Small pinkish bloom

The purpose of this forum is to help people identify things they've seen while out hiking: wildflowers, trees, birds, insects, small animals, animal tracks, even geographical features like buttes or streams
Post Reply
User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Small pinkish bloom

Post by bobcat » June 6th, 2014, 6:08 pm

Unknown, Cedar Creek Trail.jpg
Can't get a handle on this one: 90% of the plant is in the picture. No basal leaves when flowering. Inflorescence about 3mm. Plants about 3 - 4 inches, fused petals. On the Cedar Creek Trail, east side of the Mt. Hood National Forest, about 3,000 feet elevation, ridge top grassland.

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by adamschneider » June 8th, 2014, 12:18 am

It looks like the petals are fused into 2 parts?

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by bobcat » June 9th, 2014, 5:23 pm

Adam,

Two-part fused petals don't really make any sense, so maybe these haven't opened out yet - I investigated the mustard family, also Clarkias, but nothing so far. Even if you can hazard a wild guess, I can check my sources . . .

payslee

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by payslee » June 9th, 2014, 7:10 pm

bobcat wrote:Adam,

Two-part fused petals don't really make any sense, so maybe these haven't opened out yet - I investigated the mustard family, also Clarkias, but nothing so far. Even if you can hazard a wild guess, I can check my sources . . .
those two and willowherbs covered my wild guesses, although it's such a classic ericaceae shaped bloom that also got me wondering... And I even looked at the polygonum for those fat-needle looking leaves.

A plant of much mystery...

Payslee

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by adamschneider » June 9th, 2014, 11:04 pm

I agree with payslee that it looks very Erica-esque. Or a leggy mutant snowberry.

But I'm still stumped.

User avatar
adamschneider
Posts: 3711
Joined: May 28th, 2008, 10:02 pm
Location: SE Portland
Contact:

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by adamschneider » October 8th, 2017, 9:57 pm

I'm not sure how I stumbled upon this three-year-old thread, but... I think it's Montia/Claytonia linearis. :)

User avatar
bobcat
Posts: 2764
Joined: August 1st, 2011, 7:51 am
Location: SW Portland

Re: Small pinkish bloom

Post by bobcat » October 28th, 2017, 9:28 am

Thanks for dredging up this ancient post, Adam. You may be absolutely right and, morphologically, M. linearis seems the best fit. Kind of out-of-habitat, though, as I've only seen M. linearis in seeps and boggy ground and this was a dry ridge grassland. Perhaps a freak spawning of sorts . . .

Post Reply