Quote of the Week, Perhaps a Bit Longer

"The biological community is a vast and complicated system for sharing and distributing the energy of the sun among a diversity of life forms." ~Martson Bates

8/9/10

Rangers' Buttons

Rangers' Buttons flower clusters

I have always heard of Rangers' Buttons (Sphenosciadium capitellatum), but I had never actually seen them out in the wild. I was very happy to finally see them while hiking up the Thomas Creek drainage the other day. Rangers' Buttons have gorgeous little, spherical, clusters of white flowers that are widely separated from each other. They can be found at streambanks and marshy meadows. Sphenosciadium means wedge umbrella, which refers to the shape of the flower umbel. Capitellatum means with heads in reference to the round flower clusters.

Sources:
Blackwell, L. R. 2006. Great Basin Wildflowers: A guide to Common Wildflowers of the High Deserts of Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. The Globe Pequot Press. Guilford, CT.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

These are so cool looking. They are so futuristic structural or something, like you could imagine living in a house that looks like rangers' buttons.

Margery said...

They look like those coconut marshmallow snowballs. Yum! good enough to eat. Love, Mom