On the way home, a slight detour was in order. Ok, it was pretty a big detour. However, the location is secret. But what I saw was certainly worth sharing with y’all.
So I will get right to it. Finally, I got to see Tiny Tim! Boy, was that worth the big detour. Do you see it? There were hundreds of tiny plants in the gravelly area.
It is the brown plant in the center. And it certainly was tiny!!!
The above photo has no scale for you to really see how tiny. So here’s a penny for scale.
Most of the plants had turned reddish. However, a few still had just a tad of green left. This is a winter annual. I feel really lucky to have gotten to see it this year at all. Thanks to a researcher that shared her location, I was finally able to see it. Indeed, this will certainly aid in my search for new locations. If you would like to learn more about this threatened species, the US Fish & Wildlife Service has a nice write-up.
When botanists record a plant for collection, a lot of times they will record other plants nearby. In fact, this may help you find a target plant like Tiny Tim. Yellow Star-grass (Hypoxis hirsuta) was just such a plant found near this patch of Tiny Tim.
Flameflower (Phemeranthus) was barely up. This pink flower only opens late in the afternoon to evening. However, this one had not grown big enough yet for a bud.
This plant, Bittercrest (Cardamine species) in the Brassicaceae family also cut the mustard for being a neighbor of Tiny Tim.
Yellow Stonecrop or Sedum (Sedum nuttalianum) was another plant. And there was quite a few specimens at the site.
Another cool plant was this Yellow Selenia (Selenia aurea) in the Mustard family (Brassicaceae). Loved the yellow sepals.
Violet Woodsorrel (Oxalis violacea) was not right next to Tiny Tim, but was in the recently burn area nearby. Apparently, the area had just been burnt and yet plants managed to come up.
Another lovely flower, the Phacelia hirsuta on the way back to the truck.
Haha cut the mustard š¤£
Wow. There really is a tiny tim. So happy that you found it. And looks like you found many other treasures too.
Woo hoo! Tiny Tim success finally! Lots of other good stuff too. I’ve never seen or heard of Selenia.
The Selenia was new for me too.:-)
What a great find – hooray!