Fred's photos from Wheaton Labs

Those leaves have mucilage that's really good for your skin. Dry them and then soak them in warmed oil to get a nice healing oil. Mix that with some melted beeswax and you'll have an ointment.

OK, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Wow! Thanks to the daily-ish bump i got 1000 views in a day!

Evan thought i should post an oil change picture as a good juxtaposition to all the nature photos. This was while my hand was still clean. The filter wouldn't budge. That wrench didn't work. The new gapper Josh gave me his belt to try. It broke. Then i impaled it with a screwdriver. The sidewall was too thin and it just tore a channel. Finally after banging on it with a cold chisel (don't worry, i didn't ruin your wood chisel Paul) for too long, it started to move. At least this time, the DIY oil change was not worth it.

Next is maybe a Black tailed bee fly (Bombylius major) on what looks like Nettleleaf horsemint (agastache urticifolia). The bee fly is an excellent pollinator. The only problem is they tend to fling their eggs into the burrows of solitary bees (and some beetles). When their young hatch, they eat the bee larva, then they eat whatever food was left for them. These guys were all over this mint and they seem to love the daikon blooms as well.

Next is a mystery beetle on a mystery blossom. Any ideas?

Not sure about the plant but the bug might be a longhorn beetle, Clytus ruricola.

Regarding IMG_0772.JPG, Claytonia—yes, perfoliata—no. It is Claytonia rubra ssp. ? (either depressa or rubra). I don't remember the distinction. If someone wishes to key it out, a key is online here: http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_IJM.pl?key=8893. Common names are Redstem Miner's Lettuce and Redstem Springbeauty. Photos are available here: http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?where-lifeform=any&rel-taxon=contains&where-taxon=Claytonia+rubra&rel-namesoup=matchphrase&where-namesoup=&rel-location=matchphrase&where-location=&rel-county=eq&where-county=any&rel-state=eq&where-state=any&rel-country=eq&where-country=any&where-collectn=any&rel-photographer=contains&where-photographer=&rel-kwid=equals&where-kwid=&max_rows=24.

Cam, I'm taking some photos and all videos on my iphone 5. The really close up shots are on my canon 30d with a 100mm macro lens on it. My normal lens (24-105) is off for repairs, but i hope to soon be taking photos with that again. (i guess bouncing around in the woods is hard on this equipment.) The iphone camera has really limited settings and i can't seems to get it to focus on close things i want without changing the exposure. Someday i'll add a wide angle lens to my collection, but right now i don't have an extra $1500 lying around.

Julia, are you talking about the medicinal properties of comfrey, or an earlier post with other leaves?

The first photo is of Common Self-heal (Prunella vulgaris). It is an unusual mint that is not aromatic, but has the typical opposite leaves and square stem of mints. It is said to have many medicinal properties.

The mullein is starting to bloom. When i looked close i noticed some Mullein Seed-Eating Weevil (Gymnetron tetrum). The larvae of these weevils can eat all of the seeds in a particular pod but usually only eat about half of the seeds the plant produces. That's ok, because mullein can produce as many as 175,000 seeds on one plant, and they are viable for up to 100 years.

The last photo is another mystery. Anyone recognize it? It has pretty distinct leaves and the backs of the petals are a little fuzzy.

The pretty little growie is a California Bluebell. I had some mysteriously appear in my flower beds as volunteers this year.

Yes, Comfrey leaves have healing properties.

Today's post is all about Wormleaf Stonecrop aka Narrow-leaved Sedum (Sedum stenopetalum). I found this little sedum growing on some pretty rocky road cuts. First i saw the flowers. Then i noticed it had succulent leaves and found a little rosette. Last, i noticed some had gone to seed. I collected a few seed pods. Each pod was a little smaller than a coriander seed and when i opened them they had three brown seeds a little smaller than a sesame seed. After collecting some seed from, i noticed i found a little unidentified beetle had come along for the ride. There are SO many beetles it is always hard to figure out which ones i've found.

The leaves, stem, and flowers of this plant are edible. Apparently the leaves and stem are quite acidic and should only be eaten in small quantities. The flowers are supposed to be a good addition to pickles. I'll have to try it and see what happens.

I think the Wi-fi is a bit overwhelmed with all the people here for the PDC. It took me a few days to get this post up.

Looking at the side of an old stump, i first thought i found some weird scat in an unusual place. When i looked further, i found it was a fungus or slime mold. Some had cracked open and dark brown spores were pouring out.

Near wofati 0.8 i thought i found a mock orange (Philadelphus lewisii), but it was blooming later than the ones at basecamp. It had bigger flowers with more pointy petals. Maybe it is just a different variety? It sure smells like mock orange.

Every day there are new flowers blooming. Now the sunflowers have started. I think this is just plain old Helianthus annuus, but there are six native sunflowers to Montana and they hybridize readily.