A Snake, a Cave, and of Course, Flowers

Hello good folks and lovely people,

Here's what I've been up to, this week and last!  Last week, I went back to the San Joaquin River Gorge for some more seed collecting for a couple of days.  K and I collected at least 10,000 seeds from each of the following:  Brodiaea elegans (Harvest Brodiaea), Castilleja attenuata (attenuate Indian paintbrush), Collinsia heterophylla (purple Chinese houses) and Phacelia egena (rock Phacelia or Kaweah River Phacelia).  Only four species, but it took two days; after about 1130 in the morning, the heat was just unbearable, in the low 100's both days.  But it was really great to get four more collections for the national Seeds of Success project (and to keep some seed for local use at the visitor's center).  Before K and I started, there was no SOS collection team for our area, thus no collections from this region.  So I am just really glad to have some seed in the bank!  We've collected about 15 sets of seed since we got here, woo hoo!

The San Joaquin River

ONLY 103!!!

After a day of wretched heat, we went to this awesome cave on our property.  If you already know about it, great!  If you don't, I'm not gonna tell you the name of it or where it is because if you go to it and end up busting your butt, I don't wanna be held responsible.  Anyway, it was this great, gorgeous, gorgeous cave carved so beautifully out of granite, and "is the world's most notable example of a corrasional cave".  I really wish I had thought to take better pictures to display this phenomenon, but ya know, I was busy worrying if one of those creatures from The Descent was going to have the last of me lol  The cave was scary and awesome, the water freezing and refreshing.  I looked up this cave online afterwards just to see if anyone one had any other pictures... and they did!!  Pictures with rattlesnakes (live!) in the water, dead rats and mice, etc.  The spring rains had flushed all of what would have been in there, out, so all we saw was clean, fresh water, but I'm glad I didn't see those pics before I went into the cave or else I probably would not have gone! lol

Looking back toward the entrance to the cave

The first part of the cave where there is still enough natural light to see

Climbing in here an intense rush for me, but also very.. I don't know.. mesmerizing and brought about a sort of tactile pleasure - my hands did not want to climb, they wanted to just stay fixed and feel the granite..

(borrowed photo)
How gorgeous are these carved out curvatures?!  Like each one was architecturally planned..  each pool carved out from the stencil of a compass..  I love how perfect nature is.

The next day, I went out in the field with Denis to the aforementioned Lamont Meadows where I:  saw my first rattlesnake, laughed as Denis put the wrong keys in the ignition and couldn't get them out, saw pretty, pretty flowers (albeit few and far between), pulled bull thistle, checked on fencing for repairs, and helped change a flat after Denis ran over a huge rock.  It all made for a good day, but I must admit that I still get my hopes up for a visit to a site with water and greenery.. lol when will I stop hoping?!  Oh well.

He got aggressive super fast!

After his rattle show, he tried to escape

 Penstemon

Western Columbine - Aquilegia formosa

My new favorite flower!!!  It's a native thistle, Cirsium occidentale, not sure of the variety yet

She's about 3 feet tall

Friday I was off, and then.. the weekend.  Omg, the 100+ degree weekend.  Saturday was 105 and Sunday was 107!!!  As my friend Tony would say, I coulda made a sidewalk omelet!  Needless to say, it was a very low-key weekend, except for looking for sources of reprieve!  I think I just ended up in my room each night, sweating, with a bottle of wine (thanks mom), playing movies on my ready-to-overheat-and-combust laptop.  But I survived, probably with a few less electrolytes in me, but it was a victory nonetheless.  Later this week it's supposed to cool down (upper 80s), so I'm pretty stoked for that :)
Monday and Tuesday were low-key office days, filled with herbarium specimens, picture-taking of seeds, and completing data sheets.  Today, (Wednesday), I got to go out in the field to a new parcel for a rangeland health assessment (or an RHA - previously known as an S&G).  Myself and five others headed up to a piece of BLM property called Fay Canyon, up highway 178 east, past Lake Isabella.  It's a 500 acre parcel used for grazing and we were there to check out the damage, if any, that this use was having.  It was a long and hot, 100-degree day, but I saw enough milkweeds to make up for the panting! :)  There were at least four different milkweeds, 2 kinds of gourds, a species of Phacelia, some huge cottonwoods, Pinus sabiniana (gray pine), a Choya cactus - and in regards to animals, I saw a tarantula hawk (they loooove milkweed), cows (of course) and a skittish jackrabbit.

Unknown species (but gorgeous!) beetles on a slender-leaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis)

Don't you just love heliotropes?!  They are so pretty and cute and make me happy :)  (Heliotropium curvassicum)

These cottonwoods were huge!!!  They came about during an earlier time when there was more water here to support them

Can you see where the natural seepage eventually putters out??  (green vs brown in the background)

A tarantula hawk on a desert milkweed (Asclepias erosa)

Part of our field site

Close up of a milkweed head, infested with aphids

One of two native gourds we found out here - (Cucurbita foetidissima)

The rest of the week is also scheduled to be in the office, but hopefully next week we will be out to collect more seeds that are ready!  We need to get back up to the Carrizo and then to the opposite side of the valley, into Keyesville.  Stay tuned!  Thanks as always for reading and following me on my days, you all are just wonderful. :)

Love & velvet,

Rachel