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Coast Gumplant


Coast Gumplant
Photo Information
Copyright: Feather Forestwalker (FeatherBirdLady) Silver Star Critiquer/Gold Note Writer [C: 28 W: 0 N: 79] (454)
Genre: Plants
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2006-11-18
Categories: Flowers
Camera: Fuji FinePix, Smart Media
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2006-11-19 11:49
Viewed: 975
Points: 5
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
Grindelia hirsutula var. maritima, the Coast, AKA San Francisco Gumplant, often hybridizes with the Seattle Gumplant along the Mendocino coast, where their ranges overlap.

From the Jepson Manual online:

SAN FRANCISCO GUMPLANT

Plant 3–5 dm, often leaning, red-brown to -purple, ± glabrous

Leaf generally gray-green

Inflorescence: heads ± subtended by bracts; involucres generally 12–15(25) mm diam; phyllaries erect to ± spreading

Ray flowers 10–40; ligules 11–15 mm

Fruit 3.5–4.2 mm, golden- to gray-brown, deeply ridged; top generally flanged or knobby; pappus awns 4–5

Chromosomes: 2n=24

Ecology: Sandy or serpentine slopes, sea bluffs

Elevation: < 400 m.

Bioregional distribution: n Central Coast (San Francisco, San Mateo cos.)

Synonyms: G. m. (Greene) Steyerm

Possible derivative of var. hirsutula X G. stricta var. platyphylla

COAST GUMPLANT
G. stricta DC.

Perennial or subshrub 2–15 dm, prostrate to erect, green to deep purplish red, glabrous to tomentose
Leaf 1–15 cm, oblong to lanceolate, ± fleshy, green or red-veined

Inflorescence: heads 1–many, generally not subtended by bracts; involucres 10–55 mm diam, hemispheric; phyllaries 4–6 series, spreading to slightly recurved

Ray flowers generally 20–60; ligules 12–25 mm

Disk flowers many; corolla throat abruptly wider than tube

Fruit 3.5–7 mm, whitish or gray- to red-brown, ridged, top knobby; pappus awns 2–6, becoming reflexed to coiled, > 0.3 mm wide, V-shaped in X -section, minutely serrate

Ecology: Tidal flats, marshes, dunes, seabluffs
Elevation: < 200 m.

Bioregional distribution: North Coast, Central Coast, South Coast, Channel Islands

Distribution outside California: to Alaska
Varieties intergrade.

Blooms Spring through Fall

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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To Dave: Flash = washoutFeatherBirdLady 1 11-19 17:06
To Silvio2006: You did it again! :)FeatherBirdLady 1 11-19 17:05
To BillyGoat: FujiFilm FinePix 1300 Point and ShootFeatherBirdLady 1 11-19 17:04
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Critiques [Translate]

Ciao Feather, beautiful flowers in baklight, lovely photo with interesting note, I do a ws, I hope that you like it, ciao Silvio

  • Great 
  • Dave Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 525 W: 47 N: 674] (2173)
  • [2006-11-19 14:59]
  • [+]

Very interesting and appealing composition!

I'm curious as to how it would have turned out if you had used flash for the foreground, still the pic is very nice and the composition is very artistic.

Thanks,

Dave

It seems to me as though the photo is a bit confusing. On one hand you have the gumplant as a strong foreground element (a fill flash would have brought out more detail), but you also have a bright sky immediately behind with an ocean shore scene. The photo seems a bit confusing to me as to exactly what is the point of focus here.
In one sense it's a good idea to have the gum plant as a foreground anchor with an ocean scene as a nice backdrop, but in that case the gumplant should be a bit more to the lower right (rule of thirds) with the background scene also in focus.
A grad filter to underexpose the bright sky would have helped bring out a better exposed lower part of the photo as well.

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