August27_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Flowers and plants attract butterflies - these photos are from the northern Rim of Gallaghers Canyon at the end of Gallaghers Canyon road in East Kelowna. At the end of the road there is a small dirt parking spot and a trail head that leads above layer Cake Mountain. If you like the thrill of standing on a mountain top and looking over the edge, this is the place to go.

Photos - L-R - Creamy yellow flowers on a red stem: Heuchera Cylindrica (Round-leaf Alumroot) is a member of the Saxifrage family; a perennial which has one or more stems with basil, long-stalked, heart-shaped or kidney-shaped, 5-9 broadly rounded leaves, shallow lobes with round-teeth and usually hairy. Flowers are cream to greenish yellow (these flowers are long past their peak of blossoming) in a long, narrow inflorescence with bell-shaped calyx, often lacking petals with narrow bases, 5 stamens. The Alumroot plants were important medicinal species for the North American Aboriginals and herbalists. The root is a very intense astringent that was reportedly used to treat cancer in the 18th century. A root infusion was used to treat sore throats and liver disorder . The roots of several Heuchera were pounded and dried to apply as a poultice to cuts are sores to help stop bleeding and to promote healing. The Secwepemc reportedly used leaves added to water to make a solution to bathe sore feet and used it to treat diarrhea. Alumroot was also preferred to use as a mordant to fix certain dyes.

Lycaeides Arygyrognomon (Northern Blue) bright silvery blue winged male with a narrow dark border, the female is dark gray-brown with greater or lesser rows of orange spots above. The wings below are colored dirty white to a light tan with a black line around the extreme outer margin, thin in most parts of the wing but sometimes getting thicker at the vein intersections which forms distinct triangular spots. Also, a submarginal row of silvery blue-green, orange and black spots are visible, sometimes faded and reduced.

Euphilotes Enoptes (Dotted Blue) The male is bright blue above with wide or thin black margins on the hind wing sometimes is a row of small spots, also sometimes has a submarginal shading orangish in color on the hind wing. Underneath the wings both sexes have light grayish overall color with black spots and a row of orangespots that are submarginal on the hind wing that are bordered on both sides by black spots.

Photos - Three poses of a Hemiargus Isola (Reakirt's Blue, Solitary Blue) is a relatively small butterfly almost never owing much over an inch in length. It has lilac blue color on top (male) while the female has a dusky dark smoke color with bluish interior. Both hind wing spots lack orange and are cream-brown with flushed white below the wings, with a prominent series of roundish dark black forward wing spots rimmed by thin white ring.

Photos - L-R - A Saxifrage plant with succulent red leaves on the lip of the Layer Cake Mountain trail.

This Fir Tree has had all of its pine cones eaten by feisty squirrels looking for free meals, making this tree look like it is something out of an alien planet.

Looking over the edge of Layer Cake Mountain hundreds of feet above Mission Creek flowing through Gallaghers Canyon Below

Click here for more photos of Gallaghers Ganyon for this day.