Orange Sneezeweed

I think that the common name of orange sneezeweed may be a bit misleading. The flowers we saw and photographed were more on the yellow side, but then a friend in Colorado shared a photo of orange sneezeweed in a mountain meadow there and the flowers were orange! Sooo, another common name might be better and this plant has many. I like owl’s-claws or yerba del lobo. Of course,  if you really want to get it right, how about Hymenoxys hoopesii? Yay!

Mountain meadows are only going to get better as summer progresses, especially with some monsoon rain (Did you hear me, ye gods of summer rains?), so if you can get away and up high in the hills in August and September, well do it. Please practice serious social distancing in the hills too. Please.

Let me see, what else can I tell you about this episode?…I mentioned very briefly the talus slopes of the Chiricahaus as the home of the protected twin spotted rattlesnake. They are and soon I’ll share some photos I have. The book of Michael Moore’s that I mention is Los Remedios, Traditional Herbal Remedies of the Southwest. It’s illustrated by my friend Mimi Kamp. And speaking of friends, it was my old friend Jim Koweek who sent me seed of Hymenoxys hoopesii and told me it should be called “butterfly’s delight.”  Wait, wait, wait, a new common name: butterfly’s delight!

The photos are mine of butterfly’s delight in habitat and with some pollinators visiting the flowers. That’s a gray hairstreak on a flower. And I believe that is a Theona checkerspot competing with an unknown (to me) native bee. Cool!