Calaveras In The Fall: Pretty Awesome

Sorry for the delay in posting, not sure if anyone reads these.

I went out to Calaveras Big Trees State Park early last month, and found so much pretty I couldn't fit it all in my camera.

This is a Snow Plant, which grows from the roots of nearby trees. They don't have chlorophyl and are basically parasites.

They also indicate a place to come back and find Morel mushrooms once the snow melts!

This tree had these great mushrooms growing on it (tree is dead now). I think this species glows in the dark.

A nice little creek on the way to the South Grove of Giant Sequoias

I'm not sure what kind of plant this is, but the red really caught my eye.

The Dogwood trees, which I love in the spring for their creamy white blooms, were in late fruiting and the colors were changing (which was the reason for this trip).

As you can see, the trees ranged from still green to deep red (there was even purple, but those pics didn't turn out too well).

The maples were also changing, you can even see how the green was getting sucked out of this leaf before it fell.

There was also a wide variety of lichen, which are moss and fungus living together (never noticed these in my many prior trips).

On the way home, I always stop at the Red Apple, where they have all kinds of wonderful apple creations, from cider to pies to doughnuts and all pastry in between. They have preserves and of course fresh apples when in season. These daisies greeted me.

Clearly, it was the peak of the season, with like 15 different varieties.

I'll post more soon...

High Sierra and Associated Pretty

Hey, I recently went to the Pyramid Creek area off Highway 50, just west of Tahoe. The alpine environment was just perfect in early September and I found both wildflowers and fungus.

The view from the parking lot

A waterfall at the beginning of the trail

Base of the hike, looking up at the falls. Some hikers went to the top, where a small lake feeds the waterfall

You have to climb up the bare granite in many places

 

But the waterfall at the top is so worth the trip

And the views out of the valley were outrageous

The creek on the way down was more like a river, and more, smaller, falls

 

The aforementioned wildflowers

Mushrooms, in September?

Exotic Plants at the UC Davis Botanical Conservancy

A few months back I went to the UC Davis greenhouses to see a rare Corpse Flower bloom. It's the picture at the top of the blog. It is from Indonesia and is the largest single flower on earth, blooming for only 48 hours before going dormant. They bloom once every 2-7 years, producing a giant, tree-like leaf in the intervening time.

They had the place open most of the night, as it has a stench to attract flies at night to pollinate it. It was like dead mammal, that was warm and sitting out for a while. Quite a contrast to the beauty below, huh?

 This is the stalk of the tree-leaf:

This crimson just screams meat, no?

 The actual flower that is pollinated is down at the very bottom, see the yellow specks?

 I love that they call this thing the spadix. Fun word. It was the part emanating the heat and smell.

 The base:

I then checked out what else was hanging around the greenhouses:

Hibiscus:

 Chocolate flowers (tiny):

Turn into cocoa pods:

 These are Cycads, a family of plants most ancient. They formed the forests of the dinosaur period, and reproduce using weird cone things:

 Ferns:

 Orchids:

 Top of a pitcher plant:

 And I have no idea what these are, but they look super pretty:

South Yuba - Refreshingly Pretty

I went out to the South Yuba River State Park the other week, you should check it out before it closes next spring. Perfect spot for a hot summer day.

Most people go to the swimming area below the bridges of Highway 49 (one is from the 1920's, the further one is from the 1990's)

I went up-river a ways where there was more shade and a much larger swimming area.

There was this native american grinding rock on the way

The rocks ranged from pebbles and stones to boulders.

The water was just surreal, with a milky blue-green color that looked very refreshing.

And the big pool

Saw some wildflowers on the way out.