They broke the heart

"And beside the stone there were wild flowers growing, small flowers of such beauty and perfection that they broke the heart. They broke the heart."
Alexander McCall Smith, Blue Shoes and Happiness

Miner's lettuce. Montia parviflora, I think.

Seen beside the trail in Nunns Creek Park. More flowers tomorrow.

Leftover Claytonias

Over two months ago, at the end of May, I went down to Comox, looking for Claytonia plants for seed, and posted a few photos here and here. There were more, but I learned that I had misidentified some of the plants, and left the rest aside until I could sort them out.

A mistake. I'm still confused, and the photos of these beautiful plants have been languishing on my hard drive. So here they are; Claytonias all, but different species.

At the base of a log. The stem leaves are in pairs, joined like a collar around the seed clusters.

On Twitter, a botanist and Claytonia lover, Tommy Stoughton, was very helpful. There are two different shapes of the stem leaves, he said: linear or spatulate (spoon-like). The basal leaves may be linear or egg-shaped (this is from E-Flora).

In different species of Claytonia, the stem leaves may be paired and fused along both margins (e.g. C. perfiolata), paired and half-fused (C. exigua), or completely separate (C. sibirica, aka Siberian miner's lettuce).

These basal leaves are egg-shaped. The stem leaves underneath the seed clusters seem to be paired, but separate.

A tiny plant, definitely identified as C. exigua. The leaves are more elongated, and separate.

The common C. perfiolata? I don't see basal leaves, but the stem leaves are round, and joined to form a cup around the seeds.

So very pink! Round stem leaves, separate. Egg-shaped basal leaves.

Now, I just have to wait until next spring to find some more, earlier so that I find flowers. And then, look more closely.

Crayon colours

At Kin Park, between the sandy beach with its log barrier and the mowed grass, lies a sandy meadow, dry and hot under the spring sun, wearing a patchwork cloak of yellow, purple, peach, pink and green. With red and black ants.

Indian consumption plant, Lomatium nudicale (yellow), and Sea blush, Plectritis congesta (pink). With three ants.

Sea blush.

Menzies' Larkspur, Delphinium menziesii.

More larkspur, with Indian consumption plant and red sorrel.

The Claytonia growing here is tiny, most under a couple of inches tall.

Claytonia with running ant, and seed pods.

Ant-level miniature, with additional pink flowers, unidentified. This is, at the most, an inch tall.

There were more flowers in that bit of meadow; I'll post them tomorrow.