Therapeutic Plant Hunt

Day 237: By our very nature, human beings tend to dwell in their grief, and I am no exception. The full impact of losing Tippy hit me yesterday in late afternoon, and I said as much to a few select friends who almost all responded in the same way: You need to get out in the woods. I knew they were right, so today I went out on a therapeutic plant hunt, hoping that a little-known and seldom used trail would yield at least one of the species I've seen there and nowhere else. My first goal was Sanicula crassicaulis var. crassicaulis, and I am finally able to show it to you as a Penny Perspective, clusters of tiny yellow flowers gathered together in a space smaller than Lincoln's head. I first observed the foliage several years ago, and when I couldn't identify it, shipped the photos off to two botanist friends who helped me out. One of them said, "You must go back when it's in bloom." I had no idea what to expect (on-line images make it look much larger!) and was delightfully surprised to see its delicate inflorescences. It promptly went on my mental list of "favourite plants." Before I left this morning, I checked my records. Yes, I'd seen it in bloom in early June. Today's specimens were largely already in the seed-forming stage, although I was able to find a few with flowers. And, focused as I was on botany, some of the pain of the last few days lifted. Thank you, my friends, for kicking my butt out into the woods.

It Started With Sanicula

Day 241: Earlier this year while hiking in Rimrock County Park, I found some odd foliage I couldn't identify. I referred it to my two tame experts, Arnie and David Giblin at the Burke Herbarium. They both identified it as Sanicula crassicaulis, and left it to me to determine the subspecies (var. crassicaulis). David said, "And be sure you get pictures of the flowers when it blooms." That was my project for yesterday: find a bloomin' Sanicula. I think David must have been having a quiet little chuckle, knowing what was ahead of me. I hadn't gone far up the trail when I spotted the familiar leaf. A few tall stems rose above the foliage, terminating in what I took to be seed capsules. As I continued on, I was kicking myself for not having made the trip in late May, thinking that the petals had already dropped, but then noticed a tiny fleck of yellow on another inflorescence. "Hang on a mo'," I said aloud. "Is that the freakin' flower?" What I'd seen earlier were buds. A hand lens would have been nice to have at this particular juncture, but no one had warned me. I put my eye right down on the yellow bits and discovered that yes indeed, the Sanicle panicle displays a number of tiny corymbs, all in a space no larger than the pink of your thumbnail. I'm trying to work that into a poem to drop on David as my revenge.