (variation and hybrids). No doubt, photos and line drawings cannot be done for every plant part. So, language must be used to precisely describe plant parts. And plant descriptions are really ripe for some good nature smirking/what-the-heck head scratching.

Here's the leaf blade description from Lesica (2012) for A) Lithophragma glabrum and B) Lithophragma parviflorum:
A) "glabrous below, sparsely hairy above, 5-20 mm wide, reniform, deeply 3-lobed and lobed again."
B) "white-hairy and glandular, 1-3 cm wide, suborbicular, twice deeply 3-lobed ."

Reniform means "kidney shaped" and suborbicular describes imperfectly circular. The leaf shapes don't sort the plants out by my eye using the photos below. On the other hand, leaf hairiness is distinct and quickly separates out the two species. The first key (Lesica 2012) in sorting these species is the number of lobes per flower petal; glabrum has five and parviflorum has three.

Reference: Manual of Montana Vascular Plants, Peter Lesica, 2012, Brit Press, Fort Worth, TX

Here's what they look like:

Lithophragma glabrum flower

Lithophragma glabrum stem leaf

Lithophragma glabrum basal leaf

Lithophragma parviflorum flower

Lithophragma parviflorum stem leaf

Lithophragma parviflorum basal leaf

Wildflowers Now Blooming...Current "Power Tool"

Actively searching out wildflowers this spring. Having much fun with my Canon 70D camera. So I've embedded what I "captured/created" for your viewing pleasure. According to Daniel DiPiazza, Fortune writer, "Creativity is your power tool regardless of your industry". He quotes Picasso, Stephen King and Einstein as to the process used in creativity and problem solving. They recommended "working backwards", setting daily quotas and "combinatory play". May the images below assist in your finding good ideas :-)

Heartleaf Arnica

Red Kittentails

Little Larkspur

Nuttall's Pussytoes

Wyeth's Lupine

More Spring Wildflowers

Our neighborhood has open space "parks" that are essentially disturbed patches of native bunchgrass/forbs. So after work visited for some discovery/camera work. Had success; found three new wildflower species for the year in bloom.

All were fairly easy to detect, 6 inch plus in size either vertical (Hoelbell's Rockcress [Arabis hoelbelli], horizontal (Large-fruit Lomatium [Lomatium macrocarpum] or bushy (Western Gromwell [Lithospermum ruderale]. Wildlife watching strategy can be summed up at times as "what's different?" So, in thirty minutes got fresh air, exercise, employed photography skillset and experienced "flow" (read Csikszentmihalyi 1990). You should try it...it is fun.

Hoelbell's Rockcress

Large-fruit Lomatium

Western Gromwell

Cladonia sp. lichen - The Forest Within the Forest

Sometimes little effort and little space is needed to find wildlife. For instance a single boulder (anywhere, USA) likely has six or more species of crustose (pancake-like in structure) lichen growing on it. Secondly, season doesn't effect lichen watching - snow can't cover everything (e.g. tree trunks, yep lichens grow there).  Thirdly, looking where you step in the forest is the perfect behavior for finding lichens. Yep, soil is one of the most widespread substrate for lichen, especially those species in the genus Cladonia, generically referred to as Pixie Cup Lichen.

Wildlife names usually hint at what the plant/animal looks like. So, Pixie refers to the "little people" myth of the United Kingdom and I'm guessing they employed Cladonia as drinking vessels (many are cup-like in structure and these lichen occur in Great Britain).  The "little people" must have been really small as many of these lichen are only a half-inch tall, if that. For sure they look like cups, but also like a miniaturized forest, stumps and shrubs in particular. You will see what I mean if you take along a hand lens/camera; either is sufficient to magnify and identify. Any public land area in your area should have a representative of the Cladonia genus; there are 128 species in the U.S. (Brodo et al 2001).

Video (habitat and context) and macrophotographs of four species found in the span of a 30 yard road cut at Bass Creek NRA (Stevensville, MT) follow:

Cladonia multiformis (Sieve Lichen)

Cladonia chlorophaea (Mealy Pixie-cup)

Cladonia coniocraea (Common Powderhorn)

Cladonia fimbriata (Trumpet Lichen)

Candy Lichen...Harder to find than Easter Eggs

Candy Lichen (Icmadophila ericetorum) is considered common in Montana (McCune et al 2014) on rotting wood or soil of low to mid-elevation sites. However, finding/photographing this species (at Lolo Creek Campground if you would like to find it too!) is a first for me. Colors and form (mint and pink, what a combination) are distinct...so it should not be hard to miss or misidentify. Size, about 2.5"" in diameter, may be a factor. But that is the beauty of all doing, one never gets it "all" without putting in time (lots usually :-)

Candy Lichen

In fact, finding this plant was Plan B. Originally stopped here to find Fox Sparrow (Passerella iliaca); that did not happen. Temperature of 41 F and snow may have been the cause of this result. Video below gives some context:

Manfrotto 454 Focus Rail...Greaaaat :-)

I just bought a Manfrotto 454 focus rail (photo below) to replace a more generic one; big difference! Pretty simple device, a focus rail is used to manually focus a macro lens. My macro lens is the 65mm MP-E 1-5x Canon; this is an incredible lens...if you can operate it. Again, focus is all manual; it requires (for me) a tripod and a focus rail. The Manfrotto 454 has a wonderful feature, the "quick release mechanism" which gets the lens close to the subject for fine tuning fast. Once close enough, one turns the worm drive for exacting focus. Ophrys Photography has a great overview on this lens.

