Miner's Lettuce

Miner's Lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) is native to the western mountains and coastal regions of North America with a range stretching from southern Alaska to Central America.  It is common in the spring, preferring cool, damp conditions.  After the first spring rains Miner's Lettuce will begin to appear in sunlit area, drying up as the spring rainy season ends.  The leaves turn a deep red as they dry out.

Photo taken 5/4/13 in Yosemite National Park

As a seedling the cotyledons are bright green, succulent, long and narrow.  The first true leaves form a rosette at the base of the plant.  As the plant matures numerous erect to spreading, slender stems branch from the base and reach up to 8 inches in length.  

Flowers bloom from February through May.  The small pink or white flowers have 5 petals, 1/8-1/2 inches long.  The flowers are grouped 5-40 on slender down curved stalks.  The flower stalk appears to grow through a circular cupcake structure (bract) that looks like a leaf and surrounds the entire stem.  

The common name refers to the plant's use by California gold miners who ate it as a leaf vegetable to prevent scurvy.  The leaves can be eaten raw in salads or boiled like spinach which it resembles in taste.  Unfortunately the plant occasionally accumulates soluble oxalates, which can be toxic when ingested.

Other common names for Miner's Lettuce are Indian Lettuce, Streambank Spring Beauty, and Winter Purslane.

Photo taken 4/13/14 at  Hood River, OR.

Greenleaf Five Eyes

Greenleaf Five Eyes, Chamaesaracha coronopus,  is an unobtrusive little native flower that grows in deserts and dry sandy soil in the uplands of the western part of the US.  A pale, yellowish green, this flower appears in the late spring and blooms all summer.  In the fall the flowers are followed by yellow seed pods that are edible, but without much flavor.

The leaves are green, of a linear, narrowly elliptic shape, 1/2 to 3 inches long. Covered in fine white hairs, the leaves alternate along the stem.  The plant sprawls along the ground, rarely growing to a height greater than 10 inches.

The flowers are flat, 3/4 to 1 inch wide, and have fused sepals and petals with a raised white spot at each petal base and 5 stamens.

The Greenleaf Five Eyes is a member of the Nightshade family and is also known as Small Groundcherry and Green False Nightshade.

Greenleaf Five Eyes.  Photo taken at the Aztec Ruins National Monument in 

Aztec, New Mexico, September, 2013.

Common Snowberry

My last flower was from over 10,000 feet in elevation.  I thought that this week I'd bring it a little further down, closer to sea level.  This week's pick is the common Snowberry.  

The snowberry, Symphoricarpos, is a member of the honeysuckle family.  Also known as waxberry or ghost berry, it is usually recognized by the closely packed greenish-white to pink berries it produces.  Native to North America, this shrub grows to 3-5 feet and spreads out to 4-6 feet wide.  Leaves are typically 1.5 inches long and elliptic to oval in shape, thin and light green on the upper surface and paler below.

The flowers appear in the spring to mid summer in small dense clusters at the ends of the branches.  They are pinkish to white, only around 3/16" long, and bell-shaped.  

The Snowberry is attractive to bees and butterflies during blooming and the berries provide a winter feast for the birds.  (Tacoma, WA, May, 2014)

The Snowberry has been listed as threatened in Maryland and endangered in Kentucky.  

(Tacoma, WA, May, 2014)

Why Tiny Wildflowers?

My husband and I retired 5 years ago and decided to sell off almost all of our worldly goods and hit the road in an RV to see America.  Starting out, wildflowers were something that I saw along the ditches while driving down the road.  Soon, as we traveled, hiked, and explored, they became rather fascinating to me.  The infinite variety and beauty began to intrigue.  They all seemed to be begging to have their photograph taken.  Then, as I photographed more and more flowers and tried to research their names (in and of itself a challenge for someone with NO botany experience), I realized that the tiniest of flowers were much harder to find in books and on the internet.  They get little respect in the world of flowers.  Yet I find them the most endearing of all.  Tiny, inconspicuous unless growing in masses, the tiny wildflowers beckon to their pollinators and thrive.  So I decided to start this blog in honor of these, the tiniest of flowers.

If I have mislabeled a flower, please let me know.  My identifications are made through as much research as I can manage, but as I said, I am self-taught and have much yet to learn.

I'll start with a bright yellow, cheerful little fellow called Chamber's Twinpod (Physaria chambersii), usually seen from April through early August.  A member of the Mustard family, this is a small plant, usually between 2 and 6 inches.  It grows in sandy or rocky locations throughout Nevada, Utah, and northern Arizona, with small areas of eastern California and southeast Oregon.  The name twinned describes the fruit which is divided into two sections, each containing four seeds.

Photographed August 14, 2013 at an elevation of 11, 306 feet on Brian Head Peak in Cedars Break National Monument, Utah

Basal leaves, below the flower stalks, are quite large and spoon-shaped, while those along the stalks are much smaller.  The flowers have four petals at right angles, with a small cluster of stamens in the middle, protruding slightly.  The entire flower is 0.8-1 inch across.