We didn’t find any Mariposa Lilies up in the North Access of the Preserve yesterday (still too early) but two other sightings more than made up for it! It was extremely windy thus very difficult to photograph but I wanted to share some photos this morning.

The first was Penstemon pseudospectabilis, aka Desert Beardtongue. I knew they were up in the North part of the Preserve but they’ve been eluding me.

Desert Beardtongue

(note the cup-like leaves with toothy edges)

There were only a few of the Penstemon but quite a few of the second sighting which was Delphinium scaposum. It’s known as Mountain Larkspur and described as being a deep purple so I’m curious about the pink ones right beside them. Last year I saw pale blue ones too. An anomaly maybe?

Mountain Larkspur (too windy to get a close-up)

Update: Thanks to Steve Jones for a response that the Larkspur are all indeed “scaposum”. To quote Steve: “it’s a little Mendelian genetics at work”. Click here to see what that’s all about!