Mimulus whitneyi

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 3:13 pm

I have been waiting a while to post these but didnt want to without the i.d. I know you guys like these odd things in nature and the smaller the better

It took me forever and hours of searching to find the name on this little one. this has got to be my favorite local wildflower and it takes dedication to find one. The whole plant is about one inch tall, and the lower half below the flower is completely covered in trichomes.

I have a few more miniature wildflowers but need to find i.d first.

Bruce Williams · Post by **Bruce Williams** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:34 am

Very interesting pics - I especially like pic3 which (as you said) shows the trichomes very clearly. I wonder what purpose they serve - to encourage/discourage crawling insects from entering the flower maybe? I will have to check it out on Google when I get a minute.

I would really like to see more wildflowers pics on our forum - so thanks for posting.

Bruce

Walter Piorkowski · Post by **Walter Piorkowski** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 7:19 am

Very interesting images Jordan, especially the third. I have seen these trichomes twice before on liverworts but I didn’t know what they were called or whether they were associated with the host. Thanks for the identification. On the liverwort there were no where near as many. In addition I recently saw a few on a piece of bark bearing lichen, moss and liverwort. Tiny round reddish beetles were devouring them faster than I could set up a shot to get an image. So at least, as Bruce commented, encouragement was occurring. I also noted that the trichomes were able to move, bending their stalk. Did you witness this?

Walt

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 8:23 am

hey thanks guys, bruce i got tons of wildflower pictures to post. usually most people dont care for the wildflowers though and the thread just gets lost within a few days.

walter, im not exactly sure on the purpose of the trichomes on this plant but i do know on other plants they are used for protection. usually against the uv rays of the sun on some plants and insects on the others i believe. i bet there are tons of reasons they are there really though. there are tons of plants with trichomes really you just have to look. from the top of my head i know some mint, roses for sure and smaller plant species have trichomes. i have some really cool shots of rose trichomes i need to upload and post.

arlon · Post by **arlon** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:30 am

Great picture. I've collected a lot of pictures of "micro" flowers. It's almost an obcession of mine looking for them in the most obscure places. Hands and knees operation only. Problem is i've found no way to identify any of them. Where do you go to find ID on these tiny gems? Tons of info on the ones you can see from the roadway but little info for the knees and elbows crowd..

rjlittlefield · Post by **rjlittlefield** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 2:27 pm

Check around to see if you have a local wildflowers group. I've gotten several great IDs from an acquaintance who is active in the group where I live.

Also, check to see if your local universities have any herbarium resources online. Again, for the Pacific Northwest, I've gotten pretty good mileage from the U.Washington's online herbarium (http://biology.burke.washington.edu/her ... ection.php).

This is a nice set of pictures -- sequencing from overview to up close does a great job of showing scale.

--Rik

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:14 pm

Great picture. I've collected a lot of pictures of "micro" flowers. It's almost an obcession of mine looking for them in the most obscure places. Hands and knees operation only. Problem is i've found no way to identify any of them. Where do you go to find ID on these tiny gems? Tons of info on the ones you can see from the roadway but little info for the knees and elbows crowd..

hey arlon you wont believe how much trouble i had finding the name on this little one. ive been searching for at least 2 weeks before i found it. To start off i go straight to google, i started out with california wildflowers. looked for site with tons of flora pics. then if that doesnt work i start looking for groups as rik has said. then i actually found this one on a group on flickr. california wildflower pool and there was tons of pages with flora and they were very specific on not uploading till there was an i.d for the plant so that helped me. I can relate with you though getting on the hands and knees to find these wonderful species.

thanks rik. i wanted to cover it well as im a sucker for plant and soil life of all kinds. from the tiny mycorrizae fungi and bacteria to giant redwoods and huge forests.

beetleman · Post by **beetleman** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 4:36 pm

It almost has the look of a sundew. An excellent set of photos...just imagine if you didnt have the internet to search.

jmlphoto · Post by **jmlphoto** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 10:44 am

thanks beetleman, if there was no internet to find these. i probably would have to go to someone experienced in wildflowers, which would mean i need to drive, and waste gas... thankfully we have the internet!