Rare Yellow Form of Monkey Flower

The Monkey Flower is in bloom. Normally they are red or orange but this one is a rare shade of yellow!

Catch the Monkey!

Monkey Flower, Diplacus puniceus. This showy Monkey flower is fairly common along the trails in the San Diego area. They range in color from yellow to burnt orange to red with most being in the burnt orange color range. These are blooming in the canyon out in back of the house. They are called Monkey flowers because they are supposed to look like smiling monkeys! I admit, my imagination is failing me on this one but perhaps you can see the monkey! Also, for you Monkey lovers, I found a Monkey-flower web page! Now that's special!

To GIF or to JPEG

The picture is of the dark slope of a hill at Mission Gorge with the sun backlighting some red monkey flower so that they glow like fireflies in waning light. I fought with this image in JPEG, losing the flowers at most smaller resolutions but, when I converted to GIF, found that they stayed. Ah what a difference a few KB makes. Again, it's the little things in life...

Catch the Monkey

Monkey Flower is a small shrub that grows in Southern California in the dry canyons. The flowers come in various shades of bright orange and red. I found this particular monkey flower in a shaded area with the sun backlighting the flowers so they just glowed. Sometimes it is the little things that make us happy.