Mokelumne II

Un-opened flower of columbine, Aquilegia
formosa. This species was common along
the south shore of Caples Lake.

In my last post, I wrote about my trip to Round Top and Forth of July Lakes in the northern part of the Mokelumne Wilderness. A perfect time for exploring the high Sierra, I planned another visit. The following week I took my oldest son and returned to explore the Emigrant Lake trail, also in the northern part of the wilderness.

We started at the western point of Caples Lake and followed the southern shore of the lake under relatively dense tree cover. After about 3 km, the trail left Caples Lake to turn southward, and the trail began to climb in elevation. It roughly followed Emigrant Creek, a very small creek connecting Emigrant Lake with Caples Lake. Ascending towards Emigrant Lake there were a few small beautiful meadows, one in particular was a sea of waist-high bright green corn lilies, not yet in flower.

The sky was clear but the wind blew in strong gusts at Emigrant Lake where the trail ended. Like the lakes I visited last week, Emigrant Lake sits at the base of an arc of grey rock and snow. Ben and I climbed a few hundred feet up to a ridge from the eastern shore and had a great view of Emigrant Lake to the west and Caples Lake to the north. Overall I found some plant species not observed on my earlier trip. Here is a sampling:

Three species of Castilleja.

Frasera sp. I only found one individual of this species, but its large stature and very interesting flowers made it stand out.

Wyethia, or "mule's ears". This plant was common.

Calochortus. I only saw two individuals of this genus, both growing on a
relatively rocky, sun-exposed slope near Caples Lake.

Pectiantia breweri. This rather unassuming plant has the most incredible flowers
on close inspection. In the close-up photo to the right look for the five yellowish
petals. Each has pinnate branches to give the whole flower a web-like appearance.

Incredible plants: Calochortus

Calochortus luteus from Santa Cruz Island, CA, 2012.

One of my favorite groups of flowers is the genus Calochortus in the lily family (Liliaceae).  Calochortus is of Greek derivation and means “beautiful grass” (Baldwin et al. 2012). Lilies, like grasses, are monocots, and many species in this genus have narrow leaves that can be mistaken at first glance for their grass cousins. 

There are about 70 species of Calochortus globally, distributed in central and North America (Baldwin et al 2012). In the Oregon flora, 18 species are recognized (Cook and Sundberg 2012) and a whopping 45 occur in California (Baldwin et al. 2012) – more than half of all global diversity!



Calochortus ?amabilis near Lake
Berryessa, northern CA, 2009.

The flowers are generally very showy. Perusing through the images for different species in the CalFlora database, for instance, shows a remarkable diversity of flower shape, color, and decoration. The inside surface of the petals are often hairy (as can be easily seen on one of the photographs below) (Baldwin et al. 2012). As would be expected with a plant in the lily family, flower parts are in threes: there are 3 petals, 6 stamens and 1 style that divides into 3 stigmas ready to receive pollen (Baldwin et al. 2012).


Among the attractive species in the genus are the globe lilies. The flowers of these plants are pendant and somewhat resemble a delicate Japanese paper lantern. An example is C. albus in the California flora.







Another beautiful example of Calochortus is C. nuttallii, the state flower of Utah. It is a desert plant occurring throughout the intermountain west at elevations of 5 to 8 thousand feet (Patraw 1977). Flower color varies from whitish to blue or purple hues (Patraw 1977). The plants that I observed on a trip to the desert of eastern Utah two years ago were whitish. The underground bulbs of this species are edible and were consumed by Native Americans (Patraw 1977).



Calochortus nuttallii, Dinosaur National Monument, UT.

References

- Baldwin, B.G. 2012. The Jepson Manual. Vascular Plants of California. UC Press.
- Cook, T. and S. Sundberg (eds). 2012. Checklist of Oregon Liliaceae. Oregon Flora Project
- Patraw, P.M. 1977. Flowers of the Southwest Mesas. Southwest Parks and Monuments Association, Globe,
  AZ.