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Odds and Ends From 2002

© Gregg Pasterick

Last year I was one lucky wildflower lover. I enjoyed a host of new wildflowers in California during the early spring, and familiar old blossoms in Ohio - in the woods and at a greenhouse/nursery job - during late spring. Over the summer I learned about the wildflowers along the Gulf Coast. And now, after driving across 7 states, through still more new wildflowers, I’m back in California, restless to get through winter, into spring and who knows what new wildflowers. In the meantime, we do have winter to wrap up, and before I start learning new wildflowers in 2003, I have a little unfinished business from 2002.

Last spring, in “The Thrill of Columbine”, I wrote about Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) and Crimson Columbine (A. formosa), similar species separated by prairies and Rocky Mountains. I intended to include a photo of each, the best way to not only exhibit these beautiful wildflowers, but to show you the difference(s) between them. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a photo of Crimson Columbine until after the article was published. I have it now...

Both have delicate crimson and yellow flowers, and separated by miles (and time), the obvious difference between them maybe isn’t so obvious. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it until I compared photos. It’s pretty obvious here, don’t you think?

In another spring wildflower article, “Trout Lilies: Droppers, Deep Corms and a Kind of Seven Year Itch”, I intended to write about some western species as well as the eastern species, Yellow Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum) and White Trout Lily (E. albidum). But they were more than enough as a subject for an article. And again, my photo of the western Sierra Fawn Lily (E. multiscapoideum) was not available at the time, for comparison. Maybe that was for the best. As lovely as Trout Lilies are, the Sierra Fawn Lily, with its blush of orange, is a little more elegant.

And then there’s Round-leaved Catchfly (Silene rotundifolia), a member of the Pink Family (Caryophyllaceae) I didn‘t know existed, even though I had a photo of it. I thought I was going through some photos of Firepink last spring for the article “Scarlet Stars in a Green Cosmos”, but there was one that was clearly not Firepink. Rather than having the usual deeply lobed petals, these petals were also toothed. I knew what it wasn't, but I couldn’t track down what it was. So I quickly forgot about it, this clearly-not-Firepink.

Wild Columbine	Crimson Columbine	Spring in Ohio	Sierra Fawn Lily	Fire Pink
Round-leaved Catchfly

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