Walnut Canyon flora, etc.

Back in August, Theresa Clark and I went out on the road to Walnut Canyon National Monument to refresh our plant ID skills with flora in the pinyon-juniper woodlands. We only got to look around a bit before intense lightning, rain, and hail came in. At the visitor center parking lot the hail was piled up in a few places looking a little like snow. We tried waiting it out in the visitor center looking at the displays and the gift shop, but it never let up and Flagstaff had rain the rest of the day and night. Here are some pics:

blue elderberry (Sambucus cerulea, or S. nigra; Family Caprifoliaceae):

fernbush (Chamaebatiaria millefolium, Family Rosaceae):

sandmat, or rattlesnake weed species (Chamaesyce sp., Family Euphorbiaceae):

moss (Grimmia sp.):

many-flowered gilia/ipomopsis (Ipomopsis multiflora, Family Polemoniaceae):

Dalmatian toadflax (Linaria dalmatica, Family Scrophulariaceae):

flax species (Linum sp., Familly Linaceae):

winged buckwheat (Eriogonum alatum, Family Polygonaceae):

Later on in August I went out again with Theresa and her friend Lluvia to look at plants off the Old Walnut Canyon Rd. 

buckwheat species (Eriogonum--umbellatum??, Family Polygonaceae):

toadflax penstemon (Penstemon linarioides, Family Scrophulariaceae):

penstemon species (Penstemon sp., Family Scrophulariaceae):

redroot buckwheat (Eriogonum racemosum, Family Polygonaceae):

Views from the forest roads near sunset and after the rains: