Environmental Study of my backyard

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Turtle

Need some help ID'ing this wildflower. Wildflower group is gone kinda dead so forgive the double posting.

This is a singular plant ~ 4 feet tall with multiple blooms each on its own stalk and very thin strap-like leaves, and growing in an unattended patch beneath some fruit trees in greater metropolitan Vancouver Washington in the good ol' US of A. The bloom looks similar to Bachelor's Button, but my plant in overall height seems too tall, pistils/stamens don't look similar, and the leaves too straplike for Bachelor's Button. Only other thing I found similar in my books was Spotted Knapweed, but again the pistils/stamens don't match nor the leaves. The plant is over in an acquaintance's backyard and if it survives I will check again for more details and hopefully even collect seeds.

This concludes another random act of flowerage. The smoking light is now on.

You mentioned spotted knapweed, which this is not. However, attending a bug festival in the beginning of June, one of the programs was about using various bugs to get rid of exotic/invasive plants and the knapweeds were mentioned. Also mentioned was a recent introduction of a particularly bad knapweed in the oregon/washington states areas. You might try to research asian and russian knapweeds to figure out if this is one of these bad boys. I just cannot remember they name they tossed out for the new one.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by Cedars

You mentioned spotted knapweed [Turtle], which this is not. However, attending a bug festival in the beginning of June, one of the programs was about using various bugs to get rid of exotic/invasive plants and the knapweeds were mentioned. Also mentioned was a recent introduction of a particularly bad knapweed in the oregon/washington states areas. You might try to research asian and russian knapweeds to figure out if this is one of these bad boys. I just cannot remember they name they tossed out for the new one.

roger. looking at other pictures of Love-in-a-mist i am satisfied that is what i photographed. i will look into the knapweeds for sure; danke schon. so many plants, so little time.

i'm finding out pinning down the lupines is a toughy, with some 2 dozen species around they say. saw a piece on TV last week about the serendipitous find of an extremely rare lupine, Kincaid i believe, on a ranch down in Oregon.

that's all i got.

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Turtle

roger. looking at other pictures of Love-in-a-mist i am satisfied that is what i photographed. i will look into the knapweeds for sure; danke schon. so many plants, so little time.

i'm finding out pinning down the lupines is a toughy, with some 2 dozen species around they say. saw a piece on TV last week about the serendipitous find of an extremely rare lupine, Kincaid i believe, on a ranch down in Oregon.

that's all i got.

Ok. I googled it to find out more.

Nigella damascena - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Looks good to me

[Turtle]

lol i was off googling Kincaid's lupine. looks like it may bee here () within my immediate area, or should be, as i'm at about the Northern limit. had to post on it though for you Cedars, as it is host to a rare butterfly.

Species Fact Sheet
Kincaid's lupine Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii

Conservation Measures
Natural processes which functioned to maintain open grasslands have been altered to the point that intervention is needed to prevent further loss. Historically, large-scale fire played a role in maintaining grasslands in an open state. Today, grassland remnants are no longer maintained by fire due to suppression efforts. Where possible, controlled burning or careful mowing and hand clearing are used to manage grassland ecosystems. However, Kincaid's lupine is host to the endangered Fender's blue butterfly; thus, management actions have to be carefully planned in order to avoid harming the butterfly.

Kincaid's lupine occupies sites throughout the Willamette Valley, a few sites in the Umpqua River Basin, and one site in southern Washington. ...

[Cedars]

Originally Posted by Turtle

lol i was off googling Kincaid's lupine. looks like it may bee here () within my immediate area, or should be, as i'm at about the Northern limit. had to post on it though for you Cedars, as it is host to a rare butterfly.

Species Fact Sheet
Kincaid's lupine Lupinus sulphureus ssp. kincaidii

Just a week or two ago, as I roamed the meadows with my Crex companion, we were discussing the lupine and its dominance along the roadways and resurgence in a clear cut area (cut was winter 07-08). My friend lives near the meadows and wanted to get a few seeds to put on her property. She spent some time researching how to get these guys to grow from seed. Holy cow what a complex project.

Best practice: Buy some started plants.

otherwise place a closed screened object over the seed pods and wait for them to open (explode). Catch the seeds in your screened object (exploding pods disperse seeds). Keep seeds in dry spot for a couple of months. Store seeds in fridge for a couple of months. Remove seeds and carefully nic/rough up each seed or it wont sprout. Plant seeds. You can soak the seeds for a day or place them in wet paper towel until they swell, then plant.

Above advice comes with no warrantee. egads.

This kinda explains why we find the majority of lupine in the meadows along the roads or in recent cut areas. The seeds have been plowed, road rashed and generally abused.

You've been warned.

[freeztar]

Good show. I'm completely unfamiliar with Nigella sp.. The photos seem to match fair enough.