Plant Story--Beautiful Gunnison's Mariposa Lily, Calochortus gunnisonii

One of the first things that confused me about the mariposa lily was how to tell it from a sego lily. Different people pointed out the flowers to me and told me the name. It turns out they are both the name of this flower. The scientific name is Calochortus (lily family, Liliaceae) but it is called both mariposa lily and sego lily. 

Gunnison's mariposa lily, Calochortus gunnisonii

Plant Story--Blue Mustard, Chorispora tenella

Spring is the blooming time of many plants of the mustard family, Brassicaceae, from shepherd's purse to black mustard to clasping pepperweed, but also radishes, cabbages, and oilseed rape. The family is pretty easily recognized because the flowers have four petals in the shape of a cross, the source of the older (still valid) family name Cruciferae.

blue mustard, Chorispora tenella

Blue mustard, Chorispora tenella, is one of the spring mustards. Actually, its seeds germinate in the fall, the young plants lay low over the winter and put on a spurt of growth in spring to flower in April or May, dying in the heat of midsummer. That life cycle is described as being a winter annual, and like many winter annuals, if conditions are right, blue mustard seeds will germinate in spring and grow rapidly, making them also "spring annuals."

Plant Story--Chicory, Roadside Blue

You see chicory on the roadside during the morning commute, a splash of bright blue. Coming home, you don't notice it. When you think about it, the blue flowers aren't generally out in the fields either.