Yesterday, I took a thirty minute walk around the hospital grounds before work. I worked the day and hopped into my proletarian Toyota Echo and zipped back to the Homestead. Today is a work day. I'm building more rock stem wall.But I took an hour and a half to walk with my pup. It is wildflower time here in the Foothills of the Sierra. I am convinced that the ability to remember (or learn) the names of flowers is located on the same gene that gives me the inability to learn another language. I think it is also very near the same gene that gives me the inability to appreciate poetry.
Look at other nature blogs (you will find many excellent ones if you push the nature blog button to the right) and you will find all sorts of fancy Naturalists stating: "the pink Eggheaded Ranger flower gets pollinated by its symbiotic relationship with the Slow Footed Carpenter Bee who dies an excruciatingly painful death after gathering the Eggheaded Ranger Flower's pollen." Or something like that.
Not that I can't learn; it just goes awfully slow.
Joni knows almost everything there is about flowers, in my view. She is always pointing out some beautiful bud to me. I nod my head, knowing I'm gonna forget what she said.
Joni has a friend who has marketed her own book on Wildflowers of the Rockies. Filled with great photos! Catalogued to species. An excellent book. I pick up her book once and awhile and thumb through it. Such talent!
I got an email from a friend the other day who wrote this:
Walked the east side of Diablo all afternoon today and found abundant and varied wildflowers. I've always wondered about how folks know how to name plants using a book, a description, and a picture. The pictures in my books almost look like the plant I am trying to identify, but then they also almost look like the plant growing next to my subject, except for a little difference which aren't noted anywhere in the guidebook. Its fun though.
I agree!
4 comments:
I'm one of those wildflower namer nuts and it can be quite an obsession so maybe you're smart to avoid the practice's temptations. I know many folks think I'm a total pain in the ass to walk in the woods with, always dropping to my knees, thumbing my guidebook, scribbling in notebooks and holding things up when everyone else wants to keep moving. The thing is, by naming the flowers, I start to really see them, to call them by name as I pass: Hello there! So nice to see you! Each walk becomes a treasure hunt. But not so good for aerobic exercise. Out here in the Northeast, we have a great wildflower guide with an innovative key system, making the IDs easier (Newcomb's). There must be something comparable for California.
That's a funny description. I love learning the relationships between various species, but I'm also not very good at names. The ones I remember come from the time I spent in a relationship with a woman who was great at names. We made a pretty good nature team--she knew specific species and I'd be wandering around quoting Thoreau and being deeply ecologically philosophical.
Woods...that's one of the fine things I enjoy about your blog. I read it and wish I could do things like that.
Green, yup. Joni told me the names of two flowers just ten minutes ago. I already forgot them. But I can quote chapter and verse of Eddie Abbey to her. By the way, I reviewed Teewinott on my other blog. Thanks for the author recomendation!
Woods...that's one of the fine things I enjoy about your blog. I read it and wish I could do things like that.
Green, yup. Joni told me the names of two flowers just ten minutes ago. I already forgot them. But I can quote chapter and verse of Eddie Abbey to her. By the way, I reviewed Teewinott on my other blog. Thanks for the author recomendation!
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