Life in Our Watershed Investigating Vernal Pools winter spring summer/fall Flower Facts Version 4 FLOWER FACTS Table of Contents White Flowers Pink, Red or Purple Flowers Popcorn-flower 1 Checkerbloom 20 Soap Plant or Soaproot 2 Douglas’s Beardstyle 21 Spokepod 3 Downingia 22 Valley Tassels 4 Elegant Brodiaea 23 White Hyacinth 5 Field Cluster Lily 24 White Meadowfoam 6 Filaree 25 White Navarretia 7 Red Maids 26 Sacramento Beardstyle 27 Yellow Flowers Scarlet Pimpernel 28 Biscuit Root 8 Vasey’s Coyote-thistle 29 Butter-and-eggs 9 Vernal Pool Monkeyflower 30 Fiddleneck 10 White-tipped Clover 31 Field Owl’s-clover 11 Winter Vetch 32 Fremont’s Tidy-tips 12 Frying Pan Poppy 13 Blue Flowers Hawkbit 14 Itherial’s Spear 33 Narrow-leaf Mule’s Ear 15 Miniature Lupine 34 Vernal Pool Buttercup 16 Green, Brown or No Flowers Vernal Pool Goldfields 17 American Pillwort 35 Yellow Star-thistle 18 Little Quaking Grass 36 Vernal Pool Dodder 19 Medusahead 37 Pale Spikerush 38 Purple Needlegrass 39 Special Illustrations Water Starwort 40 Sunflower Family 12 Woolly Marbles 41 Pea Family 34 © Sacramento Splash 2000-2013 Investigating Vernal Pools 1 FLOWER FACTS Popcorn-flower common name: Popcorn-flower scientific name: Plagiobothrys stipitatus var. micranthus family: Boraginaceae (fiddleneck) habitat: vernal pools size: plant 2 to 10 inches tall, flower 3 to 6 mm fun facts: Small butterflies like to sip nectar from these tiny white flowers. description: Popcorn-flower is a member of the © Carol Witham fiddleneck family. Flower buds are held in a tight coil (spiral) at the top of the plant. The flowers open starting from the bottom of the plant moving toward the top. This causes the stem to uncoil. The seeds are produced in fours and many species have small hooked spines with which they hitchhike on fur or socks. Many species of Popcorn-flower occur at Mather Field. This species is the most common one found in vernal pools. The other species are either upland plants or have a more sprawling growth form. life cycle: Popcorn-flower is an annual. This species germinates while underwater. The young plants produce long floating leaves in order to get air and sunlight and to hold the plant upright. It blooms from April to May and is often the dominant plant in patches © Carol Witham in a vernal pool. ecology: Nectar from the Popcorn-flower is a favorite of small butterflies in the Lycaenidae family. These investigate: Another member of small blue, gray, or copper (as in the color of a penny) the borage family at Mather Field butterflies can sometimes be quite abundant on is the Fiddleneck. Can you see the flowers. how they are similar? © Sacramento Splash Investigating Vernal Pools 2 FLOWER FACTS Soap Plant or Soaproot common name: Soap Plant or Soaproot scientific name: Chlorogalum pomeridianum family: Liliaceae (lily) habitat: grassland size: cluster of leaves 1 foot or more across, flower 1.5 to 2.5 cm fun facts: Native Americans used the root of this plant as a soap and to stun fish. It contains chemicals which Beatrice F. Howitt, © California Academy of Sciences make it slippery like soap. These same chemicals para- lyze the gills of fish. description: Member of the lily family. The flowers have three petals and three sepals which are similarly colored and appear to be six petals. The flowers are white or pale pink. The leaves are in a bunch at the base of the plant (a basal rosette) and have wavy edges. life cycle: Soap Plant is a bulb-forming perennial. For most of the year, the plant consists of a cluster of leaves about a foot in diameter. In May, the plant sends up a tall stalk with many branches and delicate flowers. © Carol Witham ecology: Flowers are pollinated by night flying moths and open just as the sun goes down. They are very fragrant in order to attract their pollinators which are flying around in the dark of night. Try visiting at sunset to see and smell the Soap Plant flowers. © Sacramento Splash Investigating Vernal Pools 3 FLOWER FACTS Spokepod common name: Spokepod scientific name: Thysanocarpus radicans family: Brassicaceae (mustard) habitat: grassland size: plants up to 15 inches tall; flower 1 to 2 mm, pod 0.5 to 1.0 cm fun facts: The common name comes from the spoke- like pattern of veins on the seed pod. description: Member of the mustard family. The © Carol Witham tiny flowers have four petals and are white. The seed pods are flat disks hanging from delicate stems along the stalk. The pods are cream colored with green and sometimes pink lines. Lacepod (Thysanocarpus curvipes) is similar to Spokepod, but the pods have perforations (holes) like a doily along the edges between the spoke-like pattern of veins. life cycle: Spokepod is a an annual. It blooms in early March. Most people do not notice the flowers