Botany Photo of the Day

I neglected to mention in yesterday's entry that if you plan to visit the Painted Hills (and particularly if you'd like to photograph them), I recommend picking a day where the area experiences rainfall in the morning followed by broken cloudy skies with patches of blue sky in the afternoon. The net effect is a combination of saturated colours from the precipitation and changing strength of light and shadows as the clouds move across the sky, offering a mix of dramatic and subtle scenes. Those sorts of days also happen to be good for photographing wildflowers, assuming the rainfall is intermittent or light.

This photograph was taken on such a day, with the saturation evident in the reddish stones and black basalt-rich soil (those with keen eyes will note that the orange patches, sometimes covering entire stones, are due to a crustose lichen – the stone along the bottom edge provides an in-focus example). Water droplets on the partially-opened flowers of the bitter-root affirm the earlier rain.

Lewisia rediviva has previously been featured on BPotD in two entries (here and here), though neither show a close-up of the flower. On a sunny day, the blossom will fully expand and become more noticeable from a distance, much like what is seen in the previous BPotD entries.

To read more about bitter-root, I advise starting with this summary from the North American Rock Garden Society and following that quick read with the excellent article on the Discovering Lewis & Clark site: Lewisia rediviva.