Category: Plants

Tomorrow, May 15, will make the 60th day of our San Francisco Bay Area Counties Shelter In Place order. Sixty Days is a really long time. And the Shelter In Place order extends at least through May 31. Living in an apartment with a dog, I am allowed out of the apartment to walk her. This understandably counts as an essential trip. I spend an hour and walk a mile, always wearing a mask, keeping at least 6 feet apart from any other walkers, and taking my camera with me. The dog, the exercise of the daily walk, and my camera, have helped to keep me sane and for the most part, kept depression at bay. And knowing that the one hour is all I have, I have found that I have become even more of a noticer. By default, one has to be a noticer in order to be a photographer, but I have found that my noticing skills are heightened this spring. In particular, I have discovered that there are a plethora of unusual flowers in the neighborhood. Most of the unique ones seem to be on flowering bushes or trees, rather than specific flower species such as roses or snapdragons. Here are four. Does anyone know the names of these straight away? I didn’t, though I’m not a person that knows a lot of the flower names. But I definitely had to look each of these up. Points to anyone who can identify them without looking at the labels.

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Answers: 1: Tree Aeonium. 2: Tritomea, aka: Toarch Lily, aka: Red Hot Poker. 3: Blue Passion Flower. 4: Trailing Abutilon.

Posted for SPTA’s Friendly Friday’s Something New/Something Different as well as the same challenge for The Sandy Chronicles.