because they are so tiny. The seed pods begin to grow in late March. ecology: Members of the mustard family usually have a bitter flavor caused by mustard oils. This helps to protect the plant from some herbivores. Some insects and mammals eat the mustard plants anyway. Broccoli is also a member of the mustard family. © David Rosen/Wildside Photography investigate: The seed pods of Spokepod split in half and drop the single seed which is in the center of the pod. Can you find pods that have already dropped their seeds? Can you find any flowers? © Sacramento Splash Investigating Vernal Pools 4 FLOWER FACTS Valley Tassels or Narrow Owl’s-clover common name: Valley Tassels or Narrow Owl’s-clover scientific name: Castilleja attenuata family: Scrophulariaceae (figwort) habitat: damp grassland size: plant 4 to 12 inches tall, flower 4 to 6 mm across fun facts: Most Castilleja are hemi- parasitic (partially parasitic) on other plants. description: Member of the figwort family. The flowers are long tubes with three inflated (balloon-like) sacks near the top. In Valley Tassels, the inflated sacks have a series of pink, yellow and black spots which resemble tiny faces. Note that the multi-lobed bract of Valley Tassels is white tipped. The other owl’s-clovers at Mather Field have purple multi-lobed bracts or simple, green, leaf-like bracts. © David Rosen/Wildside Photography life cycle: Valley Tassels is an annual. It germinates in the late fall or early winter. As the weather begins to warm in the early spring, the plants grow very quickly and bolt up through the grasses to bloom. Valley Tassels bloom in April. ecology: Valley Tassels is a hemi-parasite on annual plants. The tips of its roots tap into the root system of the other plant and rob nutrients. Unlike the Vernal Pool Dodder (Cuscuta howelliana) which is a true parasite, the Castilleja can only steal a portion of the nutrients it needs and has to make the rest through photosynthesis. Most owl’s-clovers require very specific environmental conditions for successful germination and growth. Some years there will be very few plants or even none, while other years there might be millions! Very little is know about how the owl’s-clovers are pollinated. © Sacramento Splash Investigating Vernal Pools 5 FLOWER FACTS White Hyacinth common name: White Hyacinth scientific name: Triteleia hyacinthina family: Liliaceae (lily) habitat: grassland size: plant up to 15 inches tall, flower 1.4 to 2.5 cm across fun facts: Flowers are generally beetle pollinated. © David Rosen/Wildside Photography description: Member of the lily family. Each flower has three petals and three sepals. But in Triteleia the sepals are colored like the petals so that the flower appears to have six petals and no sepals. The flowers are white with a green central vein. You may recall that Brodiaea have three stamens and three stamenoides. Dichelostemma have three true stamens and three stamenoides which have reduced stamens at their tips. The Triteleia have six true stamens and no stamenoides. life cycle: White Hyacinth is a bulb producing perennial. Early in the season, the plants produce one © Carol Witham or a few grass-like leaves. By the time the flowers are ready to bloom, the leaves have dried up and the flowers bloom in umbels (clusters) on a tall leafless stem. Only older plants with well developed bulbs have enough stored energy to produce flowers in April or May. It can take four years or more for Triteleia to bloom the first time. ecology: Triteleia bulbs are an important food source for burrowing rodents such as Botta’s Pocket Gophers. The bulbs have a nutty flavor and Native Americans ate them as well. © Sacramento Splash Investigating Vernal Pools 6 FLOWER FACTS White Meadowfoam common name: White Meadowfoam scientific name: Limnanthes alba family: Limnanthaceae (meadowfoam) habitat: wet grassland, seeps, pools size: plant up to 12 inches tall; flower about 2.5 cm across fun facts: This plant may save the whales because its seeds produce an oil which can be used to lubricate (make slippery with oil) machinery. © Carol Witham description: Member of the meadowfoam family. The lower stems and leaves have long silky hairs. The outer sepals are also hairy. Note the distinctive venations (arrangements of veins) on the petals which serve as nectar guides for pollinators. How can Meadowfoam save There are no other species of large white flowers at whales? Mather Field which could be confused with White Meadowfoam. Meadowfoam is not common in the Whale oil, made from the Mather Field vernal pools and grassland. blubber of sperm whales, can lubricate fine machinery, life cycle: White Meadowfoam is an annual. It germi- even under conditions of nates in wet areas soon after the rains begin in the fall.