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Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, July 26, 2017
Winding Trails: by Al Hobart
Thursday, July 27, 1967
Illinois Valley News
Searching for
Brodiaeas near Camp
Oh-Hell!
Half a mile beyond Camp Oh, Hell! and
7 or 8 miles from home, I decided to call a
halt to my brodiaea hunt. I’d been browsing
among the lilies in my wildplant manuals and
discovered that there are, or should be, two
or three members of the fascinating genus
Brodiaea in the upper Illinois River region that
I haven’t had the pleasure of encountering on
my wildplant excursions.
So last Sunday I decided to go on
a special brodiaea hunt, in search of one
species in particular, the yellow brodiaea,
Brodiaeacrocea. Flowerwise my hunt was
unsuccessful, but otherwise of real value – I
had a wonderful 15-mile hike, discovered the
delightful little camp I’ve mentioned, and
made a hasty determination of a flower I found
along the way that I later had reason to wonder
about, and this nagging doubt prodded me into
making another hike of 10 miles over the same
trail a couple of days later.
An interesting little episode occurred on
this unscheduled re-hike that made the trip
worthwhile even though the brodiaea idea
fizzled out: I was suddenly stopped in the
trail by an excited mama ruffed grouse, which
threatened and pleaded with me to give her
ROGUE VALLEY
little new babies a wide berth. I saw several of
them skittering about among the weeds while
their mama was trying to distract the attention
of the monster in the trail.
Usually a mother bird will try to lead
an intruder away by feigning a broken wing
or some such disablement deigned to make
her capture appear so easy that the supposed
enemy will pursue her while the little ones are
overlooked and permitted to safely conceal
themselves.
But this one disdained to use the
hackneyed old broken wing tactic, but stood
her ground only a few feet away and put up
such an alarming demonstration I had to laugh.
Quivering violently and alternately raising and
flattening her ruff, she kept up a continuous
whining sound that was the most unbirdlike
I ever heard, as though shewere beseeching
me to go back, or a long way around. I took
several pictures of her, and wished I had a
movie camera and a tape recorder to capture
her agonized capers and sounds.
The brodiaeas, that I happened to be
pursuing at the moment, constitute one of the
most beautiful and interesting genera of the
large lily family. The flowers, usually an inch
or more long, are borne in sometimes dense
clusters at the top of bare slender scapes,
or stems. Usually the plants are quite tall,
although some species are no more than a foot
high or less. On my Sunday trip I saw one,
multiflora, whose leafless scape was more than
4 feet high.
The somewhat bell-shaped flowers of the
brodiaeas are, collectively, quite conspicuous
and very attractive. They may be, according
to the species, dark or light blue, of a violet
hue; one species is white with a longitudinal
green stripe on the outside of the perianth parts
(the petals and sepals); one is yellow with a
violet stripe; another yellow one, the one I was
hoping to find Sunday, has a green stripe. The
flower of the Firecracker-plant, Brodiaea Ida-
Maia, most exotic of the brodiaeas, has a quite
long and slender perianth tube of bright red,
with the lobes a pleasantly contrasting green.
I have made the acquaintance of eight
of our local native brodiaeas. Two or three
others are waiting I know to join the group.
Where I went Sunday, away up the Mud Lake
trail, is the proper environment for at least one
of them, and I still think it’s up there; I just
happened to call when it was not home.
Nobody was home in Camp Oh, Hell!
either, but the evidence of much activity was
everywhere about (probably performed a year
or two ago), and as I ate my lunch at the rough
rustic table I imagined the boys were all about
me, laughing and jabbering and enjoying
their temporary wilderness home. From the
evidence at hand I suspected my imaginary
companions in Camp Oh, Hell! were a group
of Forest Service surveyors.
It beats all how from a decision to
search for a little wildflower such a series of
interesting events can grow.
Senior SPoTLiGHT
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SCAMS! (PART 2)
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On a beautiful afternoon...
The telephone rings- “Hi Grandma, can you guess
who this is?”
“Is that you Susie?”
“It sure is Grandma!”
Well, it might not be Susie. It might be a highly
skilled trickster who now has you thinking you are
talking to your granddaughter. Soon you will hear
a story that will make you proud of Susie because
she is trying to help someone in need. Perhaps Susie
has gotten herself unwittingly into trouble and you
become frightened for her. It will evolve that you
need to help Susie out of the problem by sending
her money or giving her your credit card numbers.
There will probably be a request not to tell her family
because they will be angry at Susie. If you send
money it will be taken and the law will be totally
ineffectual in retrieving it. Perhaps you are tricked
into giving ‘Susie’ your credit card numbers by
something like the requirement of a confusing method
of using the numbers to solve the problem. Here you
may not only loose money but you will have to cancel
your current credit card and get a new one.
Things like this happen over and over again to
kindhearted seniors. We grew up in times where
distrust was looked down upon and there wasn’t as
great a need to be distrustful. Times have changed.
Today there are so many ruthless people who now
have access to you through the internet, mail, in
person or telephone. These people have no qualms
about tricking you and are continually scheming to
develop more and more new ways to dishonestly
separate you from your money or other valuables.
Tricksters will pose as government, banking, charity,
financial institution or utility employees. Tricksters
will pose as family members, old friends or clergy.
There are so many ways to trick you into giving out
your money or financial information that your only
protection is to become hyper-vigilant.
Perhaps the best advice is to TRUST NO ONE
WITH YOUR MONEY OR FINANCIAL AND
SOCIAL SECURITY INFORMATION UNLESS
YOU ARE SURE YOU KNOW WHO THEY ARE.
I do not mean, “I think I am sure.” I mean I have
adequately checked and am now CERTAIN.
You can contact I.V. Wellness Resources at www.
ivwellnessresources@gmail.com or 541-592-9781 and
please like our Facebook Page @ facebook.com/
ivwellnessresources.
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feel they need a wellness
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need call Laura Mancuso
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check. Please call Laura
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541-592-2541 or email
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at I.V. Wellness Resources
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