Monday, July 28, 2008

Plant identification questions

This blog worked really well for me when I didn't know what a flower in my yard was. That's here, and it was a storm lily or surprise lily (had other names too). Cool.

So I was reading on someone else's blog and found a mystery plant that hadn't yet been identified. I'm really curious too. Any botanists or trivialists here?


http://wilson-family-life.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-is-this-calledgrrrrr.html is where the question was, and the plants are somewhere near Lake Tahoe, so Nevada, desert-NE California plants?

I have something in my yard, that came up in an unmarked (non-detailed) packet of flower seeds I got as a bonus freebie for ordering from some seed shop online. I've never seen these. It looks like a cartoon flower. There's a pink floweriness, and then yellow blossomy things stick way up out of it. When the front flower is out of focus, there will be one or more in the background. Anyone know what those are?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

My guess is that the top one is a coral pipe or coral root. Latin name: corallorhiza striata or less likely a pine drop Latin name : pteropora andromedea We get them in forests here in Montana- they are striking. Not certain about the ones in your garden although they look a bit like gerber daisies. Sarah

kelli said...

They look like zinnias to me.

http://tinyurl.com/5e7g7p

I was looking at a bunch in Ren's garden last week.

There are some pics of them at my blog.

Anet said...

Yep, those are Zinnias! very cute too!

EccentricSimplicity said...

I think the first one is probably Sarcodes sanguinea (Red Snow Plant/flower)
http://images.google.com/images?um=1&hl=en&rlz=1T4GGIH_enUS268US268&q=Sarcodes+sanguinea+

Second one is definitely a zinnia, I love those. =)

califmom said...

The top photo is of a snow plant. They can be seen here: http://snurl.com/snowplant2

They are quite rare. I remember seeing one in elementary school. I grew up in the Lake Tahoe area, but only saw them a couple times.

Anonymous said...

YES THAT IS IT! Thank you for the google image link! They are so indescribably beautiful. As if the Lake wasn't beautiful enough, then to find these treasures, aaaahhhhh, I can rest easy now.