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Photographed on Sherman Pass Road |
When you click on the images below, you will see a larger photograph of the flower. Below the flower, I have listed the common name, such as,
Mariposa Lily under that, the scientific name of the plant (genus and specific name), Calochortus venustus and under that, the family in which the plant is placed: Onagraceae Common names often refer to more than one flower. "Yellow Monkey Flower" is a good example, where it is used with at least four flowers of the genus, Mimulus . So the scientific name will be helpful for those wanting specific identification. Unfortunately, scientific classification undergoes changes from time to time, where taxonomists reclassify plants. Oscar Clarke, naturalist in Riverside, writes that "recent molecular research has suggested revolutionary repositioning of a family's traditional genera into other families." This means that in some cases, more than visual analysis is required for proper identification. Unfortunate for the casual observer! As an example, some plants in family Scrophulariaceae such as Castilleja (Indian Paintbrush) have been moved to family Orobanchaceae. In these cases I've indicated this as: Orobanchaceae (=Scrophulariaceae) Transfers have been made between genera. Example:   Chrysothamnus nauseosus (Rabbitbrush) is now accepted as Ericameria nauseosa. This also happens with species. An example is one of the lotus plants. Formerly known as Lotus purshianus, it is now classified as Acmispon americanus. This is an unfortunate change, for we lose the significance of the species name, purshianus, which honors the great botanist, Frederick Pursh, who, among other activities, worked on the flora collected on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Some data bases, such as UCBerkeley's CalPhotos , use both the old and new names as search terms. |
I've often included several photographs of a plant to show both the flower and leaves, and the entire plant in its habitat.
In some cases, there are photographs from more than one location to show different habitats. This often results in a difference in color, due to habitat and lighting. On one trip over Sherman Pass Road, I encountered rain and snow flurries. These conditions make flowers look very saturated with deep, beautiful colors and hues. I made no attempt to "adjust" the colors to make examples of the same flower look similar. In photographing flowers, one becomes aware that there is no "true" or "right" color for a flower. All botanists agree that the color or hue are not reliable indicators, since these change according to varying conditions. |
Note: In viewing photographs on a monitor,
you might try Full Screen View (F11 on some browsers) so the screen doesn't look so crowded! |
Click on the image for a larger view |
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