Plant Orgy Love Child

I've written in the past about Camas flowers- Camassia sp.  I have a breeding project underway to develop new color patterns in the flowers.  So far, I'm at the F1 hybrid stage, where all the plants are homogeneous and boring.  

Out in my garden is a growing hybrid swarm.  I grow the three main species of Camas- C. leichtlinii, C. quamash, and C. cusickii.  They bloom at roughly the same time, so they have all sorts of slutty inter-species sex, resulting in hordes of hybrid offspring.

One such plant bloomed for the first time this year, revealing its crazy flowers.

I'm not sure if I need to improve on that at all at this point.  I will propagate the shit out of this one, while mixing its genetics into my breeding project.  

Fun times!

Trillium

I inherited a large piece of wooded land from my dad.  Every year when we were kids, we would pick morels -Morchella sp, a delicious and easy-to-identify group of mushroom species that grow wild on the place.

In years past, I haven't been up there at the right time to pick them, so I scheduled a weekend camp-out this year.  I also wanted to check out the local wildflowers.  My friend Melissa went with me to see the property and check out the countryside.

We had a moderate harvest of black morels- Morchella elata.  We cooked them in a cast-iron skillet over charcoal- sauteed in butter.  So delicious :)

We also spent some time bushwhacking through the property to check on the health of the trees.  I think I'm going to have to get some logging done, since the fire danger is higher every year.  Some of the more moisture-sensitive speces like Abies grandis are starting to spontaneously die from the hotter and drier climate.  I need to start changing the mix of species to favor fire-resistant species such as Pinus ponderosa, Larix occidentalis, and Pseudotsuga menziesii.  

We chanced upon this Trillium ovatum plant.  

I'm not sure what to make of the variegation.  It may be viral, though I don't see other plants un the area with the same symptoms.  I will just watch it for a few years to see if it is stable.  If so, I will transplant it to my garden for further evaluation.  I may also go back for seed this summer and see what results from that.  

Grass Widows

I recently went on a hike in Washington State, in an area well-known for its wildflowers.  One of the earliest species is Olsynium douglasii, or the grass widow.

While I was there, I viewed thousands upon thousands of individual plants.  Nearly all of the plants had flowers that were pinkish-purple.  

Whenever you are able to look at that many plants at once, you are bound to find some mutations and variations.  Several years ago, I saw a white-flowered form.  This time, I was not able to find it, which made me sad.  Luckily, I found another one in a different location.  

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My favorites, of course, are the pale forms.  this one was just barely pink.  

The best one of the day was this one.  It had a lovely pink star in the center of the flower.  

I would be tempted to collect seed of these forms, and do some breeding.  The trouble is that this plant is a bitch to grow in wetter climates like mine.  I've bought plants from native plant nurseries in the past.  If I'm lucky, they last a couple of years and then die.  As wonderful as it would be to breed new forms of this plant, It doesn't seem worth it to me.  But I will continue to enjoy them on spring hikes!