So, I went to one of my favorite spots for wildlife, Maclay Flat to use this new tool. Within 50 yards of the parking lot found 30 foot tall Ponderosa Pine loaded with crustose and foliose lichen. The weather was not perfect, overcast with intermittent sprinkles. Lack of natural light is not a deal breaker as I use a Canon MR-14EX macro ring lite. Within minutes I've got my rig assembled and mounted on my Manfrotto 190 tripod with a Junior Geared Head.

Compared to the focus rail I had, the 454 focus rail is a Ferrari. Easy to use, smooth, precise and fast. I took a series of photos with the intent of "focus stacking" through Photoshop. I've never done this before; followed directions given by The Nature Photography Co. The bottom photo is my first focus stacked product; it is Hypogymnia physodes or Hooded Tube Lichen. Not the greatest, but a great beginning. Hope you enjoy and see you in the field photographing/watching your favorite wildlife :-)

Manfrotto 454 focus rail

Hooded Tube Lichen

Moss...Wildlife-Wise a Bit O' Green for St. Patrick's Day

Instead of creating a traditional door wreath of moss...I photographed moss for my wee bit of Irish heritage. Went to Fort Fizzle (Lolo National Forest) and immediately found the clumps of green (moss) exposed from the receding snow.
Moss form and color is somewhat variable along with the substrate (rock, wood, soil) moss grows on. Taken together the elements are great subject material for macrophotography. From a biological point of view moss is difficult to identify. In many cases, one needs a compound microscope to view leaf tips (they are only one cell thick, wow!!!) to discern cell pattern. Alternatively, moss produce spores (very small also) from capsules which may also render an identification. No matter, they are beautiful in form and color. The photos below are all unidentified moss (for now) that caught my eye. Enjoy, Happy St. Patrick's Day...

"May the best day of your past

Be the worst day of your future" 

(posted from http://goo.gl/2VAzMq).

"Resistance is Futile"...so say the Borg

The Borg in their drive for achieving perfection assimilate different cultures; we do not confront the sci-fi Borg threat in our daily lives. However, we do encounter the "resistance is futile" message from inside of ourselves...when wanting to take action for whatever reason. Borg-like messaging takes many forms especially in detouring you from 'the best you can be' path; internal resistance (especially fooling yourself) is "protean" as Steven Pressfield writes in the War of Art. Fear in the form of self-doubt, paradoxically may not be resistance, but an indicator of love, yes real aspiration for doing something.  Pressfield builds off of Goethe's couplet: "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, magic, and power in it. Begin it now" by recommending "the magic of keeping it going". He believes that there is organizational genius in nature that assists one in doing. So, whatever metaphoric universe you are building (e.g. book, career, recipe, blog, etc.) natures intelligence is assisting you. It works, I keep this blog going by allowing the 'forces'  (yep, had to get a Star Wars reference in here :-) to assist/augment my ideas. The experiences/ideas keep coming and this blog gets published. Below are my latest macrophotographs and tentative (note the self-doubt) lichen identifications. I love wildlife, now go after your dreams.

Massalongia carnosa

Moelleropsis nebulosa

Xanthoparmelia neochlorochroa

Walking

Walking...wildlife watching, quite unlike Patsy Cline reasons. My walking perspective, six days ago on the south side (grassland) of Mount Sentinel (Missoula) and along forested Howard Creek this morning:



Found four wildflower species on Mount Sentinel, all lovely against the greening grasses.

Little Larkspur

Bonneville Shootingstar

Few-flowered Shootingstar

Nineleaf Biscuitroot

At Howard Creek discovered one species of lichen that was a "lifer" and cyanobacteria that resembles lichen:

Psora nipponica or Butterfly scale

Cyanobacteria (rounded balls)

The Vision Thing

Deepak Chopra introduced a mantra to me "Om Daksam Namah" (My life unfolds in divine order) in an online meditation course sponsored with Oprah that ended about a week ago. The meditations are really good and powerful, but have also found online life coaching advice from Marie Forleo that is a little less passive. A recent Marie TV episode visits 'Life Vision'; Marie in her whimsical, pithy fashion breaks down "is this all there is?"  She emphasizes "the world needs that special gift that only you have". Right on :-) My vision...it's all about adventure, discovery, learning while wildlife watching. Research has identified many 'restorative' benefits of being outside. Try to make it part of your vision even if it does not intersect with your career/doings directly; you can be outside at some point in time in your day. Plant and animal life can be found in the most urban of environments. Discovery and adventure is waiting for you...where you are. Here are some of my recent discoveries in the Bitterroot Valley (video taken at Willoughby 40).

Cous Biscuitroot

Moss (Polytrichium sp.)

Diploschistes  scroposus (Lichen)

Lichens Growing on the Ground

Finally decided to have a go at identifying lichens growing on the ground, especially those in a non-forested habitat. Have been reluctant to do so because these lichens are not macrolichens for the most part, and are therefore harder to identify. Acquired a great reference, A Field Guide to Biological Soil Crusts of Western U.S. Drylands, to make the challenge easier (thanks to Judy Hoy for heads up). The place of choosing, State Trust School Land at the very east end of Willoughby Lane east/southeast of Stevensville, MT. Here's a video giving you some context of the place...great landscape aesthetics:

Can't believe how I overlooked...how obvious some species were (have been to this site many times).
As Henri Bergson stated: “The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend". Found the genus Xanthoparmelia and Diploschistis numerous. Here are three lichen photos with tentative identification (no chemical tests).

Xanthoparmeila norchlorochroa

Diploschistes muscorum

Fulgensia bracteata

Do you agree with the identifications :-) Can't wait to go back for another look now that I have broken the ice.