Help?

Hey, I'm new to wildflowers -- I only just started yesterday, actually -- so maybe you guys can help me identify some flowers I have here...

Edit: Oops, I forgot to add that I'm in Northern California. Maybe that's helpful. :)

 

#3 - Fumaria officinalis

 

#5 - Lupinus sp - difficult to resolve to species by just a photograph.

 

#1 - Raphanus perhaps
#3 - something of Fabaceae: Astragalus/Oxytropis

 

#2 looks like a Brassica of some sort - maybe wild mustard?

 

Agree with Fabaceae.

 

Wow, I am inundated by Latin terms! Thanks for the help. :) I guess I have to go do some research to see what all this means. By the way, I know that Andrew said it's hard to identify #5 with just a picture. Is there some more information about that particular plant that I can go collect which might help resolve the issue?

 

I have a confusion about #3, which has been identified as both Fumaria officinalis and something from the Fabaceae family... The Fumaria Officinalis specimens I see in Google images actually looks closer to what I saw in the field than the images of Fabaceae I saw on Google, although I'm willing to accept that the photo I have might be of a Fabaceae flower which has not unfurled yet. Also, every plant I have seen with these blossoms has all the flowers lined up vertically on one side of the stem, whereas the pictures of Fumaria have flowers from all sides of the stem. Can someone enlighten me further on the subject?

 

Well, one of the easiest way to narrow down the possibilities is to state a location as to where the photographs were taken. As these are wildflowers, I assume this is from a park or designated trail somewhere -- often there are already lists of known plant species for these areas.

 

Re: #3, assuming the leaves near the flower belong to the same plant, then it is definitely Fabaceae -- one of the largest families of flowering plants, for which finding the exact same species via a Google image search for "Fabaceae" would be like finding a needle in a haystack...

 

4. May be Sonchus sp.
http://www.delange.org/SowthistleCommon/SowthistleCommon.htm

 

Closeup of the Fumaria flower (look, for example, http://alabamaplants.com/Pinkalt/Fumaria_officinalis_page.html ) shows that the flower attachment is located below with a flower sack, or spur, hanging behind the attachment point. In your flower, however, the attachment is clearly seen from above. More likely, this flower belong to a large group of Astragals, which, like in the case of Lupins, is very difficult to narrow down to the species. You might need a powerful lens and lots of patience to go through dozens of features used in the keys for these genera:

http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_key.pl?lupinus

http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_key.pl?astragalus

 

#3 looks like purple vetch, Vicia benghalensis.

 

Re #3: I don't think the leaves behind the flower belonged to the flower. In fact, I'm not sure that any of the leaves in that photo did belong to the flower. I'll go back today and see which leaves are correct. Right now, I'm leaning towards David's suggestion of Purple Vetch, but any other opinions (you guys are the experts!) are welcome.

Also, Daniel, all of these flowers came from a garden gone wild near my old Junior High School in the Northern part of California's Central Valley. I doubt there is an official website. :)

 

Ah... garden gone wild doesn't fit a good definition of "wildflowers", as there are likely to be many things cultivated and not native to the area. Removed the wildflowers prefix.

 

Oops. Sorry. I see that I have a lot to learn about flowers!

On a side note, does anyone object if I call #1 Raphanus sativus?