This photo gallery is based on two days of field work, 6/21 and 6/25. Lured by the chance to see a species I had looked for in the area before, Nemacladus longiflorus var. longiflorus, I joined Tom Chester and Dave Stith, one of the organizers of the upcoming Idyllwild Lemon Lily Festival, for an exploration one day down Lilly Creek in the lovely Idyllwild County Park and another day up the Summit Loop trail. Some sources spell it Lily Creek, which seems appropriate since it does harbor a population of the fairly uncommon lemon lily (Lilium parryi), but the official topo map and other sources record it as Lilly Creek. Tom Chester unearthed some information that "lilly" is an archaic spelling of "lily," and this may account for the confusion. We did find the Nemacladus and I was surprised to see how large it was compared to the somewhat humorously named Nemacladus longiflorus var. breviflorus we observed down in Anza-Borrego last month. Idyllwild County Park contains just 320 acres but because of its topography, a lot of trails and plant diversity is packed into a small area. It is just off CA-243 as it nears the town of Idyllwild from the north, and the elevation there is around 5500'. We also found several examples nearby (not blooming) of a species that neither Tom or I had ever encountered or even heard of before, California sunflower (Helianthus californicus), and many other nice flowers down along the creek and in other areas of the park, including eight species of Mimulus, six species of Lotus and five species each of Trifolium and Lupinus! I found a 9th species of Mimulus (fremontii) but it was a few miles away and doesn't qualify as being from Idyllwild County Park. Click here for Tom Chester's Flora of Idyllwild Park. A few species were photographed along the road near the park entrance. An upside-down V next to the common name indicates a taxon that was new to me when I photographed it on this field trip, an asterisk is for a non-native species, and a tilde (~) indicates an identification about which there remains some uncertainty.

Splendid gilia
Saltugilia splendens ssp. splendens
Polemoniaceae

Canterbury bells
Phacelia minor
Boraginaceae

Lesser indian paintbrush
Castilleja minor ssp. spiralis
Scrophulariaceae
[Named for Domingo Castillejo Muñoz, 1744?-1793]

Heermann's lotus
Lotus heermannii var. heermannii
Fabaceae
[Named for Adolphus Lewis Heermann, 1821-1865]