August28_2010

Botanical Glossary - Home - References Cited

Continuing the exploration of a trail that leads from the end of Gallaghers Canyon road to the top of Layer Cake Mountain.

Photos - Frames left and center: Castilleja Thompsonii (Thompson's Paintbrush) is a perennial with a cluster of hairy, sometimes branched stems. The leaves are linear, without lobes on lower leaves, while the upper leaves have 1 to 2 pairs of long, narrow, divergent lobes. The flowers are typical of the paintbrush plant except that they are greenish to yellow and rather inconspicuous in their lack of color. These plants are scattered but locally common at low to middle elevations in dry grassland area and open grassy slopes in the southern Rocky Mountain Trench.

Frame right: A composition of wood - nature's art: pine cones and a gnarly wood where it falls.

Photos - Looking southeast from the Layer Cake Mountain Trail located on the north rim of Gallaghers Canyon up the Canyon following the flow of Mission Creek (left) and to the opposite side of the canyon rim to the south side. Center frame shows a bit of a garbage dump where folks have seen fit to dispose of 5 or 6 motor vehicles over the edge and into the canyon.

Photos - L-R - Looking southwest from the top of Layer Cake Mountain through an old dead tree snag toward Myra Canyon Park Land.

A fine example of Erigeron Corymbosus (Long Leaved Daisy). This is a taprooted perennial with long, narrow basil leaves, which taper gradually into the stalk. The leaves have three prominent veins and dense, spreading hairs. The flowers are composite heads with 35 to 65 deep blue to pink colored ray flowers and a yellow disc flower in center which blooms in spring. This daisy is common to low elevations in the Thompson Okanagan basins and southern Rock Mountain Trench in open grasslands with sagebrush and open forest areas.

More of nature's art: a tall stump that has been hollowed out by insect eating birds.

Click here for more photos of Layer Cake Hill for this day.