A place to explore the natural setting (geology, flora & fauna), people, constructed infrastructure and historical events that play and have played a part in shaping the Sierra Nevada as we know it today.
Despite knowing scientific names of many showy wildflower species, my knowledge of shrub and ceanothus species is mediocre. What species is this shrub below the Sierra juniper? Not just the common name.
Slice crop at 50% pixels:
The image is on page 6 of my 2018 Trip Chronicles:
http://www.davidsenesac.com/2018_Trip_C ... 018-6.html
This was from near Grass Lake at 7400 feet in the Glen Alpine Creek basin of Desolation Wilderness that I backpacked into 4 nights. This is the most abundant type of brush that one encounters on lower west forested slopes of the Sierra Nevada between 5500 and 8000 feet. Very abundant above west shores of Lake Tahoe, Kibbie Lake, Lake Vernon, in the canyon below Edyth Lake, or above slopes of the Merced River in Little Yosemite Valley, and many other Sierra areas at those elevations.
Hard to tell without seeing a close up of the branches or foliage. There are lots of different manzanitas growing in the Sierra. Some are lower growing that like rocky areas that look a lot different from the traditional manzanita we've all been stuck in before. Up high in desolation there is a lot of pinemat manzanita and green leaf manzanita that grow in rocky places like this. When not in bloom or with their red fruit they are harder to identify. I don't think it is a ceanothus but I really have no idea. Sorry i haven't been any help.
Amazing pictures of Sierra Juniper. Those are my favorite Sierra Trees and there are some nice ones in that area. I always stop and say hello to a nice one on the locals trail on the way up the talus slope going up to Tallac.
Try looking for "manzanita" and "ceanothus" (separately) for El Dorado County on CalFlora (www.calflora.org). It will show descriptions and photos of all the species of that type known to occur in that county. Hopefully you can find a match.
Of course in this era, I have a long list of plant species links. However as an amateur identifier don't always go about identifying plants using botanist methods. Well since no one on a couple boards knew what it was, did this the hard way going through a list of 500+ images of perennials one by one and then saw it. All we cross country backpackers push, stumble, and thrash through this brush as it is everywhere. Was the stuff I swam like a monkey through from Ardeth Lake down very steeply to Jack Main Canyon and that Maverick swam through when he descended from Bartlett Creek down to Edyth Lake. I knew it wasn't a manzanita, nor a ceanothus, nor a chinquapin and vaguely recall having ID'd it years ago. On hot days in the sun, the leaves exude a sticky oil. And dust and dirt in the air sticks to that oil so that moving through the brush if it has not rained in weeks can send up unpleasant clouds of dust leaving one grubby as it gets all over one's clothes and hair..
