I had the pleasure of attending a wildflower hike this past weekend, a guided hike led by members of the Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, a local environmental advocate agency.
I’m always on the look for flowers to capture and this trip took me to an area that Goddess and I have not visited (not that that is difficult, there is so much more to see and do in Oregon). Unfortunately, Goddess had a school day, so she dropped me off so I could catch a ride.
The area we were hiking is along the Rogue River here in Oregon, upstream of the stretch known as the Wild and Scenic Rogue River, a protected area designated in 1968.
With about 20 of us, plus the two guides, we stretched out quickly. Both of the guides had identification books that were specific to the stretch we were hiking, one at the front, one at the rear.
I wish I had stuck with either one.
Sitting here, processing these images and then trying to figure out what the flowers are soon became overwhelming. I’ve put in the general bits that I could figure out, but most are missing. That’s when I realized there’s a huge disconnect between my long-nurtured style of photography and flower identification.
I guess it’s time to take a class.
So, having said that, if you have an idea of what genus a flower is in a certain image, please leave a comment. I’ll do the digging.
Yes, I know this a fern, not a flower. But these little guys sure were neat to see, growing out of a fine moss layer covering rock. It may take millennia, but between the plants and water, these hills will be flat.
These little ones were trickier than I thought. They are succulents, which I thought would make it easy to figure out here in Oregon. But no.
There were plenty of purple flowers along the trail. It was easy to think that they were all the same. Looking at the details, they were not. For example, compare to flower 6 above.
I heard someone mention that the following type was a “paintbrush”. That narrows it down to the Castilleja genus. But there are 30 different species here in Oregon. Based on color alone, I can immediately elimate about 1/3 of those, but that’s when the details get me.
Like this. It’s a yellow flower with eight petals. Easy to figure out? Nope. I’d tell you how many different species there are in Oregon, but apparently I’ve just crashed the database.
This might be a grass. I say that because I was standing in a field of grass (that reminds me, I need to check for ticks).
Lastly, I do know this is an iris. A beautiful specimen, not much larger than 2 inches (5cm) across. I figured this one would have been easier to identify, but like I said above, it appears I’ve crashed the search database.
That’s really just a handful of the flowers that we saw on our six-mile hike. I did capture images of many more, but I wasn’t pleased with how they turned out. And I do know that there were plenty more that I passed with just a glance, especially in the last miles. It’s been a while since I’ve lugged a 40lb backpack full of camera gear.
And no, I did not use all of that gear. I knew I wouldn’t. But I needed a different form of exercise. More than 24 hours later, I know that it was different.
Again, if you have an idea on a flower, please leave a comment. I am curious.
Even if you don’t know, which is your favorite?
Bill Anders' Rambling, Photos & Beating Feet 
Fern 7 may be a resurrection fern. It grows on trees. When there has been little rain it “dries” up. Then when it rains it comes to life again.