Red and gold blossoms,
a curvy doppelgänger
of scarce gentneri.

How grateful I am that looking for flowers can honestly be counted as a day of “work”!

On Wednesday, April 1, my mentor and I traveled north in search of the only known population of endangered Fritillaria gentneri (Gentner’s fritillary) occurring on public lands in California. F. gentneri has a doppelgänger: F. recurva (scarlet fritillary), which is the species in the photographs with this post. F. recurva co-occurs with F. gentneri and is distinguished from the endangered species by its recurved flower petals. Both are strikingly beautiful.

Next week, the state and federal botanists will have their fun identifying the flowers that were preparing to bloom. I hope they find an abundance of F. gentneri.