lorenia12's Identifications

Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale)

23 October 2015: While walking one of the trails at the Willamette Mission State Park in Wheatland, Oregon, we came upon a rather large Common Dandelion (Taraxacum officinale) flower which caught our attention and led us to photograph the specimen. The flower was nearly two inches across and it was larger than the other Common Dandelion flowers along the trail that we observed. Common Dandelion is not considered a native species to North America and is thus an invasive or introduced species but it is utterly widespread across all of North America and throughout the world according to the several sources we consulted for this posted observation (see Sources below). In any case, this particular flower was exceptionally large and we've seen Common Dandelion growing in several parts of the United States and Mexico in our lifetime by way of comparison. Common Dandelion is a world traveler and is found throughout the planet.

Sources:

"Dandelion, Taraxacum officinale G.H. Weber ex Wiggers," Invasive.org, Center for Invasive Species and Ecosytem Health, extensive photographs of all life stages for this plant, description, accessed 10.30.15, http://www.invasive.org/browse/subthumb.cfm?sub=3887

"Taraxacum officinale," Wikipedia, description, photogrpahs, distribution note, accessed 10.30.15, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taraxacum_officinale

"Taraxacum officinale, Common Dandelion," Turner Photographics - Wildflowers," photographs, description, links to additional resources, accessed 10.30.15, http://www.pnwflowers.com/flower/taraxacum-officinale

"Taraxacum officinale F.H. Wigg.," Natural Resources Conservation Service, US Department of Agriculture, photographs, range map, description, accessed 10.30.15, http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=TAOF

several Monarchs working their way through my yard sampling various blooming plants. Food plants:
Image 1: Cenizo (Leucophyllum frutescens)
image 2: Tropical Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica)
image 3: Flame Acanthus
(Anisicanthus quadrifidus, var. wrightii)

This Black Vulture was with several others. It had a pale orange right wing tag with black letters ATP on it. robberfly, maractwin and I had observed this same individual near this same location in April, 2015. See:
http://www.inaturalist.org/observations/1434663
for details of that observation as well as info on the wing tagging of this bird.