Flowers, etc.

There are prickly pear all over Hell's Half-Acre. According to the signposts, they're probably "Starvation Prickly Pear." *shrugs* And the black fuzzy things are some sort of lichen.









From the looks of the leaves and florets, this is probably in the carrot/parsley family. [FOUND: Yup, in the parsley family. Fern-leaf Lomatium aka Biscuitroot, Lomatium dissectum. Looks like the roots are edible, too.]









These are tiny TINY purple flowers. I'm amazed I got ANY of them in focus. They were by the AF dam again. [Haven't found this one yet. My best guess is that it's some sort of rock cress.]











I'm pretty sure this is a fern of some sort. Quite pretty, and as large as a bush. It also has very, VERY fragrant leaves/needles/fronds. [FOUND (I think): Western Cliff-Fern, Woodsie oregana. One of the few ferns that seems to grow in dry, rocky areas. However, my one book with ferns in it has very few, so it may merely be a close relative.]













The ubiquitous penstemon...that I only heard of last summer. But it seems to show up in lots of different places. I haven't tried to figure out which variety this one is yet. And, just for fun, a picture of the penstemon that did NOT turn out comes next. It's extremely tricky to take extreme close-ups of flowers with an automatic focus camera. I've figured out some tricks (in extreme cases, block off the background so the camera can't focus on it), but I still don't always get it to work. [FOUND: Hot-rock Penstemon, Penstemon deustus, the only white penstemon in Idaho, apparently.]

















This one I recognize. It grows in town in "disturbed areas." It's called Storksbill. For why, see the seeds in the next picture.























Final flower of the trek(s). It was a big bushy thing growing next to one of the picnic table shelters. [FOUND: looks like this is Wormseed mustard, Erysimum cherinathoides. I found this one in a source I didn't use last time: Weeds of the Northern U.S. and Canada by Royer and Dickinson. Another source (Plants of R.M.) mentions that the name 'wormseed' comes from the plant traidionally being used to rid the body of intestinal worms. No indication as to whether it actually worked.]