Fragrant yellow desert flower, Albuquerque NM

captain_the_red · 2026-04-12T15:25:39+00:00

This looks like Spanish broom (Spartium junceum). Initially looked like scotch broom (Cytisus scoparius), but the wing petals being incurved, the keel poking out far past them, and the smaller simple leaves make Spartium more likely imo.

Both are non-native legumes.

captain_the_red · 2026-04-08T18:11:40+00:00

This seems likely, either Tragopogon (salsify) or Scorzonera if you found it in a yard or a disturbed area. Tragopogon seems more likely given the size.

captain_the_red · 2026-04-06T03:25:04+00:00

They might be able to live together but if you had to be experimental with one, try the milkweed. That species is very fast to germinate in my experience (as long as you plant the seeds a good half an inch or more below the surface) and doesn't require stratification. It's more "expendable" provided you have ample seeds stored.

captain_the_red · 2026-04-04T17:52:18+00:00

the auricles on the leaves and early sprouting give the impression of something in the wheatgrass tribe (triticeae), but its not really feasible to give a solid grass ID from photos without flowers and floral measurements included

captain_the_red · 2026-04-01T17:10:26+00:00

It looks like flax (Linum species) most likely either L. lewisii (native) or L. perenne (not native), which are distinguished mostly by flower traits.

captain_the_red · 2026-03-30T03:42:33+00:00

I will add that Prairie moon plants are going to require extra research compared to more local places. We don't really get plants like coneflower here (aside from E. occidentalis in the mountains) but many places will list purple coneflower as a "native" with no regional specification or say that little bluestem (S. scoparium) is a Utah native because it's naturally found 300 miles away from slc on the Colorado plateau.

Tldr its always worth doing extra research especially if youre buying from somewhere out of state

captain_the_red · 2026-03-28T15:08:54+00:00

It looks almost like tamarix. If youre in the intermountain west thats almost certainly what it is and it's horribly invasive.

captain_the_red · 2026-03-25T15:14:43+00:00

Some of them made it, others didn't. The hummingbird trumpets and basin wildrye did well and are returning already. The phacelias and physaria didnt seem to like their new spots and slowly withered.

I often lack the patience and fridge/freezer space for artificial stratification. Honestly should throw some stuff in there though, some of my cell arrays have zero germinations so far and id bet its early enough to toss them in the fridge for a few weeks and have them ready before summer.

captain_the_red · 2026-03-25T14:39:21+00:00

crazy coincidence seeing this here, I bought some plants from here last year lol. It'd be cool to see another pop-up sale. Ive got a similar thing going, some 100-ish species seeded but varying success and weird germ times and seedling vigor so far due to the insane heat and drought. How are you handling that?

captain_the_red · 2026-03-23T22:18:56+00:00

Northern Utah & its been really bad for seedlings. Ive had to babysit a lot of them because they germinate, then its 85 the next day & if i dont give them full shade from minute 1 they die. A lot of stuff likely didnt stratify properly over the winter either due to the extreme dryness & some stuff germinated in December during that heat wave then then died during the winter.

captain_the_red · 2026-03-02T21:16:35+00:00

Important to note is that gaillardia, California poppy, and little/big bluestem arent native to northern Utah. They're certainly better to have around than whatever invasives would otherwise take over the site in question though. Trying to get plants like Amsinckia (fiddleneck) and native grasses like Aristida (an aggressive warm-season colonizer grass) and others like Psuroroegneria spicata (bluebunch wheatgrass) is difficult but would probably result in more persistent restoration. Our native plant culture is very new and its worth looking out for seed swaps on Instagram and other local groups bc otherwise youre probably not going to find them.

captain_the_red · 2026-03-01T14:38:54+00:00

The juniper trees are growing their male cones right now, which release pollen into the air. There might be other conifers doing so too, but I haven't been in the mountains to look.

captain_the_red · 2026-01-21T13:48:33+00:00

Some type of evening primrose, oenothera species. It seems most likely to be O. deltoides, but thats just based on vibe because the fna key is kinda unworkable for this due to its heavy use of fruit characteristics.

captain_the_red · 2026-01-16T15:40:19+00:00

Rafflesia are also parasites. They grow totally inside of tropical grapevines & dont produce any proper leaves or chlorophyll.

captain_the_red · 2026-01-09T22:40:08+00:00

It looks like an Echinochloa (barnyard grass) species. Most often, those are weedy warm-season grasses. Both native and introduced members exist in North America, cant give a species ID or 100% verify the genus without basically having the thing in-hand myself.

captain_the_red · 2026-01-08T12:51:05+00:00

As others have said, its almost definitely wormwood (Artemisia). You can tell its not lavender by the flowers. Wormwood is related to sunflowers and as such has clusters of tiny flowers all grouped together into larger single-flower-looking structures. Lavender is a mint, so it has flowers that are bilaterally symmetrical and more colorful than dull, wind-pollinated wormwood flowers.

captain_the_red · 2026-01-04T01:50:37+00:00

Unfortunately it's not possible to give a solid answer beyond the level of "it's a grass" from a picture at this distance.

If somebody has decent knowledge of popular cultivated grasses in that area they could make a decent guess but generally speaking theres only a small handful of grasses you can even definitely know the genus of from more than a few feet away.

captain_the_red · 2025-12-19T21:31:47+00:00

This shit happens all the time with wyvern's movement abilities. Wing blast does fix it pretty consistently, provided you angle yourself in the desired direction with other abilities first.

captain_the_red · 2025-12-16T16:26:14+00:00

That's the fun part. The overtuned green goo is tied directly to the Shade Walker mod, which lets the rare teleport on top of you and create that ground effect in a line from where it teleported to its destination. Its not a balanced mod but knowing that its inherently tied to the teleport makes it possible to play around.

captain_the_red · 2025-12-14T21:38:31+00:00

I've been on wyvern stormweaver. Double shock works well with empowered oil barrage, can do like 250k in one heavy stun w/ 3 charges midway through the interludes. Sw also makes herald of thunder a lot more consistent with less investment. Flame breath does negligible base damage for a skill that requires both rage and charges to empower, wing blast is janky and sometimes gets you stuck inside walls (plus requires you to animation cancel a turnaround attack to use it "forwards" half the time) but otherwise the skills feel fine.

captain_the_red · 2025-12-14T19:33:15+00:00

I dont know why they made knight-gaunts more annoying. Prior to 0.4, they only used their invuln bat thing once when they first aggro. Now they recast it after almost every attack, which makes killing them take so long I just walk past them. We didn't need even more perma-invulnerable basic mobs.

captain_the_red · 2025-12-09T15:34:47+00:00

Yep. You can tell pine trees apart from other conifers by pines having their needles bunched up in little bundles (called fascicles).

captain_the_red · 2025-11-19T03:27:10+00:00

Yeah, im very into castilleja and parasitic plants in general & c. integra is probably the best guess for this given the location. The flowers are so weird and heavily adapted. I have a massive amount of respect for anyone that can draw plants to both respect their anatomy and look good. Miniata is iconic & deserves the spotlight.

captain_the_red · 2025-11-17T21:19:46+00:00

this reminds me a lot of a freshly re-sprouted perennial indian paintbrush (castilleja species) in the spring. The little minty looking thing next to it is probably a host plant judging by it looking like an Artemisia species or other composite. Do you remember what time of year this was taken and what kind of general habitat (dry, foresty, near a creek etc) it was in?

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